Providing veterinary care for a diversity of species

With ongoing widespread habitat destruction putting pressure on free-ranging wildlife populations around the world, managed captive populations represent a ‘safety net’ to protect the last of a species, a resource for us to learn how to optimize the health care of captive and free-living populations, and a key way to sensitize the public as to the importance of ecosystems and the wonders of biodiversity. In addition, maintaining self-sustaining captive populations lays a foundation for us to develop scientific programs for safe reintroduction of healthy individuals back into the wild, when and where circumstances permit. Now more than ever, free-ranging wildlife as well as wild animals in captivity are in need of veterinarians working at the population as well as individual animal levels. 

Zoological Medicine focuses on the care and study of wild, captive or semi-captive animals. We are the oldest teaching and clinical unit specializing in non-domestic animal clinical medicine and conservation at Cornell University.