Author Nora Nickum On Innovative Wildlife Conservation

Her talk, geared toward older kids/teens through adults, will highlight stories of innovative work being done to protect animals like black-footed ferrets, corals, and sunflower sea stars from disease outbreaks.

How do scientists and vets protect endangered animals from deadly disease outbreaks when the animals can't be brought in from the wild for treatment? They get creative! In Wild Medicine: Inventing Ways to Save Endangered Animals, discover how experts are using everything from peanut butter to darts to hidden cameras in order to treat creatures in deep jungles, high mountains, and even on the bottom of the sea.

Nora's book also explores when and why experts decide to intervene with treatments in the wild, and how readers can get involved and make an impact in the effort to keep these creatures from going extinct. The book is full of color photographs and particularly geared toward a middle-grade audience (8-12).

Nora Nickum leads the Seattle Aquarium's conservation programs and partnerships department and writes books for children and teens about science, wildlife, and conservation topics. In addition to Wild Medicine, she is the author of the middle-grade nonfiction book Superpod: Saving the Endangered Orcas of the Pacific Northwest and several picture books, including Twelve Daring Grays: A Whale Migration Adventure, which features our local Sounders gray whales here in Washington state and was illustrated by Elly MacKay. Nora lives with her family on Bainbridge Island.