My name is Laurel Redding. I am a sophomore at Duke University, studying a pre-veterinary curriculum
and a religion major. I was born and raised in Paris, France, so this is really the first time I’ve
ever lived in the States. I plan to go to veterinary school, either in the States, in Canada or in the
U.K. and I am going abroad to Oxford next year. I also sing alto I in the Chapel Choir, which I will
dearly miss when I go abroad.
My primary interest in working in Madagascar with the Fossa team is to get more experience with a totally
different type of wildlife than that I am accustomed to working with. I have done a great deal of work
with horses especially. I spent every day of high school at the stables, and I have shadowed equine
vets as well as having done an internship at an Haras National (French National Stud Farm for horses).
In addition, I have worked with domestic animal vets. I am also very interested in animal conservation
and I hope to be able to contribute some small part to the overall movement.
My work this summer, in addition to helping with the Fossa project, will be involved with surveying
lemur populations – specifically the Brown Lemur and the Mongoose Lemur – as recent natural disasters
and political situations have affected their population.
I hope to share my findings with the Duke Primate Center on my return to Duke.
I am really looking forward to going to Madagascar, as I have always been fascinated with it, but never
been. I hope that my research will be successful as well and somehow helpful to conservation efforts
for these incredible animals!
