Doctoral Student
Sónia de Jesus Fontes is a Portuguese veterinarian with a particular interest in the field of wildlife conservation. As a young student, she did volunteer work at the Rehabilitation and Release Wildlife Center (LxCRAS), in Lisbon. Sónia went on to obtain her Master degree at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, working on the reproductive management of captive elephants. For the past years, she has been committed to investigating possible hereditary and environmental factors involved in a viral disease, responsible for the death of many Asian elephant calves, both in zoological institutions and in the wild. At the moment, she is finishing her doctoral studies at Leibniz-IZW on the epidemiology and coagulation status impact in the Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus haemorrhagic disease (EEHV-HD) in Asian elephants.
She looks forward to continuing working and helping to improve wildlife conservation in her future.