Web Blurb - Amy Tanner

July 23, 2004

On May 4, 2004, I embarked on my first international travel experience, on behalf of the VT research group, heading from Roanoke, Virginia to Leipzig, Germany, in order to present a poster and to attend the first international conference on “Diseases - the third major threat for wild Great Apes?” held May 6th-9th at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.  The overall mission of this conference was to create an interdisciplinary, international network of experts that will provide health care and monitoring of Great Ape species.  Our poster, “CyberCHIMPP: Health Surveys from Fieldsite to Website,” fit perfectly into the scope of the conference and was well-received by many of the meeting participants. 

Overall, this trip was very exciting; a fantastic opportunity.  I learned many things from the various presentations about the Great Ape populations currently under study, and I met several very interesting individuals and experts.  The poster we presented helped to generate interest in our area of focus…all in all it was a very gratifying experience!  Our research group looks forward to contributing to these worldwide efforts of conservation and health monitoring of animal species.