No obstacle too tall for this Ugandan wildlife veterinarian
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Loading... - Naomi Mukasa
- 15 Mar 2023
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To protect animals in Uganda, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka found she needed to help villagers find work and learn to value their role in caring for wildlife. Her memoir “Walking with Gorillas” reveals her dedication and persistence.
To protect animals in Uganda, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka found she needed to help villagers find work and learn to value their role in caring for wildlife. Her memoir “Walking with Gorillas” reveals her dedication and persistence.
Her dream job didn’t exist, so she invented it.
When Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka was studying at the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College in the 1990s, there was no veterinarian assigned to look after the diverse and often threatened wildlife in the national parks of her native Uganda, but even as a young woman, she saw a dire need for one.
So she appealed to the parks’ director and had a job waiting for her after graduation; it was the first of many trailblazing actions she would go on to take in her brilliant career. In her inspiring new memoir, “Walking with Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet,” the conservationist recounts her work advocating for wildlife in the field and beyond.
Kalema-Zikusoka’s early years were packed with challenges and unforgettable experiences that shaped the way she saw conservation. She tells of thrilling and harrowing events, such as the time when she led an effort to airlift a few giraffes from Kenya back to Uganda to replenish a dwindling herd.
She also describes medical mysteries that proved illuminating. An investigation into the source of a skin condition on giraffes and elephants determined ultimately (and counterintuitively) that it was the result of wildlife lost to poaching. Fewer megafauna were around to chomp on vegetation, so plants grew unchecked, creating more opportunities for parasite-carrying insects to proliferate, causing rashes on the remaining animals. “Nothing in an ecosystem functions in a vacuum,” writes the author. Read More…
