Marking the end of 2020
Since our last blog post, we successfully completed our second season of immuno-contraception (IC)! Thanks to all of you who engaged in citizen science and helped us with locating the elusive does who needed vaccinating – almost all received their booster meaning that between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020, 120 does were successfully vaccinated!
Thanks as well to our many supporters in the community and beyond—our field team answered many questions, and were even cheered on from balconies as they professionally, efficiently, and compassionately handled the does.
On October 31 we completed our fieldwork for this fall and our permit expired. Since then, the UWSS and Oak Bay applied to the Provincial funding program (PUDAC) for 2021 funding in order to continue collecting and analyzing data, to prepare for report writing (also to be published in peer-reviewed journals), and cover the costs of boosting both 2019 and 2020 does in the Fall of 2021.
We are happy to report that the funding was approved, and we look forward to carrying on this important research project. We know there are many communities and municipalities looking forward to accessing the extensive knowledge of urban deer that we have been collecting and seeing immuno-contraception becoming an operational solution.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us at info@uwss.ca