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Two tigers shown in and along a river with two greater one-horned rhinos seen in the distance.

Video

At the end of a busy season researching how canine distemper virus affects Nepal’s tigers and leopards, Cornell Wildlife Health Center’s wild carnivore health specialist Dr. Martin Gilbert took a break to recharge his batteries with the wildlife of Bardia National Park.
A tiger painted on a building in Thimphu; tigers are particularly revered in Bhutan. COURTESY MARTIN GILBERT

The Cornell Wildlife Health Center's Dr. Martin Gilbert collaborated with an international team of scientists to uncover the cause of a mysterious illness in an endangered wild tiger in Bhutan.
WildCats spotlight podcast thumbnail image showing a tiger with a face mask around it's head

Podcast

Listen to our Wild Carnivore Health Specialist Dr. Martin Gilbert and other big cat conservationists discuss the impacts of infectious diseases on tiger populations in the first episode of WildCats Pawcast, a brand-new podcast from WildCats Conservation Alliance.
Sumatran tiger crouching to drink water

Dr. Martin Gilbert, Wild Carnivore Specialist at the Cornell Wildlife Health Center, has worked extensively documenting the threat of canine distemper virus (CDV) to endangered Amur tigers in the Russian Far East. He is now working to determine the threat of CDV to other tiger subspecies.
Figure 2 from PNAS paper: Distemper, extinction, and vaccination of the Amur tiger

For more than a year, the world has closely followed the development, approval and deployment of various coronavirus vaccines that could bring an end to the global pandemic, debating every side effect and hurdle. But vaccines aren’t only used to spare humans from the ravages of disease; increasingly, they’re being used to conserve wild species threatened with extinction.
A male dhole scans the forest to look for prey by Anish Andheria

Cornell's Dr. Martin Gilbert discusses how infectious disease likely represents an important threat for endangered dhole populations and that such diseases could even be capable of causing local extinctions.
A Bengal Tiger shown lying down

An interdisciplinary team of researchers, including the Cornell Wildlife Health Center’s Dr. Martin Gilbert, collaborated to assess the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on tiger populations.
A collage of endangered species that includes three big cats, elephant and rhino

The third Friday of May is Endangered Species Day. Primarily as a result of human activities, our planet’s biodiversity is shrinking at an unprecedented rate. The Cornell Wildlife Health Center is proud to support a diverse range of species and ecosystems through our work.
Tiger lying down © Ronald Gilbert

A research team, including the Cornell Wildlife Health Center’s Dr. Martin Gilbert, published a case report describing the death of a Bengal tiger in Bhutan from neurocysticercosis (the presence of larval tapeworm stages in the brain). Bengal tigers are endangered, with only 103 individuals estimated to remain in Bhutan, with more in other range countries including India and Nepal.
A herd of wild sheep

Announcement

The Wild Carnivore Health Program was awarded a grant from the Wild Sheep Foundation to introduce a program of pathogen surveillance focused on argali and Siberian ibex to help maintain viable herds of wild sheep and goats in Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere in Central Asia.