Our team is happy to announce a new way to assist our WRMD users. Our new Feature Help Scout is now live!
Help Scout is a new management software that allows our support staff to better manage WRMD’s knowledge base and help resources. Not only will it allow our users to ask us questions more efficiently by using the new beacon on every screen, but it will also make it far easier for you to seek the answers you need from our vast library of tutorials and articles. We hope this will provide a more dynamic support system, to help our users navigate through the intricacies of using WRMD. These tutorials and articles are a great place to start if you are just starting out with WRMD, need to train new staff, or just want to deep dive into some of the more advanced features. We are very excited to launch this new feature and we believe that Help Scout will not only make our turnaround time on questions faster, but also help educate our WRMD users to use WRMD in an even better way!
Please know that the WRMD team is always here to help you and to provide the personal attention that you have come to expect while using WRMD.
Help Scout is live and ready to be used so please visit to try it out and drop us a line!
We recently came across a fun little relic from the past and wanted to share it with all of our wonderful supporters. This is a screenshot of our very first kickstarter campaign from ten years ago this month!
This original campaign had 94 supporters that helped us raise $6,726!
When we started we never imagined that The Wild Neighbors Database Project would have grown as much as it has. We are so grateful to all of our supporters that help us to do what we do and we hope that we have made a difference in your wildlife rehabilitation work. We would love to hear what WRMD has meant to you over the years, please share your stories with us by clicking here or commenting below! Thank you so much again for all of your support along the way and for helping us to reach the exciting precipice which we are now on. Click here to read the original post, including a throwback video featuring our co-founders, Devin Dombrowski and Rachel Avilla!
Photo from original Kickstarter campaign in April 2013. Features Devin Dombrowski and Rachel Avilla
The Wild Neighbors Database Project is looking to contract with an experienced data scientist engineer who wants an opportunity to work on a unique and meaningful application. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in AI/ML, data science, and natural language processing, as well as a passion for wildlife conservation.
The Wild Neighbors Database Project is a a fully remote US based 501(c)3 non-profit organization which promotes international wildlife rehabilitation by developing online data management software and helping implement its use worldwide to gather and exchange wildlife data. We are a small team of dedicated individuals intent on supporting and improving the lives of wildlife everywhere. It is a tough job but we are equal to the task.
What You Will be Doing
You will be working with our lead developer architecting and developing a near real-time wildlife morbidity and mortality event alert system. This system (1) uses multi-classification ML models to tag wildlife cases with standardized terminology; (2) calculates thresholds set by time-series analyses for species X classification combinations and (3) searches wildlife cases for anomalies compared to established thresholds. This is an opportunity to work on applications that solve real-world challenges faced by wildlife health professionals and contribute to wildlife conservation.
What Is The Ideal Candidate Like?
Lives in the United States.
You should be detail-oriented, thorough, and obsessed with pixel-perfect design.
You should be able to anticipate problems and plan ahead for them.
You should be self-motivated, organized, and able to manage your time wisely.
You should be fluent in English and able to communicate well.
You should have a passion for wildlife conservation, birding or natural sciences.
Must Haves
Required experience with Python, R, or similar programming languages (3 years).
Preferred experience with Tensorflow / Keras and natural language processing models.
Experience with both consuming and designing RESTful APIs.
Familiar with appropriate data storage solutions for the use of the application.
Excellent communication skills, experience interacting with diverse scientific teams.
Principal Responsibilities And Duties
Implement and refine multi-classification machine learning models for wildlife disease applications.
Develop database search algorithms based on a variety of taxonomic, clinical and geospatial variables.
Develop backend API’s for consumption by our user facing applications.
Collaborate with researchers and clinicians (our end users) to understand their needs.
Keep project manager well informed of the status of development efforts.
Write clean structured and well-documented code.
Be a thought leader on the team, advocating best practices in security, testing, accessibility, and maintainability.
Participate in team meetings and presentations.
Benefits
Compensation: $75/hr – $90/hr (depending on experience)
Finer Details
Start date: ~May 2023
Fully remote based role
Contractor 1099 position
Lives in the United States
Salary range: $75/hr – $90/hr depending on your experience
How to Apply
We would love to see some examples of your work, engaging, interactive apps / demos built with the skills required for the job, your github account, your blog (if you have one) and a cover letter with answers to at least the following questions:
Why would you like to work with The Wild Neighbors Database Project?
Can you share at least one piece of work you are really proud of and which falls in line with the job specifications.
Can you give us a brief description about your background, how do you work, what motivates you and how do you manage to work remotely?
Please send all of the above in one email to [email protected]. We promise to personally respond to every single application that at least has the word “dog” mentioned in the cover letter. We will be accepting submissions until April 31, 2023.
The Wild Neighbors Database Project is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are open to all backgrounds and never discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Thanks to our generous supporters, the Wild Neighbors Database Project team is growing! We have recently hired two new part-time team members. Misty Libby will serve as the new Customer Service Associate and Brittany Mead will serve as Development and Communications Coordinator. We are thrilled to introduce them and share a bit of their background.
Misty Libby – Customer Service Associate
Misty brings over 12 years of experience as a conservation practitioner in New England, Alaska, and Hawaii. She has worked as a field biologist and as a vet tech in emergency medicine treating both wild and domestic animals.
Misty has been active in the search and rescue community, Iditarod community and the wildlife rehabilitation community. Her professional interests include wildlife diseases, conservation canines, and ornithology. Misty received her Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Science with a concentration in environmental studies from the University of Alaska Anchorage and her Veterinary Technology degree from Becker College. Misty has an International Master’s in Business Administration, and a Master’s in project management.
Misty will be responding to user’s help requests while also maintaining the system’s taxa database and assisting with project management. Misty lives in Waimanalo, Hawaii and enjoys the beach, pickleball, and looks forward to assisting the community with the Wild Neighbors Database Project.
Brittany Mead – Development and Communications Coordinator
Brittany comes to WNDP with over eight years of development and fundraising experience. Her tenure at the Houston Zoo included raising funds for wildlife saving conservation programs across the globe. Brittany has always had a passion for wildlife, and graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences. After spending time as a zookeeper, Brittany found her career passion in connecting donors to causes they care about.
Brittany serves on the board of directors for the Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary and is the national event coordinator for the American Association of Zookeepers Bowling for Rhinos committee. Brittany lives in Houston with her husband, toddler son, and two large rescue dogs. She is thrilled to help people find ways that they can connect with and support the Wild Neighbors Database Project.
Brittany will be directing WNDP’s fundraising and communications as we look ahead to exciting projects on the horizon. Please join us in welcoming Misty and Brittany to the WNDP team!
2022 Board of Directors – Rachel Avilla, Devin Dombrowski, Marie Travers, Doris Duncan and not in photo, Sonia Lunacek
It is difficult to find the words to express the awe and love we have for our wonderful community. When Devin and I started this little project just over 10 years ago, we really had no idea where it would take us. The people we have met, the organizations we have visited and the partnerships we have created are precious to us. With over 1,200 accounts and 2,734,486 patients, we are truly blown away by how much this community has grown.
The Wild Neighbors Database Project has reached a critical turning point as a non-profit organization. We are growing fast to help support the needs of our users. In 2023 we will be hiring three new part-time people to help support The Wild Neighbors Database project and WRMD users; a software engineer, a development and communication coordinator and a customer support and data specialist. These additions will increase our overhead significantly which is why we are reaching out to our community for support.
We are eternally grateful to all of you who have already donated to this year’s campaign. Thank you, thank you, thank you and virtual hugs all around! While we understand that some do not have the resources to make a large donation we humbly remind you that every little bit counts: $5 or $10 is a wonderful contribution if that is what you can afford.
Your donation will help support several amazing projects we have lined up for 2023. We have been working hard on WRMD 4.0, which will incorporate many of the features that people have been wishing for over the past few years. We are updating OWRMD (O for Oiled) for The Oiled Wildlife Care Network at UC Davis, and we are releasing The Oil Spill Extension, which will be available to any account for a fee. We are also diving into the world of marine mammals and sea turtles so that WRMD includes the necessary fields and reports for NOAA species. We are continuing to develop and expand our WildAlert System (previously known as Wildlife Morbidity and Mortality Event Alert System) which uses aggregate data from participating WRMD accounts to identify potential wildlife health events in near real time. As you can see, we’re having a massive growth spurt!
On top of all of that, we will be speaking at the FWRA (Florida Wildlife Rehabilitators Associations) symposium and the NWRA (National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association) symposium and will have a booth at the NWRA symposium. Please come find us and say hi if you’re also there, we would love to meet you!
Again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all of your support over the last ten years, and for your continued support helping WRMD become even more awesome. We appreciate and love you all. We hope 2023 is a year of growth and positivity for all!
The Wild Neighbors Database Project is looking to contract with an experienced full-stack Laravel/Vuejs developer who wants an opportunity to work on a unique and meaningful application. The Wild Neighbors Database Project is a a fully remote US based 501(c)3 non-profit organization which promotes international wildlife rehabilitation by developing online data management software and helping implement its use worldwide to gather and exchange wildlife data. We are a small team of dedicated individuals intent on supporting and improving the lives of wildlife everywhere. It is a tough job but we are equal to the task.
What You Will be Doing
You will be working with our lead developer architecting and planning features at all stages of a project lifecycle, and have the opportunity to recommend and build new features. This position will give you the opportunity to work on applications that solve specific real-world challenges facing wildlife professions.
What Is The Ideal Candidate Like?
You should be detail-oriented, thorough, and obsessed with pixel-perfect design.
You should be able to anticipate problems and plan ahead for them.
You should be self-motivated, organized, and able to manage your time wisely.
You should be fluent in English and able to communicate well.
You should have a passion for wildlife conservation, birding or natural sciences.
Must Haves
Required experience with the following technologies: PHP (5 years), Laravel (3 years), MySQL (3 years).
Proficiency with the Vue.js ecosystem using Inertia.js
Proficiency with Tailwind CSS
Good understanding of HTML5 and CSS3
Experience with both consuming and designing RESTful APIs is a plus
Understanding of domain driven design
Experience with responsive and adaptive design
Understanding of key design principles
Excellent verbal communication skills
Good interpersonal skills
Principal Responsibilities And Duties
Work closely with co-developers to implement designs from wireframes / mockups into HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Keep project manager well informed of the status of development efforts.
Write clean structured and well-documented code.
Be a thought leader on the team, advocating best practices in security, testing, accessibility, and maintainability.
Work with management to develop strategy and multi-year technology roadmaps.
Benefits
Compensation: $75/hr – $90/hr (depending on your experience)
Finer Details
Start date: January/February 2023
Fully remote based role
Contractor 1099 position
Based in North America
Salary range: $75/hr – $90/hr depending on your experience and could also be agreed on in your local currency
How to Apply
We would love to see some examples of your work, engaging, interactive apps / demos built with the skills required for the job, your github account, your blog (if you have one) and a cover letter with answers to at least the following questions:
Why would you like to work with The Wild Neighbors Database Project?
Can you share at least one piece of work you are really proud of and which falls in line with the job specifications.
Can you give us a brief description about your background, how do you work, what motivates you and how do you manage to work remotely?
Please send all of the above in one email to [email protected]. We promise to personally respond to every single application that at least has the word “cat” mentioned in the cover letter. We will be accepting submissions until Jan 31, 2023.
The Wild Neighbors Database Project is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are open to all backgrounds and never discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Under the Content Backups section we removed the line: “You agree to maintain a complete and accurate copy of any Content in a location independent of the Service.” This line was left over from an older version of WRMD and is no longer needed. We maintain daily backups of the data in WRMD in addition to a revision history log of changes to the data.
Under the Termination section we removed the line: “We may terminate or suspend Your Account immediately, without prior notice or liability, for any reason whatsoever, including without limitation if You breach these Terms and Conditions.” and added language how an apparent breach of the Service will be handled.
Changes to Privacy Policy
Under the Analytics section we have removed all language regarding the use of Google Analytics. On 13th January 2022, the Austrian Data Protection Authority ruled that Google Analytics is illegal and violates GDPR; therefore we are discontinuing using that service. As a replacement we will be using Fathom Analytics, a privacy first, GDPR, CCPA, ePrivacy, PECR (and more) compliant analytics service.
These changes are effective from Dec 15 2022, and your continued use of Wildlife Rehabilitation MD will confirm your agreement to these terms – you don’t need to do anything else.
If you have any questions or need our help, you can contact our Support team. We’d love to hear from you!
We are excited to announce matching donation funds of $10,000!
A few weeks ago an amazing and generous donor offered us a $10,000 matching gift and WE NEED YOUR HELP getting it!
In 2022, WRMD was used in 28 countries by over 1,100 organizations. As of this writing 2,686,600 million patient records have been entered into WRMD worldwide! Today we are reaching out to you for your support.
We are humbled, and in awe, of the growth of this database that began as a passion project by two wildlife rehabilitators in 2012. As we reflect on all the good that WRMD has enabled to wildlife and rehabilitators, over the last 10 years, we give thanks to the generous donors who have made it possible for us to continue to operate this database.
Just this year, our donors have made it possible for us to begin work on WRMD 4.0, which will include some very exciting changes and updates such as daily tasks, forum groups, custom reports, multi-lingual support and so much more.
That’s right! We are working on a complete upgrade to WRMD that will encompass so many of the ideas that our users have asked for that until now we couldn’t do. Over the next year you will learn all about what we’ve been up to. An investment in WRMD 4.0 is an investment for the good of wildlife and rehabilitators worldwide. When 4.0 launches in late 2023 we will be able to deliver the world’s most advanced and inclusive database, designed specifically for the world’s wildlife rehabilitators.
With gratitude, we boldly and sincerely ask for yourhelp reaching our goal of $20,000. Please support us in the way you can to allow for more success stories in 2023!
On Saturday March 11 at midnight PST (March 11 at 8:00am GMT) we will be performing maintenance on the servers that Wildlife Rehabilitation MD (WRMD) is hosted on. This maintenance is being performed to help resolve an issue with users being randomly logged out of their account.
Users should avoid using Wildlife Rehabilitation MD(WRMD) between Saturday March 11 at midnight and 12:30 am PST or you may experience unexpected behavior from the site.
If you have any questions, please contact our support team. [email protected]
We need your help to improve, build and update the Wildlife Morbidity and Mortality Event Alert System (WMMEAS). In case you are not aware, the WMMEAS is a surveillance platform we are developing to track wildlife diseases using data from wildlife rehabilitators and wildlife veterinarians. We’ve set a modest goal of $3,000. Funds raised through this campaign will be used to develop a more sophisticated anomaly detection algorithm that will allow for higher accuracy in detection and to provide open access to the system’s online dashboard where users can query and visualize trends in wildlife morbidity and mortality events and sign up to receive alerts to wildlife health anomalies.
