First of its kind lab in Canada telling time using animal teeth

On Wednesday, a brand-new laboratory examining wildlife teeth opened astatine Lethbridge College. It’s the archetypal of its benignant successful Canada.

“The Wildlife Analytics Lab is starting disconnected focusing connected cementum analysis, which is method jargon for looking wrong teeth to find the property of animals,” said Dr. Everett Hanna, an Environmental Sciences teacher astatine Lethbridge College.

He explained similar cement, cementum holds teeth successful place, and wrong determination are annuli, the ring-like bands and spaces seen successful histrion trunks.

“Just similar successful a histrion wherever we person maturation rings, the aforesaid principles apply. Unfortunately with a histrion you tin conscionable chopped it and look astatine the rings, successful a bony you request to spell done rather an elaborate chemic process to get astatine these annuli that are benignant of embedded wrong the teeth roots,” said Hanna.

From there, the laboratory provides property estimates for wildlife mammals to those funny successful the fee-for-service program. According to Hanna, this process is adjuvant for harvest allocation successful hunting oregon illness management, and successful immoderate cases knowing reproductive history.

“In taxon similar achromatic bears, erstwhile females person young cubs and they’re lactating, the years successful which they person those young and they’re lactating the annuli are person together, truthful you tin intelligibly spot years erstwhile they person young and years wherever they don’t,” said Hanna.

The Alberta Professional Outfitters Society (APOS) provided $145,000 from their Wildlife Management Fund to money the acquisition of caller instrumentality from Leica, arsenic good arsenic to prosecute pupil laboratory techs and a dedicated laboratory technician.

“That wealth was instrumental, it’s the crushed we are wherever we are present today,” said Hanna.

Corey Jarvis, president of APOS explains it was an accidental for a made-in-Alberta solution for a precocious request country of research.

“We request to cognize and analyze, and Alberta needs that information earlier they tin marque bully wildlife absorption decisions,” said Jarvis.

“You had to get an export licence successful the past to vessel wildlife parts to the states and the costs were successful U.S. dollars and clip and effort to get worldly down and back, truthful I deliberation it volition [mean] a batch much timely investigation perchance present arsenic well, truthful the benefits are large each astir I deliberation connected the program.”

Once the laboratory is successful afloat cognition Hanna has goals of analyzing 4,000 to 5,000 teeth per twelvemonth and successful the future, processing a process to assistance way migratory patterns.

“If we tin heighten Canadian wildlife conservation done this contribution, bid students, make probe opportunities, and turn this solution present successful Lethbridge, I deliberation those are each win-win-wins,” said Hanna.