Donald P. Eaton
Research consultant since 2005 for the WCS Pantanal Project, “Improving Ranching Efficiency to Protect Biodiversity in the Brazilian Pantanal”. Duties include GIS analyses, statistical analyses of monitored biological communities, and surveys of aquatic habitats and communities in relation to cattle impacts and novel ranch management initiatives.
Eaton is a Ph.D. candidate in the Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology program at the University of Nevada, has a Master’s in Zoology from the University of Montana, and a BA in Biology from Saint Olaf College. He is a US citizen who grew up in the mid-west region and emigrated to Brazil in 1993.
His research experience in the US included environmental impact studies of aquatic environments in Montana, West Virginia, and Nevada during the 1980s and early 1990s. In Brazil, Eaton’s research has included an entomological investigation of the cause of an endemic autoimmune skin disease (Endemic Pemphigus Foliaceous), and evaluations of environmental impacts on aquatic environments in the Atlantic Forest and Pantanal wetlands.
Research-related publications have appeared in the Journal of Medical Entomology, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Biotropica, Biological Conservation, Journal of Zoology, and Biodiversity and Conservation. Eaton was a visiting researcher at UNESP – Bauru from 2003 to 2005, at UNIDERP from 2005 to 2007, and assistant director of Earthwatch Institute’s Conservation Research Initiative in the Pantanal from 2000 to 2005. Since 2006, Don coordinates the biodiversity data base and GIS analysis for the WCS Brazil Pantanal Project, “Improving Ranching Efficiency to Protect Biodiversity in the Brazilian Pantanal”.
Research experience: freshwater ecology, conservation biology, and medical entomology; 10 years experience studying tropical streams and freshwater biota in the Atlantic Forest, as well as river and wetland environments in Goiás, and Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil; basic ecological and environmental impact studies in freshwater environments, North America. GIS analysis of aquatic environments in the Pantanal. 3 years as general biology and experimental design teacher at a College in Nevada, USA.
José Virgílio Bernandes Lima
José Virgílio Bernandes Lima, is a veterinarian and animal scientist for the WCS Brasil/Pantanal. He graduated from the Universidade Rural de Rio de Janeiro in 1984, and has been a practicing rural veterinarian for over 20 years.
J. Virgilio is responsible for implementing the ranch management plan (RMP) for our WCS Brazil/Pantanal partner landowners. To prevent further deforestation and the array of related consequences in the Brazilian Pantanal and surrounding plateau, we work with landowners to promote sustainable ranch management practices that are profitable alternatives to deforestation and habitat conversion.
Up to date, Dr. J. Vergilio has implemented management and conservation actions such as:
- Introducing ear-tagging of the herd, using a tracking system for herd monitoring.
- Genetic management of the cattle herd to increase market value.
- Synchronized breeding season for the herd and protection of breeding locations to simplify management and reduce predation.
- Implementing certain management practices that will improve breeding and reproduction, such as not separating or moving the females during calving.
- Improved monitoring and control of livestock and wildlife diseases.
- Adoption of better pasture management practices to maximize the forage value of native grasses.
- Improved health program, sanitary conditions, and housing for ranch staff.
- Conduct local capacity building courses for artificial insemination and best “ecological friendly” cattle management practices.
The RMP helps increase the economic viability of ranches through a variety of environmentally-sound, sustainable, ranch-management techniques that will eliminate economic justifications for deforestation and habitat conversions in the Pantanal.
Maria do Carmo Andrade Santos
Maria do Carmo Andrade Santos is a Botany & Vegetation Ecology Master’s degree student at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS). Her project: The influence of cattle on native “cordilheira” forest dynamics under different cattle management strategies in the Aquidauana and Rio Negro regions of the Pantanal, is a WCS Brasil/Pantanal project investigating the influence of cattle on native “cordilheira” forest dynamics of the Pantanal. The main goal will be to apply the results to cattle management, optimizing the use and sustainability of native pastures and forests in terms of efficiency and profitability for ranches and protection of native flora and fauna.
Preliminary results show that forest understorey communities have been altered by cattle use, and the project will evaluate the levels of disturbance and recovery observed with the implemented management plan by the WCS Brasil/Pantanal project.
With long-term monitoring, we hope to be able to describe successional stages, estimate recovery times of degraded cordilheira forests, and offer management suggestions to ranchers that will help maintain forest biodiversity.
Maria do Carmo earned her Biology degree and worked for numerous projects in the Pantanal, including the Hayacinth Macaw project and Embrapa/Pantanal’s caiman project. She also assisted with a variety of Earthwatch Institute field expedition projects in the Pantanal. Before entering the Master’s Degree program and working with WCS, Maria do Carmo was a science teacher for the past 18 years.
Arnaud L. J. Desbiez
Arnaud L. J. Desbiez is a conservation biologist who has been working in the Brazilian Pantanal since 2002. He has a master’s degree in Natural Resource management from the University of Cranfield, UK and a Ph.D in Biodiversity management from the Durrell Institute of Conservation Ecology, U.K.
Arnaud has worked with natural resource management on topics ranging from hunting to soil management in countries as diverse as Belize, Argentina, Bolivia and Nepal. He is currently the Project Leader of the
Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS).
Pantanal Conservation initiative and works in partnership with Embrapa Pantanal. One of the main focuses of the RZSS Pantanal initiative is the development of a rapid method to evaluate and understand resource use of both domestic and wild herbivores.
RZSS and
EMBRAPA Pantanal are in the process of completing a software based interactive, illustrated key that will identify and characterise the epidermal cells of plant species found in the faecal samples of all plant eating animals.
By understanding the botanical composition of plants consumed by animals, Dr. Deabiez,
Dr. Sandra A. Santos, and their research team, will understand herbivore foraging strategies and their nutritional needs.
RZSS,
Embrapa Pantanal and WCS Brazil will be applying this tool to WCS managed ranches to evaluate conservation land management strategies that are being currently implemented and help with the decision making process.
Project Interns from local Universities
Bárbara Capitão Vigário Marchi (foto in the left), is a Veterinarian student at the Universidade para o Desenvolvimento do Estado e da Região do Pantanal (UNIDERP); Mato Grosso do Sul. She accompanys and works with Dr. J. Vergilio, and plays an important role in processing the data related to the Ranch Mangement Plan (RMP).
Jorge Luis Trelha Papadopulos Flores (right), is a 4th year biology student at the Universidade Católica Dom Bosco-UCDB. Jorge helps gather data on biodiversity monitoring, and white-lipped peccaries.
Francisco “Chico” Leonardo E. Costa (photo on the right), comes from a family of traditional Pantanal landowners in the Pantanal, and has recently graduated from UCDB as a zootechnician. Chico also assists with the RMP led by Dr. J. Vergilio (foto on the left).
Other local collaborating research projects, scientists and institutions
BATS: Dr. Erich A. Fischer, Carol F. Santos, and Fernando Gonçalves (Federal Unviersity of Mato Graosso do Sul – UFMS);
HERPETOLOGY: Ellen Wang (Earthwatch Institute), Jeff Himmelstein (William Paterson University), Dra. Vanda L. Ferreira (UFMS);
NATIVE PASTURE EVALUATION: Dra. Sandra A. Santos (EMBRAPA PANTANAL), Gisaine A. Amador (UFMS);
FOREST DYNAMICS: Dr. Geraldo A. Damasceno Jr. (UFMS) and M. do Carmo Andrade (UFMS);
AQUATIC ECOLOGY: Donald P. Eaton (WCS Brasil).
Contact Us
Wildlife Conservation Society Brazil - WCS Brazil
Rua Jardim Botânico 674/sala 210
Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22461-000 Brazil
Phone/Fax: (+55) (21) 2259-2989
Email: wcsbrasil@wcs.org