Our Team
We are a multidisciplinary research group with a shared passion for generating and sharing knowledge that contributes to sustainable management and conservation of crocodylian species
Mauricio González-Jáuregui
Mauricio is passionate about wildlife and conservation. His professional interests involve finding alternatives for sustainable management of wildlife whilst also assessing environmental contamination risks.
Marisol Buenfil-Rojas
Marisol started studying metal pollution and its effects in crocodiles in 2012 and ever since she became very passionate for studies of environmental pollution and reptiles as bioindicators. She also has interest in ecotoxicology, metal exposure, biomarkers of effect, non-invasive and non-destructive monitoring. Currently, she studies the effects of chemical pollutants in wild crocodile populations, together with transcriptomics.
Sérgio Padilla-Paz
Sergio works at CEDESU-UAC and is interested in management of wild crocodile populations and promoting interdisciplinary ecology and education in Mexico.
José António L. Barão-Nóbrega
JALBN has an unexplainable fondness for crocodilians, swamps, and tropical forests. His professional interests involve applying remote sensing tools (GIS), drone technology and citizen science to biodivesity monitoring and wildlife conservation and research.
Alberto Castillo
Alberto was our first undergraduate student and did his undergraduate thesis on evaluating the dietary composition of Morelet's crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii) across multiple locations in the Yucatan Peninsula. Since then he has played a significant role in the majority of our fieldwork expeditions for crocodile research across Southeastern Mexico and has recently started his Master's studies at CEDESU-UAC.
Our students
Joana Batalha
Joana is doing her Master's degree in Marine Biological Resources (at IMBRSea) and for her thesis is evaluating the influence of salinity on habitat preference and spatial distributionof Crocodylus acutus and Crocodylus moreletii (and their hybrids) in the northern Mexican Yucatan Peninsula.
Milton Chimal Parra
Milton has partcipated in many of our fieldwork expeditions for crocodile research in the Yucatan Peninsula. For his undergraduate thesis and is evaluating the populational status of Morelet's crocodiles (Crocodylus moreletii) in La Sabana in Chetumal.
Research collaborations (Mexico)
Marco Lopez-Luna
Marco's main interest is the ecology, management and conservation of Morelet's crocodiles, research of nesting, and studying the effects of incubation temperature in the performance of individuals.
Gabriel Cruz Morales
Gabriel (Chito) has a herpetology background and has dedicated a significant part of his professional career to science communication, which he is passionate about, through not only environmental education and etnobiology projects involving amphibians and reptiles, but also sucessfully pairing science education with son jarocho (a traditional music style from Veracruz).
Be’Tonal Project
Be’ Tonal Project is an initiative promoted by Gualberto Pacheco-Sierra, Luis Díaz-Gamboa and Mónica Pérez and focuses on wildlife conservation through research, science communication and environmental education
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César N. Cedillo-Leal
Cesar is a veterinarian working with conservation and management of Crocodylus moreletii (nesting, heavy metal contamination and human-crocodile interactions) in Tamaulipas.
José Rogelio Cedeño Vázquez
Rogelio works at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chetumal and during his research career he has been involved in multiple projects across several fields of study: 1) Population ecology and genetics; 2) Wildlife conservation and natural history; 3) Ecotoxicology and Wilflife Management. He also curates the Herpetological colection from the Zoology Museum at ECOSUR.
Teresa Alvarez
Teresa works at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) in Chetumal and her line of research involves 1) the evaluation of water and sediment quality in freshwater and coastal environments in the state of Quintana Roo; 2) research on using biochemical, physiological and molecular bioindicators as early detection tools for exposure and effects of contamination inin aquatic organisms
Amelia Paredes Trujillo
Amelia works at EPOMEX-UACAM in Chetumal and her line of research involves 1) environmental assessment and Epidemiology in aquatic systems; 2) Parasite taxonomy; 3) evaluation of antiparasitic treatments in aquatic organisms.
Research collaborations (International)
Frederico M. Barroso
Fred is a PhD student with research interests in crocodilian ecology and conservation, reptile thermalecology and in the R&D (and testing/deployment) of novel, non-invasive methods/tools to study ectotherm physiology and behaviour (e.g. integrated tags/loggers, thermal imaging, etc)
Iwata Hisato
Professor Iwata Hisato works at the Centre for Marine Environmental Studies in Japan. His research interests involve Environmental Risk Assessment, Environmental Analysis and Environmental Contamination, Environmental Toxicology, Conservation of Genomic Resources, Ecotoxicogenomics and Proteomics
Robert Jehle
Robert is a population biologist with an unexplainable fondness for herpetofauna, ponds, and rainforests. His main research interests revolve around the ecology, evolution, behaviour and conservation of herpetofauna at the level of populations.
Miryam Venegas-Anaya
Miryam, also known as Doctora Cocodrilo, is considered a pioneer in the crocodylian reseach in Panama, Central America and the Caribbean. Her main research interests involve molecular biotechnology, and ecology, trophic ecology. biodiversity monitoring and conservation planning.