Adam Wesley Ferguson

This project sought to mobilize existing biodiversity data for 31 species of small carnivores (Mammalia, Carnivora, ≤15 kg) inhabiting or potentially occurring in Kenya to assist in developing a national strategy for their conservation. Funded through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Biodiversity Information for Development (BID), the project focused on student-based data digitization and mobilization of specimens housed in the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). Over a 6-month period, a cohort of 14 Kenyan students and three museum professionals digitized 1112 specimen occurrence records of 30 species of small carnivores. Professional training included participation in two workshops and one field trip. Digitized specimen records were combined with existing data to highlight conservation priorities for the 31 species that form the basis of the first National Small Carnivore Conservation Action Plan for Kenya. Although the project began with additional partners maintaining potential records of these 31 species, data curation and accessibility issues with these non-vouchered records limited successful mobilization to the NMK specimens, further emphasizing the unique value such collections possess in terms of housing resources available for public data sharing. This paper reports on the process, use, and conservation implications of these data, highlighting successes and challenges.

Natural history museum collections are valuable but underutilized resources for viral discovery, offering opportunities to test hypotheses about viral occurrence across space, time, and taxonomic groups. We developed machine learning models of bat host suitability to guide coronavirus and paramyxovirus screening of 1330 and 491 tissues, respectively, in a museum collection. For the first time, we recovered coronavirus ( n = 16) and paramyxovirus ( n = 3) sequences from archived museum tissues, confirming three novel coronavirus host species and three novel paramyxovirus host species (3% and 33% prediction success rate, respectively). These sequences included a SARS-like coronavirus and an orthoparamyxovirus from Angolan Rhinolophus fumigatus specimens collected in June 2019, suggesting that viruses with epidemic potential may be more widespread in sub-Saharan Africa than previously believed. Our study demonstrates the value of combining predictive modeling and collections-based viral discovery, particularly for filling outstanding sampling gaps and investigating changes in host–virus associations over time.

Natural history collections are repositories of biodiversity specimens that provide critical infrastructure for studies of mammals. Over the past 3 decades, digitization of collections has opened up the temporal and spatial properties of specimens, stimulating new data sharing, use, and training across the biodiversity sciences. These digital records are the cornerstones of an “extended specimen network,” in which the diverse data derived from specimens become digital, linked, and openly accessible for science and policy. However, still missing from most digital occurrences of mammals are their morphological, reproductive, and life-history traits. Unlocking this information will advance mammalogy, establish richer faunal baselines in an era of rapid environmental change, and contextualize other types of specimen-derived information toward new knowledge and discovery. Here, we present the Ranges Digitization Network (Ranges), a community effort to digitize specimen-level traits from all terrestrial mammals of western North America, append them to digital records, publish them openly in community repositories, and make them interoperable with complimentary data streams. Ranges is a consortium of 23 institutions with an initial focus on non-marine mammal species (both native and introduced) occurring in western Canada, the western United States, and Mexico. The project will establish trait data standards and informatics workflows that can be extended to other regions, taxa, and traits. Reconnecting mammalogists, museum professionals, and researchers for a new era of collections digitization will catalyze advances in mammalogy and create a community-curated trait resource for training and engagement with global conservation initiatives.

A comprehensive overview of volunteer-driven public programs focused on activities to enhance natural history collections (NHCs) is provided. The initiative revolves around the WeDigBio events and the Collections Club at the Field Museum, aiming to deepen the public’s connection with scientific collections, enhance participatory science, and improve data associated with natural history specimens. The implementation and journey of these programs are outlined, including surveys conducted from 2015 through 2021 to gauge participant motivation, satisfaction, and the impact of these events on public engagement with NHCs. Results show trends in on-site and virtual volunteer participation over the years, especially during the peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of participants expressed high satisfaction, indicating a willingness to continue participating in similar activities. The surveys revealed a shift towards more altruistic motivations for participation over time, with increased emphasis on supporting the Field Museum and contributing to the scientific community. The success of participatory science events demonstrates the potential of volunteer-driven programs to contribute meaningfully to the preservation, digitisation, and understanding of biodiversity collections, ultimately transforming spectators into stewards of natural history. From 2015 to present participants celebrate a significant milestone, with over a thousand community scientists contributing to the inventorying, collection care, curation, databasing, or transcription of 286,071 specimens, objects or records. We also discuss accuracy and quality control as well as a checklist and recommendations for similar activities.

Rabies vaccination in domestic dog populations has increased globally in a bid to protect human health. Surveillance efforts, however, are inconsistent in endemic regions such as in sub‐Saharan Africa, due to fragmented reporting and limited diagnostic capacity for suspected cases, limiting successful monitoring and evaluation of vaccination campaigns. Here, we conducted a pilot study aiming to strengthen rabies surveillance by combining community‐based surveillance with field‐based diagnostic testing in pastoral and agro‐pastoral communities in central Kenya; communities which are frequently marginalised from health systems. During the 6‐month pilot study, there were 14 alerts of suspected rabid dogs in the community, of which eight were tested and five diagnostically confirmed as rabid. Two positive samples processed successfully for whole genome sequencing indicated that the rabies variant circulating in central Kenya during the study period belonged to the Africa 1b subclade, which is similar to variants identified in eastern Kenya and Tanzania, suggesting regional transmission. This pilot study indicates that rabies continues to circulate in the region and that community‐based surveillance, when combined with enhanced diagnostic testing, can help alleviate underreporting and guide vaccination campaigns.

Sub-Saharan Africa is under-represented in global biodiversity datasets, particularly regarding the impact of land use on species’ population abundances. Drawing on recent advances in expert elicitation to ensure data consistency, 200 experts were convened using a modified-Delphi process to estimate ‘intactness scores’: the remaining proportion of an ‘intact’ reference population of a species group in a particular land use, on a scale from 0 (no remaining individuals) to 1 (same abundance as the reference) and, in rare cases, to 2 (populations that thrive in human-modified landscapes). The resulting bii4africa dataset contains intactness scores representing terrestrial vertebrates (tetrapods: ±5,400 amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and vascular plants (±45,000 forbs, graminoids, trees, shrubs) in sub-Saharan Africa across the region’s major land uses (urban, cropland, rangeland, plantation, protected, etc.) and intensities (e.g., large-scale vs smallholder cropland). This dataset was co-produced as part of the Biodiversity Intactness Index for Africa Project. Additional uses include assessing ecosystem condition; rectifying geographic/taxonomic biases in global biodiversity indicators and maps; and informing the Red List of Ecosystems.

Contrary to expectations regarding efficient predator education mediated by lack of ambiguity and enhanced prey recognition, aposematic signals often show considerable intraspecific variability. For example, some striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are almost entirely white, others have black-and-white stripes of equivalent thicknesses, yet others are mostly black. We tested the ecological correlates of this variation in patterning using 749 museum skins collected across North America. Skunks had longer white-black borders and more bilaterally symmetrical stripes in areas with a greater number of potential predator species, and this effect was more marked for mammalian than avian predators, the latter of which may be less deterred by noxious defenses. Skunks from locations with greater predator diversity were less variable in extent of whiteness on their dorsa and less variable in the length of their white-black borders, suggesting strong selection from predators leads to greater conformity in stripe patterns, even at the same location, but weak selection from predators leads to relaxed selection on pattern conformity. Skunks exhibited greater areas of black pelage in areas of greater humidity conforming to Gloger’s rule. Our results indicate that relaxed predation pressure is key to warning signal variation in this iconic species, whereas stronger pressure leads to signal conformity and stronger signals.

There are over 60 zoonoses linked to small mammals, including some of the most devastating pathogens in human history. Meanwhile, millions of museum-archived tissues are available to understand natural history of these pathogens. Our goal is to maximize the value of museum collections for pathogen-based research using targeted sequence capture. To this end, we have generated a probe panel that includes 39,916, 80bp RNA probes targeting 32 pathogen groups, including bacteria, helminths, fungi, and protozoans. Lab generated, mock control samples show that we are capable of enriching targeted loci from pathogen DNA 2,882 to 6,746-fold. Further, we were able to identify bacterial species in museum-archived samples, including Bartonella , a known human zoonosis. These results show that probe-based enrichment of pathogens is a highly customizable and efficient method for identifying pathogens from museum-archived tissues.

Zoos and natural history museums are both collections-based institutions with important missions in biodiversity research and education. Animals in zoos are a repository and living record of the world's biodiversity, whereas natural history museums are a permanent historical record of snapshots of biodiversity in time. Surprisingly, despite significant overlap in institutional missions, formal partnerships between these institution types are infrequent. Life history information, pedigrees, and medical records maintained at zoos should be seen as complementary to historical records of morphology, genetics, and distribution kept at museums. Through examining both institution types, we synthesize the benefits and challenges of cross-institutional exchanges and propose actions to increase the dialog between zoos and museums. With a growing recognition of the importance of collections to the advancement of scientific research and discovery, a transformational impact could be made with long-term investments in connecting the institutions that are caretakers of living and preserved animals.