Capacity building and research training by RSI and Smithsonian Conservation Commons

In 2017 – 2018, six RSI members from Venezuela will visit the Smithsonian for weeks to months for training and collaborative research at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), National Zoological Park (NZP) and National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). Jhonathan Miranda, RSI’s field research leader, will be conducting work in bioacoustics, monitoring and behavior; Leonel Ovalle, PZBB Veterinarian, will be working on a Spanish manual of ex situ management; Elida Emperatriz Gamero Garcia, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), will be conducting molecular genetic labwork on the Red Siskin and the Critically Endangered Margarita Capuchin; Ada Sanchez-Mercado, an IVIC-Provita researcher, will be working on wildlife trafficking; José Rafael Ferrer-Paris, an IVIC-Provita researcher, will be focused on the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems and dry forest functional decline; and Ariel Espinosa-Blanco, an IVIC PhD student, will be working on endangered Orinoco Crocodile conservation genetics (under the RSI umbrella).