wildlife health

Our California Carnivore Project (formerly California Mountain Lion Project) team has some sad news to share: F312, a female GPS collared mountain lion that was nicknamed "Uno" by southern California photographers, died last night after being struck by a vehicle. Valiant efforts to save her life were undertaken by local veterinarian Dr.

*Update as of Tuesday, October 11: An additional 12 whales have been found dead, bringing the total count to 30 whales (26 adults and 4 juveniles) for this event. More info here.

The California Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project recovered more than 45 tons — 90,968 pounds — of lost, abandoned or otherwise discarded fishing gear along the Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego coasts and from around the Channel Islands in 2020 and 2021. The project is a program of the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Wildlife Health Center Research Associate Dr. Frances Gulland was designated as the Chair of the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC) on May 4, 2022. She replaces Dr. Daryl Boness, who will remain as one of the three Commissioners with Dr. Michael Tillman. Dr. Gulland joined the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the MMC in 2000, and was appointed and Senate-confirmed to serve as one of three Commissioners in 2011. The MMC works to ensure that marine mammal populations are restored and maintained as functioning elements of healthy marine ecosystems in the world's oceans.

Join us in welcoming Dr. Justin Dellinger, the new lead for the California Mountain Lion Project!

He is originally from western North Carolina and grew up in the Appalachian Mountains. He conducted research on red wolf foraging and spatial ecology and gray wolf-prey interactions as part of different graduate programs. He has also worked as a biologist for different tribes doing mountain lion and gray wolf work. More recently, he worked for the California Department of Fish & Wildlife for just over 6 years, where he served as a large carnivore researcher.

Latin America Program Director Dr. Marcy Uhart has co-authored a recent publication on southern right whales:

• Christiansen, F., Uhart, M.M., Bejder, L., Clapham, P., Ivashchenko, Y., Tormosov, D., Lewin, N. & Sironi, M. 2022. Foetal growth, birth size and energetic cost of gestation in southern right whales. Journal of Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP282351

Mange has decimated the population of wild vicuñas and guanacos in an Argentinian national park that was created to conserve them, according to a study from the Administration of National Parks in Argentina and the University of California, Davis.

The findings, published today in the journal PLOS ONE, suggest domestic llamas introduced to the site may have been the source of the outbreak. Cascading consequences for local predator and scavenger species are expected.

The journeys of a group of southern right whales to their feeding grounds are being tracked by satellite telemetry and their routes can be seen at www.siguiendoballenas.org. The technology applied in the "Tracking Whales" project allows us to identify key environments in the South Atlantic to protect southern right whales throughout their life cycle.

The Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Wildlife Investigations Laboratory are seeking applications for a 3-year residency position in free-ranging wildlife health, beginning July 1, 2020.

For more information on the position click here.