Mammals of Middle and South America: History, Biogeography, Conservation

Author Biography

Mario Melletti (BSc, MSc, PhD) is an Italian freelance wildlife biologist and member of the Wild Pig Specialist Group, Deer Specialist Group and African Buffalo Initiative Group, all part of the IUCN. During his PhD studies he worked at the Department of Animal and Human Biology of the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy and at the Department of Conservation Biology of the Estación Biólogica de Doñana (CSIC-EBD) Sevilla, Spain. For about two and a half years, he has been studying the ecology and behavior of the forest buffalo and lowland gorilla in the Central African Republic. Mario has conducted research on several other large mammals and has participated in several projects and surveys on African mammals. Since 2010, he he published a series of books on the conservation and management of large mammals with Cambridge University Press as well as several books on Ecology, Conservation and Management with Springer Nature. He is the author of about 70 scientific publications and book chapters. Sonia Gallina-Tessaro is a co-founder of the Instituto de Ecología, A.C., located in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, where she has been a researcher for more than 47 years, with degrees from the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. She is currently a full researcher. Since the beginning, she has been dedicated to the generation of knowledge about wildlife, with long-term studies focused on the communities of medium-sized mammals and especially on the ecology and behavior of deer, with the aim of their conservation. Most of her research has been conducted in various protected areas in Mexico. She is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the National System of Researchers, as well as coordinator of the North American Region of the IUCN-SSC-Deer Specialist Group, and a member of the EAGL DE MEXICO expert group on protected areas within the IUCN Green List. As a result of her research, she has published a high number of scientific articles, book chapters and books. Jorge Ortega is a Professor at the Departamento de Zoología, Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City. Holding a Ph.D. in Ecology from the Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, his research interests are in eco-immunogenetics, behavioral ecology, and molecular biology of bats. He is the editor of several books, including 50 Years of Bat Research: Foundations and New Frontiers and Sociality in Bats, both published by Springer Nature. Diego G. Tirira is a Research Professor at the Universidad Yachay Tech, Urcuqui, Imbabura, Ecuador. Since 1990 Diego studied mammals and worked for their conservation. He studied at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), Universidad Internacional de Andalucia and Universidad de Salamanca (Spain), with theses on the ecology of fish-eating bats, Antarctic seals, wildlife trafficking, and primate conservation. He has been invited to speak at several universities and congresses on all continents. He founded and was the first president of the Ecuadorian Association of Mammalogists (2010-2016) and founded several groups of mammal specialists in Ecuador. He is a research associate at the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INABIO), in Ecuador, and at the Museo de Zoologia (QCAZ), at the PUCE. He published several books on mastozoology, scientific papers and popular science articles.