Research

My research program has a broad focus and a strong component of natural history, conservation and field work. If you do not know your co-inhabitants, you can hardly appreciate, love and study them. I learned that a good first hand understanding of your subjects and ecosystems and an open mind are critical for developing your research. This requires a continued discovery, update and assessment as nature and human actions are ever changing in space and in time. Challenges such as complex, non-linear interactions and time-delayed responses that occur at different scales are pervasive. My goal is to help understand principles and processes in nature using ecological and evolutionary approaches, from the organismic level up, using as much as possible non-invasive field techniques and help to conserve the biota.

​I have had experience on a multitude of biomes and ecosystems and on multiple taxa, including very applied and descriptive through theoretical research, working at the autoecological, population and community ecology levels as well as developing techniques and assessing human impacts. I have used observational, correlational, experimental and modeling approaches, in the field and in the lab, considering short and long-term scales. The techniques I used included focal sampling, dietary, feces, hair and track examinations, chromatographic, microscopic, genetic and GIS analyses, capture-recapture methods using cage- and Bal-Chatri traps, noose carpets, mist-nets and game cameras, ground and airborne radio-telemetry, geolocators and single-rope climbing.

​I appreciate the funding I have received from a diversity of agencies in the U.S., including the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, Fulbright, World Wide Fund, Sigma-Xi, American Ornithologists Union, American Society of Mammalogists, Society for Conservation Biology, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Parrots International, American Museum of Natural History, Virginia Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Park and Brookfield zoos, University of Florida, Utah State University and University of North Texas. From the UK, I was supported by a Darwin Initiative and the British Council, and from Chile by Chile’s NSF, Chile’s Forest Service, Universidad Católica, U. de Los Lagos, U. de Magallanes, Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and by several private companies and foundations.