From the Director…

Dr. Giovanna Massei, BIWFC Europe Director, shares information and updates about our European office.

In October, nearly 300 delegates attended Pathways Europe 2024 in Cordoba, Spain, where BIWFC was a sponsor. The conference theme was “Revisiting what is wild for coexisting.” My session on the first day was the third most attended out of 12, and I was approached by several colleagues afterward to discuss wildlife fertility control. A highlight was meeting a researcher working on surgical sterilization of coatis in Brazil, interested in using contraceptives for both coatis and capybara

Fertility control for capybara? With a body mass of 35-65 kg, the South American capybara is the largest living rodent in the world. This species has been increasingly involved in road traffic accidents and tick-borne diseases.

In November, I traveled to Dunedin, Florida, for the ACC&D Annual Council Meeting, where I gave a talk on non-surgical contraception for wildlife. The meeting gathered experts in development of contraceptives, if proven cost-effective, could be adapted for wildlife. This event reinforced our commitment to collaborate with ACC&D on shared goals. In December, we received fantastic feedback from the AAZV/EAZWV annual conference in Toronto, where we co-hosted an 8-hour workshop on managing reproduction in zoo and free-ranging animals. Participants rated the workshop 4.8/5, with one calling it “the best workshop” they had attended

in many years. This positive response encourages us to plan more events like this in the future.

Giovanna
Dr. Giovanna Massei
January 2024