Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she ventures into Uganda's misty mountains to meet Dr. Nelson Bukamba, one of the world's few gorilla doctors providing life-saving veterinary care to our planet's most endangered relatives. Nelson's journey from a heartbroken 10-year-old making a promise to his dying dog Simba to treating wild mountain gorillas is nothing short of extraordinary.

From 3 AM wake-up calls to tracking gorilla families across 321 square kilometers of impenetrable forest, Nelson reveals what it's really like to provide medical care to patients who don't exactly line up for treatment. Discover how these gentle giants weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and how Nelson's cutting-edge research on "cryptic" parasites is unraveling the invisible threads connecting gorilla health to human communities. With fewer than 1,063 mountain gorillas remaining in the wild, Nelson represents a new generation of conservation veterinarians using both field medicine and laboratory science to protect our closest living relatives – one gorilla at a time.

Links
https://www.gorilladoctors.org

https://www.facebook.com/gorilladoctors

https://bsky.app/profile/gorilladoctors.bsky.social

https://www.linkedin.com/company/gorilla-doctors/

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Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she ventures into Wyoming's vast wilderness to meet Dr. Samantha Allen, the state's wildlife veterinarian who juggles budget spreadsheets and helicopter captures of bighorn sheep. From her unforgettable first WDA conference moment wielding a Stryker autopsy saw on a porpoise, Sam shares her journey from small-town kid told she'd only work with "cows and cats" to tackling Wyoming's diverse wildlife health challenges.

Discover how chronic wasting disease has become endemic across Wyoming, why older male deer might be the main disease spreaders, and the surprising prevalence of rabbit hemorrhagic disease since 2020. But perhaps most intriguingly, meet the adorable swift fox—a resilient little species where 92% test positive for parvovirus exposure, raising fascinating questions about disease transmission between wild and domestic animals in America's wild west.

Link
https://wgfd.wyo.gov/wyoming-wildlife/wildlife-disease-and-health

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Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she heads to Vancouver Island to meet Dr. Damien Joly, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative – though he insists he's just a "boring old disease ecologist!" But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Discover how Canada's unique cooperative approach tackles wildlife diseases across the world's second-largest country, from bird flu that's here to stay to chronic wasting disease threatening deer and potentially caribou.

Damien shares captivating stories from hunting pandemic viruses in Southeast Asian bats (they found a thousand new viruses with some being very similar to COVID!) and saving Mongolian gazelles from unnecessary culling during disease outbreaks. Learn why diplomatic skills matter more than business acumen when coordinating wildlife health across provinces, and get an insider's preview of the upcoming WDA conference in Victoria – where you might spot orcas from the ferry!

Links

The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative: https://www.cwhc-rcsf.ca/

Wanna learn more about the upcoming WDA2025 conference? Check out the website: https://www.wda2025.com

We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.