Gifts to the Dutton Lab are made through the University of Florida Foundation to the WILDS: Water and Wildlife in the Labs of Dutton and Subalusky fund, fund number 029819, held in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The UF Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and gifts to it may be tax deductible.
What we study
We study how animals and their microbiomes move nutrients, carbon, and microorganisms through ecosystems, how those transfers shape animal and human health, and how both change as environments become more variable.
Kenya. The Mara River and the Maasai Mara. Organic matter loading from hippos drives downstream hypoxia and fish kills when flushing flows arrive after long dry periods (Nature Communications 2018). Hippo pools accumulate hippo gut microbes until the pool community resembles the gut rather than the river, a coupled system we named the meta-gut (Scientific Reports 2021). Mass drownings during the annual wildebeest migration feed the river for years afterward (PNAS 2017).
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Maternal psychosocial stress is associated with reduced diversity in the early infant gut microbiome (Microorganisms 2023), and the gut microbiome in early life predicts later malaria susceptibility (Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology 2026).
South Africa. Kruger National Park. Artificial surface water broadens where and when herbivores use the landscape (Ecological Applications 2026), and water impoundments alter elephant distribution and activity in the southern park (African Journal of Ecology 2026).
Colombia. The Magdalena River, where introduced hippos numbered about 91 animals growing at roughly 10 percent a year, and where the window for feasible control is closing (Scientific Reports 2023, led by the Subalusky lab with Elizabeth Anderson at Florida International University). Our part is the microbiome: we compare hippo gut communities across the introduced Colombian population, wild hippos in the Mara, and hippos in US zoos, three settings that differ in diet, water, and density while the host species stays the same.
The Everglades. Robotic rabbits for Burmese python control. We strip toy rabbits and rebuild them with motors, heaters, and solar power so they carry the movement and body temperature of a marsh rabbit, then place them in pens watched by a motion-triggered camera that signals a removal team when a python approaches. Live rabbits drew about one python a week but were too labor-intensive to keep in the field. The work is done with Robert McCleery’s lab in UF Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and the South Florida Water Management District, and was covered by CBS News, The Washington Post, and Smithsonian in 2025.
Florida. Carbon cycling across the terrestrial-aquatic interface of wetlands, alligators as ecosystem engineers linking wetland and riverine systems, and bottlenose dolphins as environmental sentinels for coastal health.
Zoos and aquariums. Health assessment for non-model species in human managed care. Nearly every animal in a zoo is a species with no reference gut microbiome, so there is no baseline against which a veterinarian can read a change. We build those baselines from feces, which requires no handling, no anesthesia, and no restraint, at institutions accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Extraction and full-length 16S nanopore sequencing run on the lab’s Opentrons OT-2 and Flex robots, which is what makes sampling at this scale affordable. Sampled species range from great apes and gibbons to okapi, giraffe, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, among many others. The lab holds research agreements with more than 20 US zoos and aquariums.
Our full research program and publication list are on the Research and Publications pages.
In the news
Ecologists uncover the hidden power of animals in shaping ecosystems, by Lauren Barnett, UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, June 27, 2024.
From Land to River: The Journey of Resources. UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Selected press coverage
Our work has been covered by CBS News, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Science, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and CBC Radio.
- CBS News, Florida deploys robot rabbits to control invasive Burmese python population, August 28, 2025.
- The Washington Post, Robot rabbits the latest tool in Florida battle to control invasive Burmese pythons in Everglades, August 28, 2025.
- Smithsonian, ‘Robo-Bunnies’ Are the Newest Weapon in the Fight Against Invasive Burmese Pythons in Florida, Sarah Kuta, July 21, 2025.
- The Atlantic, Hippos Poop So Much That Sometimes All the Fish Die, Ed Yong, May 16, 2018.
- The Washington Post, This river kills thousands of wildebeests, then gives life to everything else, Darryl Fears, June 20, 2017.
- Science, Children of war refugees may inherit their parents’ trauma, 2025.
- Science, Pooping hippos create ‘community guts’ in African ponds, December 2021.
- Science, Excess hippo dung may be harming aquatic species across Africa, May 2018.
- Science, Every year, thousands of drowned wildebeest feed this African ecosystem, June 2017.
- The Atlantic, How the Mass Drownings of Wildebeest Feed the Serengeti, June 2017.
- National Geographic, How 2 Million Pounds of Rotting Flesh Helps the Serengeti, Shaena Montanari, June 19, 2017.
- Smithsonian, The Upside of Rotting Carcasses, Diana Crow, July 25, 2017.
- CBC Radio, Quirks & Quarks, Flushing hippo toilets smother fish in African rivers, May 19, 2018.
What gifts support
Federal grants fund specific projects on fixed timelines. They do not cover the costs below, or they cover them only for the period of a single award. Gifts to the WILDS fund are flexible and are used for:
Undergraduate and graduate field participation. Airfare, research permits, vaccination, and camp costs for a field season in Kenya. Gift funds cover these for students who cannot pay them.
Sequencing and laboratory consumables. Extraction kits, library preparation reagents, and flow cells are the recurring cost of every microbiome dataset we produce. Gift funds let us sequence pilot samples and follow unexpected results before a grant is written around them.
Field operations in Kenya. Our field camp and research operations in the Maasai Mara are run under contract by Soiyou Adventures, a Kenyan company. Gift funds pay for vehicle time, boat operation, and the sampling logistics that a research permit does not cover.
Open-source environmental sensors. We build and deploy low-cost sensors to record dissolved oxygen, temperature, and flow across our study sites. Gift funds cover hardware, replacement of units lost to floods and wildlife, and the deployment trips that maintain the record.
Data archiving and open publication. Article processing charges for open-access journals and long-term archiving of sequence data and code.
Other ways to give
Employer matching. Many employers match charitable gifts. Check your employer’s matching program and name the University of Florida Foundation as the recipient.
Equipment and in-kind gifts. We accept donated laboratory and field equipment where it fits our work. Contact us before shipping anything.
Planned and major gifts. For gifts requiring a written agreement, a named fund, or estate planning, UF Advancement staff in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences handle the paperwork. Email us and we will connect you with them.
Questions
Email Chris Dutton at duttonc@ufl.edu. We are glad to explain what a gift of any size would pay for and to report back on what it funded.