AVA Conference Adelaide 2016

Australia’s has one of the worst mammal extinction rates in the world with around 30% of our non-bat, mammal species classified as threatened. Many programs have, therefore sprung up to address such losses, both locally and more widespread, to re-establish populations or even just to evaluate the status quo of species abundance in an area. The vast majority of these projects are concerned with managing populations or assemblages of populations (landscapes), as opposed to an individual animal focus, and therefore the role of ecologist/biologist holds a substantial sway. Unfortunately, in my experience, many ecologist are initially resistant to veterinary involvement for reasons that can only be speculated upon: professional pride, perceived costs, past experiences or misunderstandings with individual vets, or the isolation of the project site. There are many avenues in a reintroduction program where veterinary input can enhance the project: the disease risk assessment and pre-release testing or surveillance, the ethics application and the species recovery plan preparations, and the clinical support for diseased or injured animals with necropsy investigation of any mortalities. Using our experiences with the Western Quoll reintroduction program in the Flinders Ranges (SA) I hope to demonstrate how from a veterinary perspective we can continue to build this relationship with ecologists for the benefit of the current and future, hopefully collaborative, projects. I will also elaborate on the benefits for the individual vet professionally and generally as a team building exercise for their practice, and lastly what we, at Zoos SA, offer in the way of support and mentoring to local clinics that are willing to become involved is such projects