Though it might be too late for the Nittany lion, a Butler County college student hopes her senior thesis can help save its endangered relatives.

The new research project at Penn State University will sequence the DNA of the Eastern mountain lion, the inspiration for the university’s Nittany lion mascot. Researchers hope that the project can call attention to conservation efforts for the mountain lions.

Maya Evanitsky, a junior in the Schreyer Honors College, leads the team of undergraduate researchers for her thesis.

“When we were thinking about my senior thesis, we wanted to find a way to use ancient DNA,” Ms. Evanitsky said. “My professor read something about other schools that sequenced their living mascots, and we realized we could combine the two with the Nittany lion.”

George Perry, a biology professor and Ms. Evanitsky’s thesis adviser, saw the mascot’s fame as a way to get a message across.

“People know the Nittany lion,” Mr. Perry said. “It gives us a way to talk about conservation, genetics and extinction that people can relate to.”

Sequencing is the process of determining the how the millions of DNA molecules are strung together to form an organism’s genetic code.

Undergraduate researchers sequenced the DNA of the University of Maryland’s terrapin and the University of Santa Cruz’s banana slug, but since there are no living Eastern mountain lions, Ms. Evanitsky’s DNA samples will come instead from taxidermy models. One of those can be found at Penn State’s All Sports museum.

The museum’s Original Nittany Lion was shot and preserved in 1855, when it was donated to the school. In 1893, it was loaned the Chicago World’s fair but never made it back to Penn State. Instead, it rested in storage at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh until 1996 when Carolyn Mahan, a Penn State grad student at the time, brought the model back to Penn State. Ms. Mahan said that when she found the lion, it was in three or four pieces and required extensive restoration.

Ms. Mahan, now a biology professor at Penn State, said Ms. Evanitsky contacted her in the fall to ask about sampling the model. In 1998, Ms. Mahan had tried to extract DNA from the lion's ear but failed because the skin was too degraded for genetic material. She said that with new technology, Ms. Evanitsky is much more likely to get a viable sample.

Earlier this month, the museum granted Ms. Evanitsky access to the Original Nittany Lion in its glass cage to collect a skin sample. It was difficult because the taxidermy process involved heavy chemical treatment that often degrades the quality of the hide. In addition, artificial fur was used to cover areas where the original hide had been damaged. Ms. Evanitsky settled on the inside of a hind leg and cut away a 2-inch-long piece of skin that will be processed for genetic material.

Mr. Perry and Ms. Evanitsky have drawn on the love for the Nittany lion to support the project financially, using a crowdfunding site to cover the costs of the project.

“Crowdfunding gets people interested,” Mr. Perry said. “It gets the community involved and spreads the message of conservation outreach. When people donate, they feel like they’re a piece of the project and that personal investment keeps them invested in where it goes.”

With a little more than a week remaining, the fundraiser has met about 60 percent of its $12,000 goal with more than 90 supporters, including individuals and conservation organizations.

“We saw that a student was working on this, and we wanted to help them out,” said Tim Dunbar, executive director of the Mountain Lion Foundation. “Hopefully this project can get people in Pennsylvania thinking about the mountain lion. If more people know about it, then it’ll be better for the species in the long run.”

Once the genome is sequenced, Ms. Evanitsky says it will be compared to those of mountain lions in Florida and the west. Though scientists know that the lion became extinct due to human development and over-hunting, Ms. Evanitsky says the project will illustrate the genetic diversity that was lost. Mr. Perry said that once researchers can demonstrate that loss, it can be used to advocate for increased conservation.

“Our project will help with future mountain lion conservation efforts,” Mr. Perry said. “By using the past to raise awareness about the potential effects of habitat loss and hunting pressure on these amazing mountain lions, we can collectively put our strongest effort toward conserving the populations that do still remain.”

Annie Ma: ama@post-gazette.com.

First Published: May 3, 2015, 4:00 a.m.