Dr. Samuel Wilkinson

Dr. Sam is a South Texas native. With almost 2 decades of experience in veterinary medicine and working with over 100 ranches across Texas he has extensive experience as a professional and has grown up around it all of his life. He is experienced in working with large exotic wildlife in both Africa and Texas having safely captured and treated thousands of animals in his career. He is also very experienced working with the most common domestic animals: horses, cattle, dogs, cats, sheep, and goats. 

Dr. Sam was the USA veterinarian for a multinational (USA - Namibia - RSA) conservation project that successfully performed that largest Rhino translocation in history. He participated in the safe capture of White Rhinos in Namibia as well as their translocation of from Namibia to Texas and continues to manage the herd in Texas.

One of his passions is innovation in veterinary medicine. He works to create, modify, and improve treatments, capture protocols, and translocation techniques for native and exotic wildlife.

He has worked with more than 35 veterinary clinics from New Jersey to Vancouver, WA and all the way down to the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. During that time, he worked with the largest and smallest of clinics learning how to address the unique needs of each.

His special interests include wildlife/exotic hoof stock medicine, conservation medicine, dermatology, internal medicine, and working with Rhinoceros. Immobilizing, working with, and treating all sorts of large hoof stock is one of his favorite types of practice. Dr. Sam is one of the handfull of veterinarians that is skilled and licensed to handle the ultra potent opiates (Thianil and Etorphine) necessary to capture, handle, and immobilize many megavertibrates such as giraffe, rhinoceros, and elephants.

Dr. Sam is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, member of the Texas Veterinary Medical Association, lifetime member of the Exotic Wildlife Association, is a USDA Accredited Veterinarian, and holds a DEA license with a special endorsement to handle Thianil and Etorphine.

He is a private pilot and enjoys flying all over Texas to help capture, treat, and manage large exotics. He is also a commercial drone pilot and employs the use of a thermal drone to assist with his treatment, captures, and other exotic wildlife medicine. Use of a thermal drone allows for location, capture, tracking, and recovery of exotic wildlife regardless of the time of day.

He loves good ideas, inspiration, ingenuity, honesty, loyalty, and creativity. He looks for ideas and people that inspire him to be a better person. When not practicing medicine, Dr. Sam enjoys spending time with his family and friends, playing guitar, flying, hunting, and riding his motorcycle. Dr. Sam also enjoys traveling and learning languages and different cultures. He is fluent in Italian and is conversational in Spanish.

See a photo collage of his veterinary bio below.