Blogs from the Field
A healthy future for wildlife, people, and planet.
September 13, 2023
It was 5:30 am and I was already sweating when I stepped out of my wooden sleeping hut and into the steamy dawn at Nepal’s Chitwan National Park. It was already 85°F but would reach 105°F before noon. I was up before the sun to complete my summer intern research project - a census of free-roaming domestic dogs in the park’s buffer zone....
May 24, 2023
This past summer, with support from Cornell’s Expanding Horizons Program, I had the opportunity to work with the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia as a veterinary extern....
March 22, 2023
I vividly remember the night before I left for Tajikistan; I was nervous, excited, and utterly exhausted. I had just finished wrapping graduation gifts for my roommates and had just about moved everything out of where I was living for the last two years (including my bed)....
February 11, 2023
Six years ago, on a regular workday, I was sitting at my desk tagging photos from a camera trap survey. Late in the afternoon, a picture of an uncanny species baffled me. It looked somewhat like a domestic dog, but taller and longer-bodied....
December 16, 2022
by
Martin Gilbert
It all started with an unexpected text message - “Do you know of any veterinarians willing to assist a snow leopard collaring project in a remote corner of eastern Kyrgyzstan?” One jumped immediately to mind…me!
November 11, 2020
by
Martin Gilbert
As I write this in summer 2020, it is almost six months since the first reports that a mysterious new pathogen was emerging in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Given the pandemic that ensued, few of us remain unaware of the omnipotent reach of wildlife-origin microbes to disrupt our health, our economies and our liberty....
February 18, 2019
by
Martin Gilbert
The fate of our wildlife lies at the hands of our policy makers – an obvious statement perhaps, but sometimes these forces work in unexpected ways....
December 03, 2018
by
Martin Gilbert
While sitting in a café contemplating the surrounding forested hills, it struck me that there is something unique about the city of Thimphu in Bhutan....
October 17, 2018
by
Martin Gilbert
On a sweltering monsoon afternoon in September 1994, I stepped out from a garish-painted bus in western Nepal, the driver pointing me south along a rough track threading off between vibrant green rice fields....
March 03, 2018
by
Martin Gilbert
Given their near supernatural reputation, it can be hard to distinguish the truth of the tiger from its mythology....