PDXWildlife has hit a significant speed bump. As you might have seen in previous posts, we had to end our Dujiangyan trip suddenly. This was due to the fact that the resources available to analyze panda feces was insufficient and immediately caused a backlog in our fecal hormone project. The primary reason is due to the lack of space for freeze drying (lyophilization), which is the first step in preparing samples for hormone analysis.

The only freeze dryer within the Sichuan CCRCGP is at Dujiangyan, and it can only dry so many samples at a time. So few, as it turns out, that there is no space for our samples. With both of our freezers completely stuffed to the max with feces, we can’t collect the quickly approaching background fecal samples (Aug. 2016) or next years mating fecal samples (Feb.-May 2017). To put it bluntly, this is absolutely unacceptable.

And Now The Fix-

Since all of our fecal collections take place at Bifengxia, this would be the best place for us to have a freeze dryer. Once each sample is collected it can immediately go into the freeze drying process, taking up 1/50th the space of a normal sample, saving room in the freezers and creating ready-to-analyze hormone samples. However, this “fix” is not one that comes easy. For PDXWildlife to setup a freeze dryer at Bifengxia, we need to raise a substantial amount of support.

This support can come by way of two forms- Equipment and Money. $18,000 to be exact. Given that we are a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit, we are able to provide tax deductible receipts to all donations. Additionally, we have setup a Fundly account that offers gifts that vary with each donation. If you would like to see the gifts offered or for more information on the type of freeze dryer that we need, please visit the Fundly page HERE.

We’ve titled this post- Calling in all Favors, as we understand that each person who reads or follows our research can potentially know of someone who just might have access to an unused freeze dryer or might be able to put us in contact with just the right person. Let’s put our heads together and find a freeze dryer.

Sincerely,

Nathan & Meghan