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Wildlife health Research Team wins Ig Nobel ‘Transportation Prize’ for transporting Rhinos upside down

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 Dr. Kaylee Byers of the University of British Columbia as a winner of the 2021 BioOne Ambassador Awards

Five early career scholars advanced through a rigorous competition with their peers to provide the most compelling communication of their research beyond their immediate discipline and to the public at large. Effective communication is fundamental to growing science literacy and ensuring access to scientific information to make informed, evidence-based decisions. The Wildlife Disease Association is pleased to recognize Dr. Kaylee Byers as one of the winners of this competitive and prestigious award.

Established in 2018, the award is given to early career scholars nominated by active BioOne publishing partners. To qualify, the author needed to be either a graduate student or a scientist who had completed a PhD or other graduate diploma within the last five years. BioOne then invited qualified nominees to submit a 750-word, plain-language summary explaining how the result of their work impacts the world, applies across disciplines, and to the public.

Kaylee’s summary entitled, Location, location, location: Rats, real estate, and public health and a video describing her work at the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative with the ongoing Vancouver Rat Project can be found here.

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