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Training Tomorrow’s

Wildlife Health Professionals

A pioneering program was launched by the
Chicago Zoological Society and partner institutions to help

fill the critical need for highly trained wildlife health professionals.

r. John Winter might spend a morning wading
through marshes and tracking down Blanding’s
tur
D tles, or he might accompany wildlife biologists
from the Forest Preserves of Cook County (FPCC) as they
follow signals emitted from a radio collar around a coyote’s
neck. Winter is learning how to track free-ranging wildlife,
trap and handle the animals, perform health assessments,
and collaborate with FPCC biologists to improve conserva-
tion success.
He will spend his afternoon in a lab examining the
data and samples he collected in the field. “The things we
are testing for are important. We are studying diseases that
can potentially be transmitted to people, to domestic animals,
or the food supply, and that could affect wildlife populations
and contribute to wildlife declines.”
Winter is the first resident in the Illinois Zoological
and Wildlife Health Management Residency Program,
a three-year training program launched in 2022 for early
career veterinarians. The program is a partnership between
the Chicago Zoological Society (CZS), which operates
Brookfield Zoo; the Forest Preserves of Cook County;
and the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.
The pioneering program is one of the first in the country Above (left to right): Dr. Allender, Dr. Winter, and Chuck Rizzo, a FPCC wildlife biologist,
to provide specialized training in the management of wildlife perform a physical exam on a common nighthawk. The exam includes recording
health and disease. It is also the first such program to comply measurements, such as the length of wings and tail feathers.
with the rigorous standards set by the American College Left: A red-tailed hawk receives an oral examination by Dr. Winter. He is looking
of Zoological Medicine (ACZM), the certifying body for abnormalities that might indicate disease in the animal.
for specialists in zoo and wildlife medicine.

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