Manuel Weber: Conservation Medicine postgrad course 2009 pictures and stories / Curso de posgrado Medicina de la Conservación 2009: fotos e histórias

The 2009 version of the Conservation Medicine postgraduate course in ECOSUR was another success!. This year the course was truly international as we got 4 students from abroad (The Netherlands, Colombia, Peru and Guatemala) and 4 students from Mexico. The students were:

From ECOSUR postgraduate program:

Mauricio Casas (PhD student, Tapachula, Chiapas)
Sergio Guerrero (M Sc student, SCLC, Chiapas)
Víctor Hugo González-Sánchez (MSc student, Chetumal)

External students:

María Luisa Müller Theissen (CDC, Guatemala)
Renske M. Gudde (MSc student, Utrecht University, Holanda)
Paloma Alcázar (WWF, Madre de Dios, Perú)
Robin Andres Poches-Franco (MSc student, Universidad Nacional, Colombia)
Marco Castro Martínez (CONANP, Tamaulipas, México)

The course was supported by special seminars by Dr. Elliott Jacobson (University of Florida) lecturing on reptile medicine and Dr. Gary García-Espinosa (FMVZ-UNAM) lecturing on wild birds and diseases.

There were four practical sessions: One of handling and blood sampling of crocodiles, necropsy of crocodiles (both at CETMAR-Campeche), a visit to the Animal Pathology Laboratory in Campeche and a final, five days mammal trapping and sampling session at the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve.

The students this year created a nice and friendly work environment and work very hard throughout the 30 days of the course. They read more than 18 papers on Conservation Medicine, wild animal health, ecological epidemiology and emerging infectious diseases from October 12th to November 5th, 2009.

At moments it was a bit cumbersome for me since Renske, the student from the Netherlands, speak almost no Spanish and most of the teaching had to be bi-lingual. Translating discussions of special topics represented a challenge for me and it was a learning experience. Since all (but Renske) were Spanish-speaking people, I decided to run the course in Spanish and translate to Renske. Most of the slide shows, however were in English.

Trapping in Calakmul was good and fun. We did not set all 60 traps but worked with 33 in a five-nights trapping session. The bad weather (lots of rain and two cold fronts) severely affected the trapping efforts and there was little animal movements around. We trapped lots of possums though, so that every student had at least one chance of handling and blood sampling a wild mammal. Guillermo set a few mist nets for bats and birds but that night rained a lot so the nets remained closed.

Here some pictures (from different authors; Paloma, Victor G, Victor V and myself). I will put more later on.

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The students from left to right: Victor González, Sergio Guerrero, Marco Castro, Renske Gudde, Paloma Alcázar, Robin Poches, Mauricio Casas y María Luisa Müller

Watching the Pirates show in Campeche City with some members of the show crew

María Luisa studing very hard!

Read papers, faster!!!

Not all was work. Watching the XV anniversary of a local band in the Paula Toro theater

The infamous evil dog (perro del mal) of Victor González

Catching young crocs for the practice at the CETMAR facilities

Javier Gómez, CETMAR director and good friend allowed us to work with their animals

Renske handling a young croc for blood sampling

Preparing for necropsy of crocodiles

Blood sampling (Marco and María Luisa)

Sergio performing a necropsy

Vaccination time! Everybody had to be vaccinated for rabies for the mammal trapping session in Calakmul. Waiting and joking in the SSA waiting room.

Arriving to the Animal Pathology Lab in Campeche

Watching the local technician (Don Miguel?) performing brain preparations in dog skulls for rabies tests.

With the personal of LACEPAC (thanks guys!)

Mauricio resting from the carrying of the 60 Tomahawk traps

Carrying everything in the three trucks (including mine)

Arriving at Km. 20 in Calakmul where we stayed.

First trapping day. We got a wild María Luisa!!

Getting ready for work. Lets catch some furry stuff!

Spider monkey at the CBR. The students got the opportunity of watching lots of wildlife (two species of monkeys, deer, peccaries, crocodiles, possums, foxes, and more)

Releasing on of the 12 possums we trapped. I don't wanna go!

Releasing more bloody possums! They seem to be everywhere!

Monitoring the health of a wild possum (D. marsupialis)

Robin "Pochesneger" with the Dan-inject (he seems to be waiting for Batman to teach the evil-doing a lesson!) What did he said after taking the picture?: "I'll be back" ("when I finish my own Poch-inject with a Gotcha gun"!)

In the last trapping day, a large ocelot killed and ate a trapped possum (D. virginiana) INSIDE the tomahawk trap (amazing, there is no such thing as a safe place in the jungle!). Here some students at the crime scene

The crime scene of the ocelot killing trap. He left just the trunk of the possum and ate most of the legs, skin and inners (without opening the trap! Wow!)

Dr. Elliot Jacobson lecturing on reptile medicine. Thanks for your time Elliott. Appreciated!

Students seminars. Victor talking about Chytridiomycosis and amphibian declines

Student seminars. Renske talking about myxomatosis in rabbits

Guillermo at work in Calakmul.

Victor Villalobos showing how to set and operate a large Tomahawk trap in the field. The assistance of both Guillermo and Victor was essential. Thank you guys!