Blogs from the Field
A healthy future for wildlife, people, and planet.
November 04, 2022
As one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls draws travelers from around the world to experience the majestic shower of falling waters. After connecting with the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust (VFWT) and securing a position on their team, I began planning travels to a country I knew little about....
September 07, 2022
Poultry health, harmful algal blooms, and Kenyan fishing communities—you might be wondering, how exactly are these concepts linked? Join me on the tale of my summer in Kenya, where I was exploring these topics....
June 24, 2022
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Wildlife as a Window to Environmental Pollution 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....
May 20, 2022
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Karyn Bischoff
I have an affinity for bees. I came by it honestly: my grandfather was a beekeeper. Upon his death decades ago, I was allowed to take a few small keepsakes from his home; one of my choices was his beekeeping book, “The Hive and the Honey Bee, Edited by Roy A. Grout.” His copy was printed in 1954, but the history of the book dates a 101 years earlier (authored by Langstroth) and continued through 2015 (edited by Graham)....
April 12, 2022
In November 2019, my classmate, Hannah Padda, DVM ’22, and I were selected by Dr. Robin Radcliffe, a Cornell wildlife veterinarian and associate professor of practice in wildlife and conservation medicine, as two of six participants for his 2020 Engaged Cornell team....
July 28, 2021
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Karyn Bischoff
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....
February 16, 2021
A few weeks ago I learned about trypanosome parasites in parasitology class. As the professor explained what diseases these parasites cause, one species of trypanosome in particular stood out to me, Trypanosoma evansi. T. evansi is transmitted by tabanid flies and is found throughout Africa, Asia and tropical America, and it causes a disease called surra in all domestic species.
November 11, 2020
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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....
September 08, 2020
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Rodman Getchell
Mostly stuck at home like the rest of you, I cannot get the constant talk about testing and tracing out of my head during this COVID-19 pandemic. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s voice is ever present, and I welcome his daily, even-tempered and pragmatic broadcasts about how to keep us safe. Given my line of work, I easily saw some analogies, and I said to my work-at-home spouse on one of our daily walks, “Fish farmers have to deal with epidemics, too.”
July 01, 2020
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Katherine McClure
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.