Your Leaders
Manuel Balcázar-Lara, PhD (University of Florida), MSc (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM), BSc (Michoacán University, UMSNH)
Manuel hails from Morelia, Michoacan. From a young age he
exhibited a profound interest in natural history and central Mexico provided a
diverse set of environments and animals to observe. He always wanted to know the
names of the animals that he observed during the countless trips and camping
activities he undertook with his family. Insects, birds, and reptiles, being his
favorites. Later on, he fell in love with the dry tropical forests of the Balsas
River basin and the Pacific slope of Mexico, with their amazing endemic fauna.
Because of these interests, he decided to study for a BSc at the Universidad
Michoacana (the first university of the
Americas), and then continued with a MSc
at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He then went on to complete his
doctorate at the University of Florida. His research is focused on the
biodiversity and systematics of Lepidoptera, which has lead him to visit major
museums in both the US and Europe. He has field experience in USA, Brazil, Costa
Rica, and of course Mexico. As a professional biologist, Manuel is at present
studying several families of moths at a National and World level, especially the
endemic fauna of western Mexico.
Andrew M. Burton, PhD (James Cook University of North Queensland, Aust.), BSc Hons (I) (University of Canterbury, NZ)
Andrew
hails originally from New Zealand where he was fortunate enough to spend six
months on the Takehe conservation program of the New Zealand Wildlife Service
(now Department of Conservation) in the mountains of Fiordland. He also worked
for the New Zealand Forest Service on a survey of forest birds near Okarito,
West Coast of the South Island. After completing a Batchelor of Science with
First Class Honours in Zoology at the University of Canterbury, he went on to
complete a doctorate in Zoology at James Cook University of North Queensland.
His research thesis involved establishing resource partitioning between the two
sympatric Australian goshawks, the Grey Goshawk (Accipiter novaehollandiae)
and the Brown Goshawk (Accipiter fasciatus) in the wet tropics of far
north Queensland. In northern Australia, Andrew was fortunate to observe
Cassowaries, Tree Kangaroos, Palm Cockatoos, Rufous Owls, Sooty Owls and Grass
Owls, and in the interior, breeding Letterwing Kites and Black Falcons. He also
participated in the monitoring of Saltwater Crocodiles in the remote Cape York
Peninsula. From Australia, Andrew travelled to Mexico where he established a
non-profit conservation organisation and undertook field surveys to establish
the status of neotropical forest eagles in southeastern Mexico, and, completed a
study of the Mountain Lions and Bobcats inhabiting the Colima Volcanoes in
western Mexico. He then undertook an academic position at Sultan Qaboos
University in the Sultanate of Oman and
participated in the Arabian Leopard
Survey in the mountains of Dhofar in southeastern Oman. Being close to India
enabled several trips to the subcontinent in search of the Indian Leopard in the
mountains and deserts of majestic Rajasthan. Currently Andrew runs a research
program on the African Leopard near to Lake Natron, northern Tanzania, and aims
to begin fieldwork on the endangered Jaguar in the Sierra Madre Mountains of
western Mexico.