In Profile: Giordano's groundbreaking effort to save jaguars in Paraguay
This summer a Texas Tech wildlife science doctoral student will begin a trek out across western Paraguay "" travelling the largely impenetrable land in search of jaguars "" as part of a special project funded by the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The program offers scholarships for graduating seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to study abroad for one academic year.
Texas Tech's Anthony Giordano will investigate the interrelationship of jaguar dispersal, livestock depredation, mortality and sex ratio in and adjacent to Chaco Defensores National Park. Paraguay, which is bordered by Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, has a vast area of almost undisturbed forest and savannah known as the Chaco, where three large national parks totaling more than 3.7 million acres protect jaguars, pumas and ocelots.
Giordano will also evaluate the effectiveness of a network of Chaco protected areas, and a proposed Gran Chaco Biological Corridor in protecting a regional population of jaguars. One of his primary goals is acquiring the data necessary to develop a jaguar conservation strategy for Paraguay. "This is the first time that this jaguar population has been studied from a genetic perspective," he said.
Giordano received his bachelor's degrees in zoology and environmental biology from New York's Long Island University-Southampton College. His master's degree in conservation biology is from the University of Maryland-Frostburg State. He expects to complete his doctorate in wildlife ecology and management from Texas Tech in 2012.
Prior to arriving at Texas Tech, Giordano worked across the globe on a number of wildlife-related
projects as a technician and field assistant, including:
"Sharks and coral reefs in the South Pacific
"Reptiles and raptors in Australia
"Tigers in Thailand and Malaysia
"Bat-plant ecological interactions in French Guiana
"Jaguars in many parts of Latin America
The Fulbright Program, the U.S. government's flagship international exchange program, is designed to increase mutual understanding between Americans and the people of other countries. The program provides participants "" chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential "" with the opportunity to study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. Approximately 1,500 American students and 3,000 international students receive Fulbright scholarships each year.
Written by Norman Martin
CONTACT: Philip Gipson, chairman, Department of Natural Resources Management, Texas Tech University at (806)-742-2841 or philip.gipson@ttu.edu
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