Wild animal lives through a welfare lens

Our in-person and online Seminar Series on Wild Animal Lives Through a Welfare Lens is delivered in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College and the Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London) as part of the MSc Wild Animal Biology.

Seminar 1

Seminar 2

Seminar 3

Seminar 4

Seminar 5

Seminar 4  |  February 19, 2025

Welfare, health, and disease

This seminar features Dr. Giovanna Massei, a professor of Human-Wildlife Interactions at the University of York, UK, and Europe Director of the Botstiber Institute of Wildlife Fertility Control; and Michael Sheriff, Associate Professor of Biology at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, US, and a Wild Animal Initiative grantee.

A panel discussion follows, chaired by Dr. Andrés Valenzuela Sánchez from the Institute of Zoology.

All sessions of this seminar series are hybrid events. You can attend online via Zoom or in-person.

Date

February 19, 2025

Time

3-5 pm

In-person location:

Great Hall, Royal Veterinary College
Royal College Street
London
NW1 0TU
United Kingdom

The Great Hall is directly in front of the entrance. Please ask at reception if you need assistance.

Venue map

View recording

Speakers and panelists

Dr. Giovanna Massei

Speaker

From mice to elephants: fertility control to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts.

Giovanna Massei is Professor of Human-Wildlife Interactions at the University of York (UK) and Europe Director of the Botstiber Institute of Wildlife Fertility Control. For more than 20 years, Giovanna’s research focused on non-lethal methods to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts, with particular interest on fertility control for wildlife, free-roaming dogs and livestock. Giovanna has led collaborative projects in the UK and overseas, with funding from government and non-governmental agencies and she regularly provides expert advice to national and international organizations such as the World Health Organization and the European Food Safety Authority.

Michael Sheriff

Speaker

The impact of road noise on risk-responses in free-living small mammals

Michael Sheriff is an Associate Professor of Biology at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, with a BSc from the University of Toronto and PhD from the University of British Columbia. His interests lie broadly in how ecological stressors can influence the physiology and behavior of free-living animals, and how this affects their fitness and ultimately scales up to impact population and community dynamics.

Dr. Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez

Chair

Dr. Andrés Valenzuela-Sánchez is a Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London. He conducts research on the drivers and consequences of infectious diseases in free-living host populations, in addition to wildlife monitoring and conservation, with an emphasis on amphibians. Andrés is the president of the governance committee of the Binational Conservation Strategy for Darwin’s frogs and co-chair of the Communications & Education Working Group of the IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group.