#Fieldwork

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 2, 2022
1 min

Fieldwork session at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa)

After a three-year hiatus caused by the global COVID pandemic, Sophie and Frédéric returned to Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa) to conduct a 12 day-long fieldwork session. The aim was to collect fresh hyaena fecal samples for metagenomic sequencing of the gut microbiome to compare with the myrmecophagous aardwolf. Again, Wendy Panaino's field expertise was instrumental to help us collect fresh fecal samples. Because of numerous load-sheddings related to South Africa's m

10 views0 comments

Sampling six-banded armadillos at the Montpellier zoo

Frederic Delsuc

Apr 19, 2021
1 min

Sampling six-banded armadillos at the Montpellier zoo

Frédéric visited the Parc Zoologique de Montpellier to collect blood from their two hosted six-banded armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus) on the occasion of a routine annual check-up. These samples will be used for genome sequencing using Nanopore long reads. Many thanks as always to Baptiste Chenet and Laurie Virolle for their kind help and collaboration. #Fieldwork #Transcriptomes #Zoo #Genomics #Armadillos

4 views0 comments

New paper on the evolution the vertebrate gut microbiome out in mBio!

Frederic Delsuc

Jan 7, 2020
2 min

New paper on the evolution the vertebrate gut microbiome out in mBio!

The results of the vertebrate microbiome project in collaboration with Rob Knight's lab at the University of California in San Diego are finally being published in mBio. This paper is based on comparisons of the gut microbiomes of over 900 vertebrate species. We found that not only do birds and bats have more similar gut microbiome compositions, but they seem to be similar in how they change across host evolution compared to nonflying mammals. While most mammal gut microbiome

26 views0 comments

Field sequencing and conference in French Guiana

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 17, 2019
1 min

Field sequencing and conference in French Guiana

Frédéric, Rémi, and Amandine attended the annual meeting of the Center for the study of biodiversity in Amazonia (Labex CEBA) in Cayenne (French Guiana) together with Fabien Condamine and Nathan Mazet (ISEM). Frédéric presented the results of our successful efforts to obtain genomes from mammalian roadkill specimen using the Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT). Before the conference, they spent a week between the Pasteur Institute dissecting a freshly found roadkill three-finger

43 views0 comments

Fieldwork at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa)

Frederic Delsuc

Nov 2, 2018
1 min

Fieldwork at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa)

Frédéric, his wife Nathalie, Rémi and Aude Caizergues (CEFE) conducted a third 10 day-long fieldwork session at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa). This year they were joined by collaborators Wendy Panaino and Jessica Briner from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) to help collect fresh and dried fecal samples from pangolins and aardvarks. Many thanks again to Duncan MacFadyen, Dylan Smith, and Gus van Dyk for supporting our work in the reserve through the

15 views0 comments

Fieldwork session at Tussen die Riviere Reserve (South Africa)

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 19, 2018
1 min

Fieldwork session at Tussen die Riviere Reserve (South Africa)

Frédéric and Rémi conducted a third fieldwork session at Tussen die Riviere Reserve in the Free State province of South Africa with Aude Caizergues (CEFE) and Tshediso Putsane from the Department of Mammalogy of the National Museum of Bloemfontein. This allowed collecting fresh fecal samples from aardwolf for the third year in a row, as well as ants and termites from the reserve to increase our reference database of available preys. #Fieldwork #SouthAfrica #Collaboration #Aar

8 views0 comments

Conference, Lab and Fieldwork in French Guiana

Frederic Delsuc

Sep 25, 2018
1 min

Conference, Lab and Fieldwork in French Guiana

Frédéric, Lionel, Rémi, Sérgio and Marie-Ka attended the annual meeting of the Center for the study of biodiversity in Amazonia (Labex CEBA) in Cayenne (French Guiana) together with Fabien Condamine and Pierre-Olivier Antoine (ISEM). Frédéric chaired a session on Neotropical Diversification. Before the conference, they spent five days at the Pasteur Institute dissecting roadkill armadillos and anteaters, as well as the giant anteater of the Cayenne Zoo that died earlier that

17 views0 comments

Sampling the two-fingered sloth of the Montpellier zoo

Frederic Delsuc

Dec 22, 2017
1 min

Sampling the two-fingered sloth of the Montpellier zoo

Frédéric and Rémi visited the Parc Zoologique de Montpellier to collect blood and swabs from a two-toed fingered sloth (Choloepus didactylus) for transcriptomic and microbiome analyses. Many thanks again to Baptiste Chenet (VetMed) and associated staff for their kind help! #Fieldwork #Transcriptomes #Zoo #Genomics #Sloths #Microbiome

21 views0 comments

Frederic Delsuc

Nov 6, 2017
1 min

Fieldwork at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa)

Frédéric, his wife Nathalie, and Lionel spent another 10 days of fieldwork in the amazing Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa). The guidance of Wendy Panaino made it possible to collect fresh fecal samples from pangolins, but also to gather an exhaustive collection of ant and termite species from the reserve. Frédéric also took the opportunity to present the ConvergeAnt project to the guides from the Reserve. Many thanks to Duncan MacFadyen, Dylan Smith, and Gus van Dyk for

33 views0 comments

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 23, 2017
1 min

Fieldwork session at Tussen die Riviere Reserve (South Africa)

Frédéric, Lionel and Rachid conducted a new fieldwork session at Tussen die Riviere Reserve in the Free State province of South Africa with Nico Avenant from the National Museum of Bloemfontein. This allowed collecting numerous fecal samples from aardwolf as well as ants and termites from the reserve to constitute a reference database. #Fieldwork #SouthAfrica #Collaboration #Aardwolf #Tussen #Roadkills #Termites #Ants

14 views0 comments

New publication on mammalian gut microbiomes on the cover of Integrative and Comparative Biology

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 14, 2017
1 min

New publication on mammalian gut microbiomes on the cover of Integrative and Comparative Biology

Our paper on the effect of captivity on the composition of mammalian gut microbiomes led by Valerie McKenzie has been published in Integrative and Comparative Biology (doi:10.1093/icb/icx090). The amazing picture of a giant anteater kindly provided by Gerardo Ceballos to illustrate our study has been selected as the cover picture of the journal issue. Awesome! Citation: McKenzie V.J., Song S.J., Delsuc F., Prest T.L., Oliverio A.M., Korpita T.M., Alexiev A., Amato K.R., Metca

8 views0 comments

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 9, 2017
1 min

Fieldwork in French Guiana

Frédéric and Marie-Ka attended the annual meeting of the Center for the study of biodiversity in Amazonia (Labex CEBA) in Cayenne (French Guiana) with Andrea Sanchez Meseguer (ISEM). Before the conference, they conducted a roadkill survey along the west part of RN1 towards Saint-Laurent du Maroni and up to Awala-Yalimapo and also collected some termites along the road. They finally had the opportunity to dissect a well conserved specimen of Tamandua tetradactyla at the Pasteu

12 views0 comments

Sampling the giant anteaters of the Montpellier zoo

Frederic Delsuc

Jan 6, 2017
1 min

Sampling the giant anteaters of the Montpellier zoo

Frédéric and Marie-Ka Tilak (ISEM) went to the Parc Zoologique de Montpellier to collect blood and fecal samples from giant anteaters for transcriptomic and microbiome analyses. Many thanks to Baptiste Chenet (VetMed) and his crew for their kind help! #Anteaters #Fieldwork #Microbiome #Transcriptomes #Zoo

7 views0 comments

Fieldwork at Tussen die Riviere Reserve (South Africa)

Frederic Delsuc

Nov 5, 2016
1 min

Fieldwork at Tussen die Riviere Reserve (South Africa)

Frédéric and Nathalie conducted fieldwork in the Tussen die Riviere Reserve in the Free State province of South Africa. This session made possible thanks to a collaboration with Nico Avenant from the National Museum (Bloemfontein) to collect fecal samples from aardwolf latrines that are common in the reserve. #Fieldwork #SouthAfrica #Collaboration #Aardwolf #Tussen #Roadkills

16 views0 comments

Frederic Delsuc

Nov 1, 2016
1 min

Fieldwork at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve (South Africa)

Frédéric and his wife Nathalie spent 10 days of fieldwork in the amazing Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. This highly productive session allowed collecting fecal samples form both aardvarks and pangolins, but also ants and termites from the reserve. This also marked the start of an exciting collaboration with Nora Weyer, Wendy Panaino, and Andrea Fuller from the Wildlife Conservation Physiology lab at the University of Witwatersrand (Joha

76 views0 comments

Visit to Monique Pool in Paramaribo (Suriname)

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 7, 2016
1 min

Visit to Monique Pool in Paramaribo (Suriname)

Frédéric and Lionel took occasion of their presence in French Guiana to cross the Maroni river for visiting Monique Pool, the director of the Green Heritage Fund Suriname in Paramaribo. The short visit was very fruitful and the lively discussion set the scene for future scientific collaborations on xenarthrans of Suriname. They even had the chance to participate to a three-toed sloth rescue live! #Fieldwork #Collaboration #Roadkills #Sloths #Suriname

24 views0 comments

Frederic Delsuc

Oct 5, 2016
1 min

Fieldwork in French Guiana

Frédéric and Lionel attended the annual meeting of the Center for the study of biodiversity in Amazonia (Labex CEBA) in Cayenne (French Guiana) with Myriam Boivin and Fabien Condamine (ISEM). After the conference, they conducted a roadkill survey along the west part of RN1 towards Saint-Laurent du Maroni. They also had the opportunity to dissect a pygmy anteater specimen at the Pasteur Institute with collaborator Benoit de Thoisy. #Fieldwork #Collaboration #FrenchGuiana #Ante

15 views0 comments