In the 1960s, the Canadian government decided to relocate 14 muskoxen to the Eastern Arctic, a region where these large bovines had never been native. The intention was to support the local Inuit community by providing a new source of food and other resources. However, it appears the government did not consult the community about its needs or preferences. Farming the muskoxen was suggested, but the practice wasn’t culturally relevant. With little interest shown, the government released the muskoxen into the wild—again, without consulting the community. Since then, the muskoxen have thrived, with their population growing substantially. But Inuit people and researchers suspect they may be competing with native caribou, a species central to the Indigenous diet and culture for thousands of years and whose numbers have been declining.

In this episode, host Cat Vendl speaks with Dr. Laura van Driessche, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Montreal, who studies the health of both muskoxen and caribou. With a background in domestic bovine health, Laura brings her passion for wildlife into her research as she and her colleagues investigate the causes behind the caribou population decline.

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.

In this episode, you will meet Dr. Rita Santos, a veterinarian whose passion for wildlife has taken her across continents. From rehabilitating cottontail rabbits and hummingbirds in Minnesota to treating wildlife in the UK, Rita shares insights from her diverse experience in wildlife medicine. We discuss the fascinating differences between European and American rabbits, explore the challenges of wildlife rehabilitation across different countries, and learn about her research on blood parasites in Portuguese owls. The conversation culminates with Rita's current ambitious PhD project - studying the health of gorilla and chimpanzee populations in Angola's Mayombe forest, where she aims to bridge the gap between wildlife conservation and human health in one of Africa's most understudied regions. This episode offers a unique glimpse into the varied world of wildlife health and the exciting challenges that lie ahead in great ape conservation.

Links

Rita's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/ritabarriosantos

Rita's Researchgate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rita-Santos-38

Rita's academic profile: https://www.cibio.up.pt/en/people/details/rita-santos/

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.

Our host Cat Vendl chats with Anastasiia Kovba about all things viral diseases of wildlife in Japan, to be more precise on the island of Hokkaido. Anastasiia is a PhD student, based at the University of Hokkaido in Sapporo.

Anastasiia grew up in the Ukraine and did her vet degree there. For her Master’s, she moved to Japan to study HIV. But since her passion has always been wildlife, she is now investigating viral diseases in wildlife.


Links
The link to Anastasiia’s most recent paper

Anastasiia’s LinkedIn profile

Anastasiia’s Research Gate profile

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.

Have you heard of the upcoming WDA2024 off-country conference from Dec 1-6?

In less than 2 months the annual international WDA conference is coming up. It will take place in Australia’s capital, Canberra, from Dec 1-6.

Australia! Sounds great, you might think. But that may not be in the budget right now. Fear not! We have you covered. This year’s conference will come in two ways: an on-country version, which will be in person on Australian soil, and an off-country part which will be held online. Both conferences will be interwoven, yet separate events.

Tired of online conferences? Longing for personal connection? Well, we got you covered there as well. The off-country country conference will be very different to everything you have experienced before. Think, coverage of the Olympics, replacing sports with science and personal stories in wildlife health. The participants won’t just share their research, they will also share their personal experiences along their career path. And you can be a part of it!

Our host Cat Vendl chats with the organizing committee of off-country WDA2024, a group of 7 early to mid-career wildlife health academics (including our host Cat) from 5 continents. Meet Sangjin, Fernando, Lucas, Marianthi, Berta, and Sarange and listen to their vision for WDA2024!

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.

Our host Cat Vendl is talking all things Australian wildlife health with wildlife biologist Jane Hall. Jane is the project officer at the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health at Taronga Zoo and a PhD candidate at Griffith University.

In her many years with the Registry, she has worked with all creatures big and small, from the tiniest marsupials to the giants of the sea, the humpback whales. Her work took her on many trips to one of her favorite places on Earth, Christmas Island, where she has studied the health of the Christmas Island flying foxes.

On the side, Jane investigates the impact of disease and pollution on New Zealand fur seals for her PhD.

Links

Jane's research profile at Griffith University

Jane's profile with the Australian registry of Wildlife Health

Wanna be a guest on the show?
Feel free to email communications(at)wildlifedisease.org or catharinavendl(at)gmail.com with a short summary of your research story.

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.

This week on WDA's Wildlife Health Talks podcast, host Dr Cat Vendl immerses herself and our listeners in an interview with Dr Helena Costa on her project 'Whale Exhale'. Helena studies the viruses in the blow of humpback whales that visit the coastline of Norway for the annual herring run.

A PhD student at Nord University in Bodø, Norway, it's a far cry from Helena's homeland of Portugal.

Links:

Helena's research gate profile

Helena's parapoxvirus paper

WhaleExhale's X account

Article written about project Whale Exhale

Wanna be a guest on the show?
Feel free to email communications(at)wildlifedisease.org or catharinavendl(at)gmail.com with a short summary of your research story.

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.

Our host Cat Vendl chats with WDA's own vice president Richard Kock. Richard has lived almost a life time of promoting wildlife health in Africa, Central Asia and the UK. Born in Rhodesia (today's Zimbabwe), Richard worked in Kenya for many years. He has seen the devastating consequences of colonialism to wildlife conservation first hand and has worked hard to counteract them.

Listen in to Richard's story!

Wanna be a guest on the show?
Feel free to email communications(at)wildlifedisease.org or catharinavendl(at)gmail.com with a short summary of your research story.

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.

Tigers, leopards and now one-horned rhinos. Dr Martin Gilbert studies them all. He is a wildlife veterinarian, epidemiologist and Associate Professor of Practice at Cornell University, US. Originally from Scotland, he has investigated infectious diseases and mysterious mass die-offs all over Asia. It was him and his colleagues who discovered that it was the administration of Diclofenac to livestock that killed millions of vultures in India in the early 2000s.

Listen in to Martin’s story!

Links:

• Martin's Academic profile
• Programmatic website

Wanna be a guest on the show?
Feel free to email communications(at)wildlifedisease.org or catharinavendl(at)gmail.com with a short summary of your research story.

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.