S. Hunter Grant
To honor one of the leaders in the animal field and distinguished ABMA president, Sue Hunter, we are pleased to announce a grant in her name.

 
The Sue Hunter Animal Welfare Grant is an annual competitive grant that will provide financial support up to $2,000 addressing the following criteria. The grant should include at least 1 of the following criteria (Note: Documenting and evaluating how the assistance will help your program will be necessary to receive funding for your project):
-A program that needs assistance with purchasing materials for operant conditioning training.
-A program that needs assistance with purchasing materials for animal enrichment needs.
-A program that could use assistance with funds for a conservation project that is effecting a positive change for the conservation of a species.




APPLICATION PROCEDURE AND DEADLINE
Utilize this link Sue Hunter Grant 
for the application.  It will lead you to the submission process where you will download all information needed for the grant approval process into an online document.  The deadline is December 1st of each year.  Should your project receive funding, we will disburse funds as specified in the award letter.  Recipients will be notified by January 2nd of the following year.  The institution receiving the funding will be responsible for ensuring all grant requirements are met, including in the event of staff changes.  If grant requirements are not met, the receiving institution is expected to return funds to the ABMA.

GRANT PERIOD
Grant funds must be spent within 12 months after the grant is awarded, and a final report, including itemized receipts, sent to
suehuntergrant@gmail.com
, is required within two (2) months of the completion of the project.  The final project report will be published in one of our quarterly newsletters for our membership.  The ABMA reserves the right to display and promote this project on their website and other social media pages.  The ABMA will require an update for a midyear report that will be due to the board before the ABMA Midyear meeting (turned in by September 1st) and must be completed for use on theabma.org and the ABMA Facebook page.  The grant reward recipient will receive an invitation to present their final project at an ABMA Annual Conference to show our membership the results of the grant and how it was able to help the animals in their care.  If accepted, the ABMA will offer a reimbursement of $500 for travel, a compensated registration for the conference and pay for half room hotel fee.  The applicant will need to acknowledge the Animal Behavior Management Alliance in its publications, presentation and academic media forums.

GRANT RECIPIENTS
2019- Dr. Tina Cloutier-Barbour from Lion Country Safari: "Back from the Brink: Captive recovery efforts of North America's most endangered bird, the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow". The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow is North America’s most endangered bird. As such, urgent recovery efforts are currently in place to save this iconic species. These efforts intimately involve zoological facilities because such organizations have the staffing, knowledge, dedication, and passion to face down the seemingly overwhelming odds stacked against these diminutive, but resilient, birds. Together, we are diligently working to assist in conservation efforts, including temporary holding and captive breeding. The ultimate goal of these efforts is release back into their natural habitat—the dry prairies of Central Florida. Currently, only an estimated 75 or so Florida Grasshopper Sparrows remain in the wild. At last census, they had been functionally extirpated from huge swaths of their historic territory, due in large part to disease, conversion of their natural habitat to farm land, flood, or predation. The purpose of this grant application is to assist in the construction of appropriate Florida Grasshopper Sparrow housing at Lion Country Safari [LCS], a drive-through animal park located in the southern part of the state. Situated on close to 600 acres, LCS has plenty of suitable space to house these shy animals with the intent to either cycle them into the breeding program or out of it entirely—for eventual release into the wild.  We very much look forward to contributing to the conservation efforts of this highly significant bird.