G.A.T.O.R. Researchers in the News
The Independent Florida Alligator, April 11, 2008
Focus on Phallus, UF student one of few to study alligator genitalia
By YUDISLAIDY FERNANDEZ, Alligator Staff Writer
Ashville Citizen Times, January 3, 2008
Student catches alligators, gets grants
SWANNANOA — Warren Wilson College student Chelsea Rae Maier, of Hurdle Mills, has earned grants from a student research program and from Sigma Xi, the scientific research society, to study American alligators.
The grants, totaling $1,372, will fund her research on the topic, “Thyroid hormone, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and Ca2+ concentration changes in blood plasma of the American alligator (Alligator mississipiensis) in response to acute stress.”
Maier will do her research as an intern through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Group Advantaged Training of Research Program of the University of Florida, the program that awarded one of the grants.
Maier has already done field research in Florida at Cape Canaveral and Orange Lake.
“I helped catch alligators and collected bloods samples,” Maier said. “Being able to watch, catch and handle these prehistoric creatures was a major highlight and a personal dream.”
