Blogs from the Field
A healthy future for wildlife, people, and planet.
May 11, 2026
by
Victoria Priester
California is home to an extensive array of landscapes and wildlife: deserts with bighorn sheep and kit foxes, coastlines home to marine mammals and shorebirds, dense mountain forests hiding prowling mountain lions, and mountain meadows where wolf packs run....
May 01, 2026
As a Disease Investigations extern at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, I worked with a team of veterinary pathologists and research associates to learn firsthand how studying the cause of death in an individual animal can help improve the health and welfare of the remaining population....
March 30, 2026
The AQUAVET® I program provides valuable hands-on experience in aquatic veterinary medicine to fill a critical gap in traditional veterinary curricula. Seven students from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine had the opportunity to attend this incredible program last summer....
February 11, 2026
Aquatic veterinary medicine began as a dream for me, a field hidden behind the scenes, largely unknown. Still, I knew that someone was providing medical care for the animals at the zoos and aquariums I often admired and learned from throughout my life....
January 13, 2026
On the first day of my externship with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, I shook hands with Dr. Julia Burco, a state wildlife veterinarian, and I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and fulfillment....
January 05, 2026
March ended in quite a spectacular way for me this year. I began the month sitting in classrooms at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and ended it out in the Zimbabwean bush, drawing blood from a sedated lion under a nighttime African sky....
November 06, 2025
As a veterinary student passionate about wildlife health, One Health, and infectious disease ecology, this experience was a turning point....
October 15, 2025
I had the opportunity to spend two months in the middle of Kruger National Park (KNP) in collaboration with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS)...
October 02, 2025
It’s 3 a.m. in the Namibian bush. A team of us circles around a sedated lion to take DNA samples while two other male lions lurk nearby. We haven’t gotten an ounce of sleep, and I haven’t had a hot meal in a week, but I've never felt more alive than at this moment....
September 16, 2025
by
Victoria Priester
Every seal or porpoise that strands tells a story of the life it lived and how it died, though some findings from necropsies make more complete stories than others....