Today is ‪#‎worldwildlifeday‬ and its official focus is on African and Asian Elephants.

They need a lot of help at the moment, but as we aren’t working with these species, we would like to promote another African endangered species that is little known and difficult to fundraise for.However, it is one of our most long running projects and is one of the most AWESOME conservation projects of all time.The Echo Parakeet‬ was reduced to handful of individuals and The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (with WVI’s help, of course) brought it back from the brink of extinction. Just as things were going well Psitticine Beak and Feather Disease started to decimate the population.Invasive ring necked parakeets brought PBFD with them and infected the local, and highly endangered, echo parakeets. Sadly as the disease was novel to the Echo parakeet, the disease spread quickly and with devastating effect.   With Avian expert Andrew Greenwood’s help, transmission was reduced and those birds that could, were treated. Good news, PBFD has been brought to a low enough level so not to affect the population and numbers are on the increase again. MWF are so AWESOME that they have data on every bird, who they are related to, their movements etc. This enabled people like Simon Tollington (whose picture this is) to look at the relationship between genetic diversity and ability to fight disease. Yes we are a fan of The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation Please donate HERE and SHARE. Thank you   Photo Credit: Simon Tollington

Coming up in 2015 - Success in India. It is the 4th year WVI has supported Jivdaya Charitable Trust with the avian A&E during the kite festival. Report coming soon - Andrew is due to go to Mauritius in April but we are still looking for funds (see article to the left) - We have a new vet who will be based in Indonesia helping the Sumatran Tiger Health Forum. More from Jessica soon - We are looking to expand our African painted dog project in Zimbabwe from just Vaccination clinics to disease surveillance of the whole area. - Preliminary findings are in from the samples taken from the Seychelles magpie robin which have sparked a second set of analysis. Due in May. - A tablet, phone, notebook, computer screen etc friendly website will be launched in the next few months. Until then

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