We are excited to announce that Cara is one of five recipients of the 2023 Biota Awards from the Walder Foundation, a Chicago-based non-profit that is here providing funding for conservation-related research.
Under the funded project, “Harnessing Fruit Bat Conservation to Combat Zoonotic Risk in Madagascar”, Association Ekipa Fanihy is deploying GPS telemetry trackers on Malagasy fruit bats to quantify conncectivity and dispersal, which will be paired with survival data from our longterm field project, to build a metapopulation model of fruit bat conservation status on the island of Madagascar.
In collaboration with the Malagasy conservation NGO, Madagasikara Voakajy (MaVoa), the team will also be piloting some fruit bat habitat restoration interventions, with the aim of improving fruit bat health, reducing virus shedding, and mitigating zoonotic disease risk through conservation.
Watch an inspiring video of Cara describing her work with the Biota Award–and the Ekipa making it happen–here!