{"id":13470,"date":"2012-11-11T20:00:16","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T04:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/?p=13470"},"modified":"2013-04-29T19:20:23","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T03:20:23","slug":"barcoding-biodiversity-in-costa-rica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2012\/11\/11\/barcoding-biodiversity-in-costa-rica\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcoding Biodiversity in Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"

I attended a free one-hour lecture at the San Diego Natural History Museum<\/a> last night. With the title “Biodiversity Development: The Path to Conservation of a Complex Wild Land” I wasn’t sure what kind of presentation to expect. All I knew was that I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures.<\/p>\n

Even though the graphic artist in me who has spent years creating speaker support graphics cringed at the way a lot of the slides were presented, it turned out to be a really fascinating and educational presentation.<\/p>\n

Introduced by Dr. Michael Hager<\/a>, President and CEO of the museum, Dr. Daniel Janzen<\/a> presented his information in a very casual and friendly way. Dr. Janzen is the Kyoto award winning Technical Advisor of the \u00c1rea de Conservaci\u00f3n Guanacaste<\/a> and president of the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund<\/a> in northwestern Costa Rica.<\/p>\n

His presentation covered the main aspects of his many years of attempting to catalog and restore the biodiversity of the area with a heavy emphasis on barcoding the DNA of the 350,000 species of plants and animals living in that small region of Costa Rica and on educating the local population, especially the children, on the importance of the bio-conservation of all the species along with their habitats.<\/p>\n

He showed slides of butterflies that looked almost identical, that nobody would be able to tell were different species, unless you looked at the barcodes of their DNA. He used tiger conservation as an example of how saving the tiger is meaningless unless we also save its habitat. He showed many images of school children eager to learn about respecting the biodiversity of their lands and of the importance of conserving it. He also showed the mass deforestation that began after WWII, and how it’s slowly but steadily returning to its native state in the protected areas.<\/p>\n

It was a truly eye-opening lecture that I was very glad to have attended.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/a>
The NAT in Balboa Park <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Kaplan Theater <\/div> <\/div>
\"Terrible <\/a>
Terrible photo of Drs. Janzen and Hager <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Post-lecture <\/a>
Post-lecture meandering <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I attended a free one-hour lecture at the San Diego Natural History Museum last night. With the title “Biodiversity Development: The Path to Conservation of a Complex Wild Land” I wasn’t sure what kind of presentation to expect. All I knew was that I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures. Even though the graphic artist … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[180,199,101,178],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1s2SN-3vg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15060,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2014\/01\/28\/biodiversity-in-baja-california\/","url_meta":{"origin":13470,"position":0},"title":"Biodiversity In Baja California","date":"January 28, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Attended what turned out to be a really entertaining presentation about a multidisciplinary expedition to Sierra Cacachilas in Mexico's Baja California Sur by some of the staff from the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park here in San Diego. The trip occurred last October and November but only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"SDNHM Baja01 01-28-14 lo-res","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/SDNHM-Baja01-01-28-14-lo-res-580x386.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11916,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2012\/03\/09\/the-titanic-and-a-crystal-skull\/","url_meta":{"origin":13470,"position":1},"title":"The Titanic And A Crystal Skull","date":"March 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Met my friend Lannie and her kids at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park to see \"Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.\"\u00a0Even though photography was not allowed\u00a0I enjoyed it immensely. They took great effort to add as many stories to the artifacts as they could, to make the presentation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/SDNHM-Titanic01-03-09-12-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12213,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2012\/03\/29\/dinosaur-lecture-by-jack-horner\/","url_meta":{"origin":13470,"position":2},"title":"Dinosaur Lecture By Jack Horner","date":"March 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Was fortunate enough to attend an evening lecture and book-signing by world-renowned paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. The event had sold out within a couple of days. The presentation lasted a little over an hour and covered mainly infant and juvenile\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/SDNHM-Jack-Horner01-03-29-12-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14045,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2013\/04\/25\/microbes-in-my-navel\/","url_meta":{"origin":13470,"position":3},"title":"Microbes In My Navel","date":"April 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This evening I attended another terrific lecture at the San Diego Natural History Museum. This one was titled \"The Wild Life of Our Bodies\" and was presented by Rob Dunn, a Ph.D. biologist from North Carolina State University. His lecture basically went over talking points from his book by the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/WildLife00-04-25-13.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15127,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2014\/02\/13\/piping-plover-project-presentation\/","url_meta":{"origin":13470,"position":4},"title":"Piping Plover Project Presentation","date":"February 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Attended a wildlife lecture at the headquarters of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, my first time there, adjacent to SeaWorld here in San Diego. It was jointly presented by the San Diego chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers and the Avicultural Society of America. The presentation dealt with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lectures"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Hubbs-SeaWorld-Piping-Plover-Project01-02-13-14-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8454,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2011\/09\/05\/insect-mania\/","url_meta":{"origin":13470,"position":5},"title":"Insect Mania!","date":"September 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Spent a few hours over at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park for Insect Mania Family Day. Watched a presentation\u00a0(geared mainly toward little children, but I attended anyway)\u00a0by Dr. Mike Wall, Curator of the Entomology Department, and chatted with both field entomologist, Jim Berrian, who specializes in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Insect-Mania01-09-05-11-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13470"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14066,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13470\/revisions\/14066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}