Dispatches From The Field

6 July, 2003 -- Luke Dollar

Calling Dr. Pomerantz

This evening, our team veterinarian and research collaborator arrived in Fossa Camp. Dr. Julie Pomerantz (DVM, Cornell University) first came to Madagascar as an Earthwatch volunteer in 1999. Shortly after returning to her veterinary practices in the USA, she quickly decided to change her foci and invest herself in becoming the fossavet (in fact, that’s her email name now). Julie oversees, focuses on, and is responsible for the animal anesthesia, handling, health and care that goes on in with our various projects. Her specific research interests concentrate on the identification, incidence, and threat of domestic animal diseases in wild, endemic populations of carnivores.

In addition to being the fossavet, Dr. Pomerantz also serves as the emergency, triage, and rehabilitation care provider for many of the areas other animal, too. No more than two hours after her arrival, some fellow researchers and park management staff came rushing into camp with a Mongoose Lemur (an Endangered primate found in Ankarafantsika) that’d been hit by a car. While animals are rarely seen crossing the road that runs northward through Ankarafantsika, this one hadn’t made it across the road in time. A thorough checkup and a few treatments later, the lemur was set to recover. We released it back into the forest, a little bruised but not too much worse for wear, the following afternoon.

-Luke