Postgraduate course at the University of Barcelona:
Study and Conservation of African Big Mammals
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Overall Information
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Introduction
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Objectives
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Programme
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Faculty
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Type of course: University Advanced Course, postgraduate study with its own official degree and regulated by the University of Barcelona.
Academic Director: Professor Dr. José Domingo Rodríguez Teijeiro. Coordinator in Barcelona: Àlex Torres Riera. Coordinator in Kenya: Iñaki Abella Gutiérrez. Language: Spanish. Credits: 13 ETCS. Total hours: 325 Attendance: 132 Directed work: 45 Self-employed: 148 Modality: Semi-presential. Start date: 1 June 2019. Dates in Kenya: 26 August to 5 September 2019. End date: 15 October 2019. Registration fee: 2270€ (without administrative fees or flights to Kenya). More information: on the website of the Universitat de Barcelona |
Coordinated by:
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Large mammals represent the dream of every nature lover, and the large mammals of Africa are its quintessence.
In spite of this, due to distance, sometimes more psychic than physical, due to the apparently unattainable nature of dreams or due to the attachment to things at home, the study of large mammals is an area that we tend to abandon very soon in favour of other animal groups that are no less interesting, but more accessible. In this context, East Africa in general and Kenya in particular, represents "Mecca" of every dreamer, professional and/or amateur, but not only as a place to go, but also in the most etymological sense of the expression: of pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime. With this course, in the heart of the wildest Africa, we intend to give a complete view of large mammals, so that they are seen as an object of study and conservation for nature lovers and future professionals and not only as an object of summer enjoyment for tourists eager for adventure. |
General objectives:
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Online seminars:
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José Domingo Rodríguez Teijeiro
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Àlex Torres Riera
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Iñaki Abella Gutiérrez
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Diego Martínez Martínez
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Professor of Zoology at the Department of Animal Biology of the University of Barcelona, Domingo is the academic director of the postgraduate course and is responsible for teaching an online seminar and the course in Kenya.
His work on animal behaviour in different species of birds and mammals focuses on how animals use space, how they orientate themselves and navigate through it, and what their mating systems and social structure are. With a fundamental interest in basic science, some of the species he studies are related to human activities such as hunting and ecotourism, so this basic science has had a clear application in the conservation and management of these species. His field work has led him to master techniques of capture, handling and monitoring of animals in the wild such as live trapping, photographic trapping, keeping animals in captivity, radiotelemetry and censuses. As for birds, the study of a nomadic and steppe species has led Professor Rodríguez-Teijeiro to tour Western Europe and the Atlantic islands in order to study the degree of morphological plasticity in their populations. He is currently directing his steps towards the Asian continent. In relation to mammals, he has studied the behaviour of squirrels, badgers, foxes and wild boars in Catalonia, specifically the use of space and behaviour associated with reproductive and social aspects. In the last 10 years and after carrying out radiotelemetry studies on medium sized jungle mammals, leading to a broadening of the range of offers to ecotourism based on the vision of lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo, he has witnessed in person the last epidemic of Ebola that devastated the northwest of the Republic of Congo with the death of almost 95% of the gorillas that formed the basis of that vision ecotourism. Now his research focuses on knowing in detail what sociobiological aspects are behind the infection of these great apes, how the gorilla population evolves after being devastated by the Ebola virus and how this debacle has affected the African rainforest ecosystem. |
Àlex is the coordinator of the postgraduate course in Barcelona. He will be in charge of the online seminars, giving some and all the logistic aspects of the course and the trip to Kenya. In Kenya he is one of the teachers of the course.
Àlex is a Higher Technician in Environmental Health, with a degree in Environmental Sciences and a Master's in Biodiversity with a mention in Biodiversity Conservation and Advanced Biodiversity from the University of Barcelona (UB), where he carried out the thesis "Incidence of the urbanized environment in the natural history of a mesomammal. The case of the red squirrel (Sciururs vulgaris L.)". He has actively participated in several national congresses on vertebrate fauna presenting various posters and making presentations. Passionate about the fauna since he has evidence; after having made several courses, voluntary and practical in this professional field, he has coordinated the courses of Large Mammals in Kenya for 6 years while he finished his studies and did his research work (publication of notes and articles). He is currently a research support technician at the University of Barcelona (Faculty of Biology) while continuing his collaboration with the Wild Fauna Recovery Centre of Torreferrusa and punctually with the Department of Biodiversity of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In Bio + Àlex he is coordinator of programmes, where he manages the Kenyan, Moroccan and Tarragona courses, carrying out teaching and support work in the field, and giving some theoretical classes. Àlex supports and informs students, before, during and after the courses, about all aspects of logistics and implementation. Àlex is the promoter and creator of the Herpetological Sampling Techniques course, carried out in Morocco, and of the Ribera Fauna Management and Monitoring course, which is carried out in the province of Tarragona, and at Bio+ he is at all times developing new projects and improving existing ones. He is one of the coordinators and teachers of the Postgraduate Course in the Study and Conservation of African Large Mammals at the University of Barcelona in collaboration with Bio+. |
Iñaki is the coordinator of the course in Kenya and teaches part of it, in charge of all logistical aspects in that country, where he has lived since 2010 and from where he directs all Bio+ activities.
With studies in biology, specialising in Zoology and with a Master's Degree in Nature Conservation, he has extensive experience in field work, having developed his career in more than eight countries with very different animals and ecosystems. Iñaki has worked with primates in Bolivia, with sea turtles in Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Mexico, with amphibians in Costa Rica and the Central African Republic, with mammals in Kenya and Spain, with whales and coral reefs in Mexico, with birds in Spain and Costa Rica. From the marine depths of the reefs of the Sea of Cortez to the highlands of the Galapagos Islands; from the Caribbean beaches of Costa Rica and Panama to the mountains of Spain and Bolivia; from the coastal estuaries of northern Spain to the mountain peat bogs of the Sierra de Guadarrma; from the jungles of Congo to the savannas of the Serengeti-Mara. This great diversity of experiences makes him a great connoisseur of the world conservation status and an excellent host in Kenya. In Bio+ he has combined his great passions, nature conservation and environmental education, within the framework of the necessary sustainable development. |
Diego is responsible for the theoretical part of Cybertracker, a tool he uses on a daily basis as a specialist Technician in Wildlife Management, Hunting and Natural Spaces of the Generalitat and will be the teacher of the Cybertracker online seminar.
He is also currently working as a master's tutor at the UAB (Official Master's Degree in Terrestrial Ecology and Biodiversity Management), having tutored other projects at other universities such as the UDL or the UB and other higher education centres (forestry engineering and related). He has been working for 20 years in wildlife management. Currently and for the last 18 years he is a technician in the public company Forestal Catalana de la Generalitat de Cataluña, developing and executing different conservation plans, recovery and monitoring of protected species for the Biodiversity Service. In his career as a manager he has more than 50 scientific publications of different species, highlighting his work with otter, gallipato, different species of turtles, crabs and dragonflies. He works in continuous training in the technical preparation of the personnel of the Generalitat as well as for the ICHN (Catalan Institution of Natural History). She previously worked as a wildlife technician for the CSIC and the Generalitat Valenciana before joining the Biodiversity Service of the Generalitat de Catalunya. |