Wildlife Disease Association, book marketing, Tsaatan, Mongolia

More book signings yesterday. Red Deer Alberta and now Lloydminster on the Alberta / Saskatchewan border, although I am about 1 km from the border itself in a shopping mall. Most annoying, the mall has no wireless Internet. Now that’s weird, at least it is in 2008, so I will have to wait until I get home to actually get this on to the page.

Apart from book gigs I have been reading the proceedings from the Wildlife Disease conference, just to see again what has been going on. One of the highlights of these gatherings, every year, is the full day devoted to student papers. Not only are the students highly motivated, because they are in competition mode for cash prizes and prestige, but because they show us oldies what is going on at the cutting edge of our discipline.

For instance there were several papers about reindeer, a favourite species of mine, and one I have worked on in Finland and Mongolia. Dr. Sophia Papageorgiou, a doctoral student at UC Davis has spent two work seasons in the high mountains of Mongolia, among the Tsaatan people and their reindeer, of whom you can read more here at the Itgel Foundation web site.


These pictures show the close relationship between the people and their animals. Sophia was studying one of the diseases that she is working with for her thesis. We had not met before, but I knew that she was there, and she knew that I too had been there. In my case it was three years of field seasons trying to see what is going on disease-wise with these fascinating animals. They are ridden, used as transport animals, milked and much loved.

Wildlife Disease Association, book marketing, The Trouble With Lions, Polar bear, bison

Writing from the forecourt of the Coles bookstore in the Edmonton City Centre Mall, where I am surrounded by copies of The Trouble With Lions and the big 2’ x 3’ poster that the U of Alberta Press made up for me. I’ve never tried this sort of selling before, but I’ve discovered that selling books can only really be done by the author getting out there.

This has been best exemplified over the last 3 days in Edmonton. I have been here attending the annual meeting of the Wildlife Disease Association, with its great website (here) the world’s premier group of like-minded scientists who concern themselves with wildlife in general and the diseases that affect them in particular.

The major themes of this year’s conference have been the overarching concern with global warming, and the more specific field of northern wildlife. Neither was any surprise, first because global warming is having a huge impact as animals move ever more northwards as the climate gets warmer and the habitat changes, allowing species to push at the edges. When I say species, most of us will think of things like white-tailed deer or moose, but as students of disease systems we have to remember that microscopic worms that can kill their hosts can also move into warmer climes because they can overwinter when conditions allow it.

The “poster child” species that has grabbed the attention of the media is the polar bear, and there is no doubt that they are charismatic, dangerous and already in trouble as the polar regions are warming faster than any other on earth. Over a period of about 12 years, starting in the early 1980’s I made several trips to the north, sometimes twice a year, to work on polar bears and wood bison. One publication from those days is about the development of a new drug for polar bear capture. You can find an abstract here but I'll have to put the pictures in when I get home. Home and now able to get at pics. Here's a favourite polar bear picture.

I'll also have to add pictures of our bison work, but a couple of abstracts of the original work are here, the first about the capture, the second about reproductive studies (pregnancy diagnosis). And here are some bison pictures.


With both species I was of course working with teams of biologists who were studying a range of issues centred on the ecology of the animals.

Who knows, one of these days I will put together a book about those trips, but right now it lies in 2nd place on the mental Rolodex of work as I have begun the research on my next big project, which I am calling, for now at least, The Virus and the Vaccine: How Cattle Plague Changed World History.

Musings on woodwork, the Wildlife Disease Association, and students in Uganda.

A more relaxed day today. Been putting finishing touches to a walnut and maple chess table. Now the challenge of making the drawers to hold the chessmen. Have also been using scraps from larger projects to make a laminated tray that will go the Wildlife Disease Association meeting in early August. Funds raised by this group (I have been a member since 1975, and you can find about more about the organization here) at their crazy charity auction (you have to be there) are used to support students in various ways. I have been granted a spot on the program to talk about our work in Uganda with Canadian & local students seen here working on a Uganda kob (Kobus kob thomasi).

Also out picking Saskatoon berries (Amelanchier alnifolia). We have several thickly dressed bushes in the garden, and there are lots of them in the neighbouring area.

They are known as Serviceberries or Juneberries in the USA, and have a very short season, right about now. The Juneberry name must be from the earlier flowering & growing season south of here.

Delicious on cereal, in pies,with ice cream, in cakes, syrup for pancakes and as a purée for jam, or a start for wine. Here a dinner guest - one of the students who came to Uganda and joined us for an evening - tucks in to a Saskatoon cheesecake - which tends to go fast!