Who we are

In 1980, Dr. Murray Fowler initiated the first efforts to include wildlife population interests in the nascent American College of Zoological Medicine (ACZM). Dr. Fowler reached out to Dr. Al Franzmann, the inaugural President of the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians (AAWV), to inquire if AAWV would be interested in collaborating with the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians (AAZV) on this endeavor. At the time, AAWV was focused on promoting what veterinary medicine could contribute to wildlife management and getting wildlife agencies to recognize the value added by hiring a veterinarian. The primary goal of ACZM was job creation and expansion of the newly formed specialty. It was considered a more academic credential and it was just too early for wildlife veterinarians to be able to consider board certification, which was not widely recognized by the agencies with legal responsibility for free-living wildlife (comparable to ownership) and their ecosystems in North America.

Dr. Franzmann was inducted as an Honorary Member of ACZM ca.1990 to help write the first ACZM Day 2 Wildlife Certifying Examination. Dr. Dave Jessup passed the exam in 1992 to become the first ACZM diplomate in the wildlife discipline. In the next two decades, more colleagues achieved wildlife certification but given the lack of coordinated efforts to organize and promote the wildlife specialty, and nonexistent wildlife-focused residencies and mentorship opportunities, the specialty did not grow. 

By 2015, wildlife veterinarians still comprised less than 5% of ACZM’s Board Certified Specialists in Zoological Medicine™. Drs. Jessup and Kay Mehren (an ACZM Charter Diplomate) began an effort to identify barriers and lack of incentives limiting the ACZM wildlife discipline’s growth. Early investigation revealed many of the approximately 60 -70 agency/cooperative/academic/non-profit wildlife veterinarians in North America simply didn’t consider ACZM’s focus and certification relevant to free-living wildlife conservation or management, despite ACZM’s foundational mission stating interest in blending ecology with veterinary medicine at individual animal and population levels. In 2018, ten ACZM diplomates, working with free-living wildlife, formed an ad hoc committee chaired by Drs. Jonathan Sleeman and Mark Drew to expand and promote the wildlife discipline. The committee made significant strides, including renaming the discipline from Wildlife Health to Wildlife Population Health (WPH) and nominating four veterinarians with significant contributions to the development and progress of WPH who were elected as honorary members by ACZM membership. 

The WPH Committee (a full committee of ACZM as of 2024) has been active and instrumental in numerous changes to ACZM policies and procedures (granted by elected ACZM leadership), including: an increased focus on population level health in fulfillment of the ACZM mission, a greater emphasis on paraclinical skills (e.g., pathology, epidemiology, preventive medicine, and ecology) to provide wildlife veterinarians training that employers desire, and ACZM-compliant training programs and mentorship opportunities for WPH candidates to achieve ACZM board eligibility.

What does a board certified specialist in this specialty do? 

The ACZM discipline in Wildlife Population Health (WPH) represents a diverse mix of veterinarians from various backgrounds and training. All are professionals with the highest degree of professional training and experience with a focus on the health of free-living and captive wildlife. Professionals in WPH are employed at state and federal government wildlife agencies, academic educational institutions, zoological parks and aquariums, and non-profit groups. WPH veterinarians employ a diverse set of clinical and paraclinical skills to enhance free-living animal health and welfare, including: basic and applied research, interagency communication, disease diagnosis, animal capture and anesthesia, treatment and surgery, preventive medicine, public health investigations, and contribute to regulatory functions that bridge the gap between human, domestic animal, and wildlife health. WPH veterinarians assist in response to disasters and welfare crises, with ongoing ecology or biology field efforts, in the conservation and recovery of threatened and endangered species, and in policy positions that support decision-making in government. Additionally, all WPH professionals participate in teaching, training, and mentorship of the next generation of wildlife veterinarians.