RIP Dr. JoGayle Howard
Dr. JoGayle Howard, a world-renowned wildlife veterinarian, died Saturday, March 5 at the age of 59. She had melanoma. Howard, the subject of the upcoming Smithsonian Channel program Nature’s Matchmaker, pioneered new techniques in animal reproduction. She achieved “countless breakthroughs, trained hundreds of students and foreign colleagues and played an instrumental role in saving species,” reports the National Zoo, where Howard worked for three decades. Howard’s reputation as an animal matchmaker and reproductive sleuth, solving the difficult issues of breeding endangered species, garnered her the sobriquet, “Sperm Queen,” a nickname she relished. But her real title is that of the tongue-twisting theriogenologist, or an expert in the understanding of the physiology and pathology of animal reproduction.
Solving the problem of getting endangered animals to breed was Howard’s specialty.
Perhaps Howard’s most popular and visible success was one spectacular birth at the Zoo—the 2005 arrival of the giant panda cub, Tai Shan. As part of the Zoo’s reproductive sciences team, Howard unraveled the mystery of the animal’s unique breeding biology. The female panda is sexually receptive just once a year for a single three-day period, creating a remarkably short window of opportunity. Meanwhile, the male panda proved to be notoriously uninterested when the annual occasion occurred. Howard and her team pioneered speedy techniques for monitoring hormones in urine to predict ovulation. And once the critical moment was identified, the female panda was artificially inseminated. The techniques have resulted in the successful births of more than a dozen panda cubs worldwide.
Source: Smithsonian
