Claudia took this picture of me at Newnans lake, Gainesville (2008).

ABOUT ME

Since August 2006, I have been a PhD student at the Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida. My graduate advisor is Dr. Lyn C. Branch. My dissertation research focuses on the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on nine species of mammalian carnivores of the Ecuadorian Andes (pampas cat, puma, Andean fox, spectacled bear, Neotropical river otter, long-tailed weasel, Colombian weasel, hog-nosed skunk, and mountain coati). For more details about my research check the “current projects” page. I am also enrolled in the Tropical Conservation and Development Program, an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program focused on integrative approaches to conservation and development in tropical regions. I have two graduate fellowships through the Amazon Conservation Leadership Initiative of the University of Florida, and the Amazon Andes Conservation Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

 

In 2001, I completed my MSc degree in Environmental Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Conservation Biology at Ohio University in Athens (Fulbright Scholarship). My graduate advisor was Dr. James Dyer. My thesis “Linking Spatial Data with Population Viability Analysis: reserve network design in the northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon” analyzed the effects of varying levels of connectivity on the long term persistence of five large mammal species of the Amazon. In 1997, I graduated from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador with a degree in Biological Sciences, with thesis work on the ecology and biogeography of the ground beetles (Carabidae) of Ecuador. My undergraduate advisor was Dr. Giovanni Onore. In Ecuador, I have conducted fieldwork on a range of taxa (e.g., plants, insects, small and large mammals)  and systems (e.g., Chocó wet forests, Andean ecosystems, Amazon rainforests).

 

Since 2001, I have been working for the Ecuador Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society. In different capacities, I have been involved in several research and conservation initiatives. During two years, I coordinated a wildlife management project in four Shuar communities in southeastern Ecuador. Project activities included large mammal censuses, hunting interviews to assess which mammal species are most threatened by hunting, working closely with local communities to establish management guidelines, and developing monitoring protocols for local people. During project fieldwork, a community commitment to actively control subsistence hunting activities was formalized.

 

I also coordinated a two-year capacity building program that trained a group of eight interns from two indigenous groups, the Awá from northwestern Ecuador and the Shuar. The training program provided the technical tools needed to promote community-based resource management initiatives (e.g., participatory research techniques, wildlife research techniques, GPS and GIS applications) in the Awá and Shuar territories. Trainees are now involved in conservation activities in their own communities. I have also worked in Yasuní National Park, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, carrying out large mammal censuses, as part of a larger study that is trying to estimate the impact of Waorani and Kichwa subsistence hunters that have access to a local bushmeat market. The project involves the use of standard methods to count and monitor large mammal populations (e.g., diurnal and nocturnal line transect surveys, tracks and signs surveys, and camera trap surveys).