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Cornell University

Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center
for Wildlife Health

Blog

Blogs from the Field

A healthy future for wildlife, people, and planet.

Brenna is on the ground writing things on a clipboard as another person monitors a lion that is sedated on the ground.
Wild Carnivores The Student Experience
Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust
Zambezi
Lion
Expanding Horizons
Cornell Expanding Horizons
Expanding Horizons Program
GPS Collaring
wildlife tracking
Student
Student Experience
Student Experiential Learning
Veterinary Student
KAZA
Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area
GPS
Hippo Creek
Human-lion conflict
Human-Wildlife Conflict
Conservation Genetics
Genetic Samples
Poaching
Environmental Justice
Conservation and Community
Southern Ground Hornbill
Hwange National Park
Endangered Specied Conservation
Bird
Student Learning
Einaudi Center for International Studies

Comprehensive Conservation With Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust

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....
Ava kneels next to a sedated lion lying on the ground at night. The lion’s face is partially covered with a cloth, and Ava is holding a bag of medical supplies, smiling at the camera. A vehicle is visible in the background.
Wild Carnivores Wildlife Medicine The Student Experience
Namibia
DNA Samples
Lion
Veterinary Student
Fieldwork
Free-ranging Wildlife Conservation
University of Namibia
Expanding Horizons
Community Livelihoods
hyena
Skeleton Coast
Brown Hyena Project
Carnivore
Wild Carnivores
Carnivore Populations
Data
jackals
Lead
Etosha National Park
Etosha Ecological Institute
Elephant
Poaching
Black Rhino
wildebeest
dehorning
Applied Research
Human-Wildlife Conflict

From Books to the Bush: How Namibia Transformed My Veterinary Education

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....