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Blogs from the Field

A healthy future for wildlife, people, and planet.

A whale calf’s entangled flipper and how tightly wrapped the line is.

For my last summer before clinical rotations, I wanted to gain experience with marine animals. I was accepted as an intern with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Marine Mammal Rescue & Research (MMRR) program in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a unique geographical area where tides and coastlines can suddenly trap a dolphin or whale in inches of water....
Carolina Baquerizo and team collecting fecal samples for the study

Working with primates is something I had avoided for a while. Most of my interest has been in southern Africa, with ungulates like giraffes, antelope, and pachyderms being my main focus. Yet I felt that, following the COVID-19 pandemic, learning more about wild primate health would be vital....
Team Crab PLT in the Galápagos

The equatorial sun is fierce and radiates off the field of lava rocks that make up the rugged shoreline. My co-investigators and I are swiftly processing twenty Sally Lightfoot crabs that were collected from the nearby rocks. For each crab we individually identify them, measure dimensions, obtain a body weight, perform a physical exam, and count a heart rate to assess their health....
Nurdles-plastic gravel by Barbara Agnew

One word: nurdles. Nurdles are plastic pellets, approximately the size and shape of lentils or split peas. Nurdles are manufactured, and then shipped to companies across the planet to be made into other things — other plastic things....
Hawai'ian Apapane bird with mosquito in eye

Vector-borne infectious diseases pose substantial threats to human health and the conservation of wildlife. Avian malaria in Hawai‘i provides an example of the devastation caused by the emergence and spread of such diseases within susceptible host populations.
Hand holding up globe

We drafted The Manhattan Principles on 'One World, One Health' in 2004. In 2020, let’s act as if we truly comprehend the pandemic’s stark reminder that there really is only one world, and one health. May Earth Days to come be better for it.
Earth with face mask

I have spent my career trying to think of ways to enhance my own species’ respect and concern for the rest of life on Earth. Perhaps a tiny, invisible virus will be what actually (hopefully) tips the scales towards a critical mass of global understanding of the fact that our own health is intimately tied to how we treat the natural world…. It’s not too soon to make this a “never again” moment. The very good news is that we can, and we must.
Buffalo

I have spent my career at the science-to-policy interface, including when I had the honor to serve as the first Science Advisor at the U.S. Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)...