Jorge Ahumada, Ph.D.

Senior Wildlife Conservation Scientist, Moore Center for Science

Location
U.S. (Arlington)
Languages
English, Spanish
Jorge Ahumada, Ph.D.
Senior Wildlife Conservation Scientist, Moore Center for Science
​​​Dr. Jorge ​A. ​Ahumada​'s work with Conservation International ​features the use of camera traps ​and the ​Wildlife Picture Index​ ​​to monitor vertebrates.​ He is ​interest​ed​​ in applying mathematical models to solve applied conservation problems ​through projects that vary from studying the impacts of climate change on disease and biodiversity to incorporating the effects of temperature and rainfall on models of disease-transmitting carriers.

​​​​​​​​Jorge is the Senior Wildlife Conservation Scientist with Conservation International's Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science. A native of Colombia and an ecologist by training, Jorge worked as an Associate Professor at Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, where he founded a research lab on population and community ecology of cloud forests before joining Conservation International​. In 2000, he came back to the US to work on applied projects, including models of malaria transmission in Hawaiian birds and tropical tree dynamics. Jorge has extensive field, quantitative and theoretical expertise in ecology and conservation, and he is interested in the​ application of quantitative methods to measure and manage natural capital.

Previously at Conservation International he has championed the use of camera traps and the ​​Wildlife Picture Index as tools to monitor protected area effectiveness and ecosystem health as the Executive Director of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network.

​Jorge obtained his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1996. He likes the outdoors, cooking, savoring good wine and is a frequent salsa dancer.

Selected scientific papers

  • Ahumada, J. A., J. Hurtado, and D. Lizcano. 2013. Monitoring the Status and Trends of Tropical Forest Terrestrial Vertebrate Communities from Camera Trap Data: A Tool for Conservation. PLoS ONE 8(9):e73707.
  • Ahumada, J. A., C. E. F. Silva, K. Gajapersad, C. Hallam, J. Hurtado, E. Martin, A. McWilliam, B. Mugerwa, T. O’Brien, F. Rovero, D. Sheil, W. R. Spironello, N. Winarni, and S. J. Andelman. 2011. Community structure and diversity of tropical forest mammals: data from a global camera trap network. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366(1578): 2703-2711.
  • Fegraus, E. H., K. Lin, J. A. Ahumada, C. Baru, S. Chandra, and C. Youn. 2011. Data acquisition and management software for camera trap data: A case study from the TEAM Network. Ecological Informatics 6:345-353.
  • Ahumada, J.A., Samuel, M.D., Duffy, D.C., Dobson, A.P., Hobbelen, P.H. 2009. Modeling the epidemiology of avian malaria and pox. In: Conservation Biology of Hawaiian Forest Birds. Pratt, T.K., Atkinson, C.T., Banko, P.C., Jacobi, J.D., Woodworth, B.L. (eds.). Yale University Press. 688 p.
  • DeFries, R., Rovero, F., Wright, P., Ahumada, J.,Andelman, S., Brandon, K., Dempewolf, J., Hansen, A., Hewson, J. and Liu, J. 2009. From plot to landscape scale: linking tropical biodiversity measurements across spatial scales. Front Ecol Environ 2009; doi: 10.189/080104.

​​​​​​​​Jorge is the Senior Wildlife Conservation Scientist with Conservation International's Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science. A native of Colombia and an ecologist by training, Jorge worked as an Associate Professor at Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, where he founded a research lab on population and community ecology of cloud forests before joining Conservation International​. In 2000, he came back to the US to work on applied projects, including models of malaria transmission in Hawaiian birds and tropical tree dynamics. Jorge has extensive field, quantitative and theoretical expertise in ecology and conservation, and he is interested in the​ application of quantitative methods to measure and manage natural capital.

Previously at Conservation International he has championed the use of camera traps and the ​​Wildlife Picture Index as tools to monitor protected area effectiveness and ecosystem health as the Executive Director of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network.

​Jorge obtained his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1996. He likes the outdoors, cooking, savoring good wine and is a frequent salsa dancer.

Selected scientific papers

  • Ahumada, J. A., J. Hurtado, and D. Lizcano. 2013. Monitoring the Status and Trends of Tropical Forest Terrestrial Vertebrate Communities from Camera Trap Data: A Tool for Conservation. PLoS ONE 8(9):e73707.
  • Ahumada, J. A., C. E. F. Silva, K. Gajapersad, C. Hallam, J. Hurtado, E. Martin, A. McWilliam, B. Mugerwa, T. O’Brien, F. Rovero, D. Sheil, W. R. Spironello, N. Winarni, and S. J. Andelman. 2011. Community structure and diversity of tropical forest mammals: data from a global camera trap network. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366(1578): 2703-2711.
  • Fegraus, E. H., K. Lin, J. A. Ahumada, C. Baru, S. Chandra, and C. Youn. 2011. Data acquisition and management software for camera trap data: A case study from the TEAM Network. Ecological Informatics 6:345-353.
  • Ahumada, J.A., Samuel, M.D., Duffy, D.C., Dobson, A.P., Hobbelen, P.H. 2009. Modeling the epidemiology of avian malaria and pox. In: Conservation Biology of Hawaiian Forest Birds. Pratt, T.K., Atkinson, C.T., Banko, P.C., Jacobi, J.D., Woodworth, B.L. (eds.). Yale University Press. 688 p.
  • DeFries, R., Rovero, F., Wright, P., Ahumada, J.,Andelman, S., Brandon, K., Dempewolf, J., Hansen, A., Hewson, J. and Liu, J. 2009. From plot to landscape scale: linking tropical biodiversity measurements across spatial scales. Front Ecol Environ 2009; doi: 10.189/080104.
Talk to Me About
Biodiversity, Biodiversity Management in Protected Areas, Biodiversity Science, Biodiversity Surveys, Birds, Carbon and Climate Monitoring, Conservation Science, Disease Ecology, Ecology, Evaluation, Forests, Mammals, Metrics and Monitoring, Model Building, Monitoring & Evaluation, Primates, Protected Areas, Tropical Conservation, Vector Biology
Location
U.S. (Arlington)
Languages
English, Spanish