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Unit of study_

WILD4002: Wildlife Health and Welfare

2024 unit information

What do we mean when we talk about wildlife health and welfare? This unit covers the inter-relationship between wildlife health and welfare, people, domestic animals and the environment. Often, human modifications to the environment can impact on wildlife health and welfare, exposing wildlife populations to disease and/or compromising wildlife health and welfare, with resultant declines in populations and potential for local or regional extinctions. Wildlife, however, can also serve as a reservoir for disease that can be of significance for people and domestic animals. This dynamic relationship is often termed "One Health". In this Unit you will learn about wildlife health and welfare within the following framework: 1. What is wildlife health? What is animal welfare and what factors influence welfare for individual species versus factors influencing welfare at the population level? 2. How do we measure health and welfare in wildlife from a theoretical perspective? Can we learn from the "Five Domains" approach which is commonly employed in assessing domestic animal welfare? 3. How do we measure health and welfare from a practical perspective, including sample collection, sample analysis and data analysis? 4. What do these measures mean? 5. Under what circumstances should you act to minimise negative wildlife health and welfare? And 6. What are the ethical considerations and how do they vary in different contexts?

Unit details and rules

Managing faculty or University school:

Life and Environmental Sciences Academic Operations

Code WILD4002
Academic unit Life and Environmental Sciences Academic Operations
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
? 
144 credit points of units including WILD3001
Corequisites:
? 
None
Prohibitions:
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None
Assumed knowledge:
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None

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. Understand the complexities and inter-relationships in wildlife health and welfare, including the difficulties in defining wildlife health and measuring animal welfare at the individual and the population level
  • LO2. Apply and evaluate how we measure both wildlife health and welfare from theoretical and practical perspectives
  • LO3. Evaluate wildlife health and welfare in different contexts including nutritional ecology and physiology, behaviour, preventative medicine, translocation, disease and biosecurity, and be able to mount an evidence-based argument to support your evaluations of health and welfare
  • LO4. Articulate and apply ethical considerations relevant to wildlife in different contexts
  • LO5. Apply stakeholder engagement and management in relation to different to differing views on welfare standards and ethical considerations

Unit availability

This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.

The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.

Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Intensive July 2024
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Intensive July 2021
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Intensive July 2022
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Intensive July 2023
Block mode Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Modes of attendance (MoA)

This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.

Important enrolment information

Departmental permission requirements

If you see the ‘Departmental Permission’ tag below a session, it means you need faculty or school approval to enrol. This may be because it’s an advanced unit, clinical placement, offshore unit, internship or there are limited places available.

You will be prompted to apply for departmental permission when you select this unit in Sydney Student.

Read our information on departmental permission.

Additional advice

This UoS will be co-taught 50:50 by USYD and Taronga. Lectures and pracs will be undertaken at USYD Camperdown and Camden campuses as well at Taronga Zoo Sydney.