Daniel Velarde Garcéz

I am an ecologist interested in wildlife conservation and in intra-population variance of behavior. I started my academic career in primates, working on their populational status in western Ecuador, and in the decision of maternal care. For my master’s thesis I studied the seasonality of intra-populational variation in foraging, and its contribution to the trophic ecology of the population. I try to support my research in well-established theoretical or mathematical models to draw new ecological insights.

My doctoral program aims to detail the diet of invasive mammals in the island of Sao Tome, along with their distribution, and merge the information to estimate the impact of predation on the native community. For this I will use visual and acoustic passive monitoring, and DNA metabarcoding, along a gradient of human disturbance. This is essential to understand the complex and indirect effects on the community structure and dynamics, and to accurately estimate the contribution of predation to the extinction rate in islands relative to other threats (e.g., habitat loss, diseases). Further, it will make substantially easier to design the management of invasive mammals on big and populated islands, where eradication has proven to be challenging.