Editorial – Continental Ties in Wildlife Rehabilitation
People recovering from life-threatening illnesses or addictions often undergo rehabilitation to piece together their lives. Wildlife rehabilitation is the care of sick, injured, displaced or orphaned wild animals, to release them back to ideal habitats and monitor their well-being. In many instances, wildlife is imperiled due to man-made hazards and because rehabilitation involves human emotions, everything is in public domain and good rehabilitators don’t melt when their feet are held to fire.
Most of the 54 countries in Africa and the 48 in Asia are overpopulated with poverty, war and disease as drivers of deforestation, poaching, pandemics and species extinction. Captive breeding and wildlife rehabilitation are promising tools in our conservation arsenal.
Karen Trendler is our lead author by virtue of her impeccable rhino rehabilitation skills in South Africa and India as well. Karen writes so eloquently about her life’s mission. Petronel Nieuwoudt shares with us her work at the wildlife care center in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Kai Williams from International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council (IWRC) leads us through the essentials of wildlife rehabilitation. Drs. Tatanya Hulme and Kay Farmer essay an absorbing piece on primate rehabilitation in Africa. My resourceful assistant editor, Israel Binoyi, checks out the Limbe Wildlife Center (LWC) in Cameroon for us. Zoe Gibbs contributes on the rehabilitation of raptors in Kenya. Ludwig Siege is ACT’s conservationist of the month. Ludwig works for GIZ to support the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA) based in Addis Ababa.
The ACT thanks all contributors and well-wishers following us on Facebook and Twitter.
Sincerely,
Murali Pai
Editor, ACT
Murali Pai is the Editor of ACT and faculty at the School for Field Studies (SFS), Beverly, Massachusetts.