I have almost finished my work in the lab. I am trying to determine the origin of the Lord Howe Island masked owl and hopefully facilitate translocation of the population back to its presumed origin, Tasmania... a big hopfully. The short story is this beautiful bird has become a pest on the island after being introduced almost 100 years ago as a biological control agent for the black rat, also an introduced species. The rats are being eradicated in line with the islands World Heritage Listing and therefore the masked owl also must be removed to protect the biodiversity found on Lord Howe Island, much of which is not seen anywhere else in the world.

Lord Howe Island is located 760km east of Sydney and has been listed as a World Heritage site since the 1980's.

Photo: David Milledge, Landmark Ecological Services Pty Ltd.

The Lord Howe Island population of masked owl's are thought to originate from the Tasmanian masked owl (Tyto novaehollandiae castanops) however their appearence is more similar to the Australian masked owl (Tyto novaehollandiae) and there are some reports of at least one Australian masked owl having been introduced to the island in the 1930's. The Tasmanian masked owl is listed as endangered and so I am looking at the origin of the Lord Howe Island population in the hope that the birds can be translocated back to Tasmania and begin a captive breeding program.

Here are some photos of my work... 

 A sample sent across from Tassie.

The small amount I needed to extract the DNA.

The sample in an epi tube.

Some of my tissue samples ready to go.

My colourful selection of pipettes.

The samples in the centrifuge.

The little creature I tested the concentration of the DNA with, a Flurometer.

 

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine.

 

PCR samples in the wells ready for gel electrophoresis.

 

Gel electrophoresis in action.

 My gel.

The gels are ready on the computer screen. These pictures are printed for analysis. The bands show if the DNA has shown up and what size the fragments are. Success!