Iguanas from Above

We are back! Count marine iguanas from Fernandina – expect to find lots!

The Team

MRes. Andrea Varela

Andrea is an Ecuadorian Biologist with a passion for conservation and herpetology. She is an early-career researcher with experience in the study of amphibians. Andrea joined the marine iguana team on November 2019 and is the PhD student of this project. Andrea has participated in all phases done of the field trips and is in charge of taking the aerial images, counting marine iguanas, and analyzing the data and results.

Dr. Amy MacLeod

Amy is the leader and creator of this project. Whilst undertaking a PhD on the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation of the Marine Iguana, Amy learned first-hand about the challenges of fieldwork in the Galápagos. Now a world-authority on the Marine Iguana, Amy is a member of the IUCN Iguana Specialist Group and continues to advise and publish regularly on the topic of Marine Iguana Conservation. Amy joined and was responsible of phase 3 of the fieldwork.

Dr. Sebastian Steinfartz

Sebastian has decades of experience in research and has worked extensively on the ecology and evolution of the marine iguana. He now heads the department of Molecular Evolution and Systematics of Animals at the University of Leipzig in Germany. Sebastian funds, advises and oversees closely this project.

Dr. Gonzalo Rivas

Gonzalo is an Ecuadorian researcher who specializes in using drones for studies on the Galápagos Islands and in the Amazon region. He is also a full-time professor in the plant Ecology lab at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito. He has trained our team in flying the drones and analyzing the images you available here. He has highly facilitated the link between Ecuador–Germany.

Dr. Juan Manuel Guayasamin

Juan Manuel is a professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. He obtained his Master’s and PhD degrees in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas, USA. He is member of the Ecuadorian Academy of Sciences and has published more than 90 scientific papers on evolution, systematics, biogeography, and conservation of Neotropical animals, mainly amphibians and reptiles. He is a co-author of the book Reptiles of the Galápagos: Life on the Enchanted Islands.

Dr. Andrés Mármol

Andres is an Ecuadorian Biologist who studies how animal form and function are influenced by its habitat through the study of physiology and biomechanics. His research in reptiles and birds has taken him to some of the most remote habitats on Earth, including the Arctic tundra and the Amazon tropical forest. He has joined the Iguanas from Above project as a drone pilot assistant in January of 2021 and has been in three field seasons since then. He also helps our project with data analysis.

Dr. Diego Páez-Rosas

Diego is a professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. He is interested in the ecology of marine organisms and in the interface between trophic capacity and environmental variability. He tries to combine laboratory and fieldwork methods to address specific questions. Recently, this has taken the form of tracking the foraging ecology of Galapagos marine predators and trying to relate their diet composition, home range and trophic flexibility to their foraging success and energy budgets. These research also have ramifications in population dynamics, health status, and resource management.