Research lines

Our research has broken a paradigm. We've shifted from considering parrots exclusively as destroyers of the plants they feed on to performing important functions such as seed dispersal, food wasting, and pollination, placing parrot-plant relationships on an antagonistic-mutualistic continuum.

Focusing on trade as one of the main threats, we have shown that domestic trade is much more worrying than previously thought, and that poaching is selectively targeting the species most valued as pets in the Neotropics.

We study the responses of parrots to the loss and degradation of their habitats, how habitats condition their distributions, and how they adapt to living in such anthropogenic environments as urban ones.

We also study less recognized threats, such as the persecution of parrots due to their damage to agriculture, the loss of nesting sites due to invasive bees, or deaths by electrocution.

We study the relationships between introduced parakeet populations and their host environments, investigating their population dynamics, impacts, and integration into existing food webs.

We also study the reproductive biology, sex and age ratios, and population dynamics of some parrot species.

Using molecular tools, we study both the population genetics of threatened macaw species and the processes of introduction and invasion of non-native parakeets.

We study aspects such as the physiology of stress or the presence and transmission of diseases in parrots.

We have developed methodologies for censusing parrots in the wild, also integrating citizen science, and for determining the numbers of poached parrots and selective poaching, as well as a simple and alternative method for molecular sexing of individuals.