STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 21050, 29 December 1933, Page 9

STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE

RESEARCH AT PANAMA WILD BEASTS AFFECTED BY DISEASE LONDON. November 16. The assumption that wild animals remain free from disease so long as they live in their natural state is not borne out by an enquiry into the diseases, social habits, and appetites of animals, which is being conducted on the Island of Bario Colorado, Panama. The island contains an unrivalled collection of tropical plants and animals—a natural reserve formed as the waters of Lake Gatun rose with the construction of the canal, driving animals from a wider area to take refuge on the island. It is t',ie realised dream of Dr. James Zetek, the United States Government Entomologist. who had charge of the canal construction mosquito campaign. On the island he is dictator. Only three Englishmen have ever set foot on Bario Colorado, and one of them, Mr S. J. Duly, of the City of London College, who has just returned from Panama, yesterday explained the achievements and plans of. the Bario Institute. Trails Through Jungle. The thousands of plant and animal species to be found on the island, he said, are concealed in the impenetrable jungle which covers the great part of its surface. A series of trails, kept clear to the height of the highest trees, are the only "highways." These trails are the scientists' observation paths, and where three of them meet is a high look-out commanding a wide view. There is also a steel cage, high in a giant tree, in which the island's bird expert sleeps, eats, and watches. The "cataloguing" of the island's plant and animal population has involved many years' work. Two casual morning strolls taken by Mr Duly, for example, revealed as wide a range as howling monkeys, marmosets, sloths, armadillos, honey-bears, chameleons, and a mass of small reptiles. Increasing attention will be devoted to the wider problems of animal life —why some keep strictly to limited areas of the island's 20 square miles, which species are gaining at the expense of others, and the diseases which limit population and affect the progress of evolution. In the meantime, Mr Duly stated, observers on the island have been greatly struck with the proportion of animals, and particularly monkeys, which are found on capture to bear obvious traces of disease.