When a jaguar comes into conflict with a community in Belize, when a sea turtle washes up hypothermic and starving on a UK beach, or when a lion population needs support to recover in central Africa, the outcome often depends on one thing: the people on the ground, and whether they have the skills to respond. Understanding wildlife health is crucial to the success of conservation initiatives like these, and WVI is uniquely positioned to ensure frontline teams get that essential training and build the relevant knowledge.

Supporting jaguar-human coexistence in Belize

The work of Belize’s Corozal Sustainable Future Initiative-CSFI, and in particular their dedicated ranger team, includes responding to situations where jaguars come into conflict with people and livestock. For the last two years, WVI Veterinary Partner, Elliott Simpson-Brown, has been helping the rangers build on their existing skills and improve their knowledge of how to safely dart, anaesthetise and radio collar big cats. In 2025, the rangers Elliott worked with became the first certified wildlife response team in Belize trained to professionally handle big cat incidents and human-wildlife conflict.

Elliott has used his time training the rangers to also emphasise the importance of collecting samples to monitor health and track disease risks at every opportunity. This is vital in a situation like that in Belize, where canine distemper virus, for example, is known to be on the rise – a disease that is having a devastating impact on carnivore populations around the world. The role of the forest rangers in monitoring the health of Belize’s big cats is key in a country with few wildlife vets and, as yet, no veterinary school. We’re looking forward to hosting a team from Belize in the UK in the near future, which will be an opportunity for them to improve their knowledge of captive care, in preparation for working with any conflict animals which cannot be immediately relocated and released.

Making sure cold-stunned sea turtles get the help the need to recover

Having worked for several years with the ARCHELON Sea Turtle Rescue Centre team in Greece, helping them grow in competence and confidence to the point where they are largely self-reliant, we are now focussed on a new problem for the UK – the stranding of cold-stunned turtles.

Turtles are ectothermic, taking on the temperature of the water around them. Sadly, that’s turning out to something of a disadvantage as the effects of climate change intensify.

As severe storms, strong winds and powerful currents become more frequent and less predictable, more turtles – typically juveniles - are being diverted off course into colder water. Encountering water below 10 degrees Celsius can cause their heart rate to slow to as little as one beat a minute; they become lethargic and lose the ability to swim, leaving them adrift until they are washed ashore in a critical condition, suffering from traumatic wounds, pneumonia, starvation, and other health issues. The phenomenon is not new, but the arrival of these ‘cold-stunned’ turtles on UK shores is, with numbers having tripled since 2022.

Cold-stunned turtles can recover, but getting the right critical care is vital, and full rehabilitation can take months of painstaking work. WVI Veterinary Partner, Matthew Rendle RVN, recently facilitated the International Sea Turtle Society Symposium’s first ever cold stunned turtle workshop in the US, and is now facilitating a series of workshops in the UK to equip marine rescuers and rehabbers with the essential knowledge to respond to cases effectively. Matt was previously involved in advising Sea Life Brighton as they set up the UK’s first dedicated cold-stunned turtle rehabilitation centre, which opened in 2024, and we look forward to our next joint public training event in the autumn. He is also leading the development of a ‘living handbook’, which will be an online peer-reviewed guide to the rescue and rehabilitation of cold-stunned turtles.

Bringing lions back to Gabon

Originally from Peru, vet Priscila Peralta now works in Gabon where she is part of a team preparing to restore lions to the Plateaux Batéké National Park. In addition to understanding the health of the plateaux's ecosystem and mitigating issues such as human wildlife conflict, she will be responsible for reintroducing and monitoring the health of the first generation of lions that will bring the species back to Gabon. In preparation, she attended the ten-week Malilangwe Wildlife Capture School in Zimbabwe, thanks to one of our inaugural WVI Wildlife Health Bursaries, which she won in 2024.

This well-recognised course provided Priscila with practical, interactive training in the safe, effective and ethical use of chemical and physical restraint for the capture, management and veterinary care of wild animals. Course participants learned how to capture a range of African mammals, including savannah elephants, black and white rhinos, giraffes, buffalo, impala and wildebeest. Working to safely dart and immobilise a lioness was a special highlight for Priscila!

Our WVI Wildlife Health Bursaries were launched two years ago. Besides Priscila, recipients have been vets in Argentina, Indonesia, Peru and Costa Rica. The funds have enabled them to undertake professional development opportunities ranging from in-person and online wildlife capture and immobilisation courses, to conservation  rehabilitation training, and the opportunity to attend and present at the annual European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians Zoo Conference in Hungary.

Supporting conservation medicine professionals in this way is all part of championing the importance of wildlife health and the need for a robust worldwide veterinary workforce. Applications for our 2026 Wildlife Health Bursaries will be opening soon.

‍Earth Raise 2026

As awareness of the centrality of wildlife health grows, so does the demand for access to training in wildlife health for frontline conservation teams. With your support we can do so much more to make sure those people on the ground have the critical skills and knowledge to respond effectively and protect the health of the species they work with.

The Big Give Earth Raise campaign is one of our two main fundraising events of the year; without it, we cannot do what we do. Please consider donating this between the 22nd and 29th of April, when every £ will be matched and you will make twice the difference to wildlife health and threatened species worldwide.

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