Interventions in Wild Animal Health

This year marks the launch of the Interventions in Wild Animal Health Field Course, run by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the University of Edinburgh (UoE) as a component of the on-line MVetSci in Conservation Medicine awarded by UoE. The Field Course, held predominantly in Sariska Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan, India, and supported by The Thriplow Trust, provided practical skills to complement the theoretical learning from the MVetSci Conservation Medicine with the objective of increasing the capacity of wildlife health professionals in developing countries where there are hotspots of wildlife disease.

Twenty-one students from ten countries, travelled to Sariska to receive in field teaching over a three-week period, covering three module topics: (i) population monitoring including practical use of transects and camera trapping , (ii) rehabilitation, field disease investigation and surveillance, including use of geographical information systems and field pathological investigation (iii) free-living wild animal restraint and anaesthesia, including planning, equipment and techniques.

The students also gained experience of wildlife management and human-wildlife conflict in Keoladeo National Park, Ranthambore National Park and wildlife rehabilitation teaching at Wildlife SOS Bear and Elephant rescue facilities in Agra. The interventions in Wild Animal Health Field Course will take place annually, further details are available on http://www.zsl.org/science/postgraduate-study/interventions-in-wild-animal-health .