The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) announced that a Harrisburg University of Science and Technology professor is one of seven recipients of its Christine Stevens Wildlife Award who are developing innovative, less intrusive wildlife study techniques and more humane methods of resolving conflicts between wild animals and humans.
Christine Proctor of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology for using thermal imaging captured via drones to evaluate the population status of the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, a threatened species. Dr Proctor was lead on the project which also included Albert Sarvis, who leads the Geospatial Technology program at Harrisburg University.
Established in 2006, the award provides individual grants of up to $15,000 and is named in honor of AWI’s late founder and longtime president, who dedicated her life to reducing animal suffering both here and abroad. Stevens founded AWI in 1951 to end the cruel treatment of animals in experimental laboratories. Inevitably, her work expanded to take on other animal welfare causes, including protecting vulnerable species, reforming methods used to raise animals for food, banning steel-jaw leghold traps, ending commercial whaling, and much more.
“The winners are compassionate scientists, managers and advocates who embody the legacy of Christine Stevens,” said Cathy Liss, president of AWI. “From enlisting drones to monitor the population of a threatened rattlesnake, to using digital acoustic tags to examine close encounters between boats and Florida manatees, these pathbreaking research projects demonstrate less intrusive methods to study wildlife and offer humane solutions to human-wildlife conflicts.”
Get more information about the Christine Stevens Wildlife Award.
