Wildlife health Research Team wins Ig Nobel ‘Transportation Prize’ for transporting Rhinos upside down
Photo Credit: Namibian Ministry of the Environment, Forestry, and Tourism
Congratulations to Robin Radcliffe, Mark Jago, Peter Morkel, Estelle Morkel, Pierre du Preez, Piet Beytell, Birgit Kotting, Bakker Manuel, Jan Hendrik du Preez, Michele Miller, Julia Felippe, Stephen Parry, and Robin Gleed, for their forward-thinking experiment on whether it is safer to transport an airborne rhinoceros upside-down. This project is a great example of international partnerships in bringing science to wildlife health and conservation. The multinational research team, many of whom are WDA members, hailed from Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Brazil, UK, and the US.
The Ig Nobel committee referenced their JWD manuscript: “The Pulmonary and Metabolic Effects of Suspension by the Feet Compared with Lateral Recumbency in Immobilized Black Rhinoceroses (Diceros bicornis) Captured by Aerial Darting,” Robin W. Radcliffe, Mark Jago, Peter vdB Morkel, Estelle Morkel, Pierre du Preez, Piet Beytell, Birgit Kotting, Bakker Manuel, Jan Hendrik du Preez, Michele A. Miller, Julia Felippe, Stephen A Parry; R.D. Gleed, Journal of Wildlife Diseases, vol. 57, no. 2, 2021, 357–367.
The Ig Nobel Prize is a satiric prize awarded annually since 1991 to celebrate ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research, its stated aim being to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." The name of the award is a pun on the, Nobel Prize which it parodies, and on the word ignoble (not noble).
Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), the Ig Nobel Prizes are presented by Nobel Laureates in a ceremony at the Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and are followed by the winners’ public lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Congratulations to our Outstanding Award Winners!
Ed Addison Distinguished Service Award
Pam Whitely, Melbourne University, Victoria Australia has received WDA’s highest accolade.
This award honors a WDA member of long standing who, by their outstanding accomplishments in research, teaching and other activities, including participation in WDA affairs, has made a noteworthy contribution to furthering the aims of the WDA.
Student Oral Presentation Winners:
Awarded to acknowledges the most outstanding oral presentations of research findings at the Annual International conference
Winner of the Terry Amundson Best Student Presentation Award:
· Michelle Waligora based at the Wildlife Epidemiology Lab, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA for her presentation entitled: “Evaluating associations between environmental parameters and Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the causative agent of ophidiomycosis (snake fungal disease)”
Terry Amundson Best Student Presentation Honourable mention:
· Patrick Scherrer from the University of Bern, Vetsuisse Faculty, Department of Infectious Diseases and Pathobiology, Centre for Fish and Wildlife Health, Switzerland for his presentation entitled: “Toxoplasma gondii infection in the protected Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in Switzerland”
Student Poster Presentations Winners:
Awarded at the annual meeting to acknowledge the most outstanding poster presentation of research findings at the annual international meeting.
Best Student Poster
· Kayla Buhler based at University of Saskatchewan, Canada for her poster entitled: “California serogroup viruses: Revealing the reservoir potential of cervids in Arctic and Subarctic ecosystems”.
Student Poster - Honourable mention:
· Laia Casades Martí is a PhD student based at Spanish Game & Wildlife Research Institute-IREC CSIC–UCLM–JCCM, Spain for her poster entitled “Flavivirus infection of wild birds in a wildlife-livestock interaction gradient in continental Iberia.
WDA Duck Award
WDA Past President Carlos das Neves, Norwegian Veterinary Institute, Oslo, Norway. This award is presented to recipients to acknowledge a particularly embarrassing incident (e.g. foible / Mistake) that usually occurs at the annual meeting.
For more information about our amazing award winners please check the upcoming October Newsletter.