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I am a biologist graduated at the Universidad
Central de Venezuela. My research interests include natural
history, ethology, and conservation. I have been working
for several years studying the behavioral ecology and conservation of large
tropical reptiles of the llanos of Venezuela (my
homeland). Most of my experience has been with green
iguanas and green anacondas, but I have also
worked with other reptiles such as the Orinoco crocodile,
spectacled caiman, and green sea turtles. My current research is with
anacondas; it was the topic of my dissertation
at the University of Tennessee and is the topic of the book I am working on to
come out next year. I obtained my Ph.D. at the Laboratory of Reptile Ethology under the direction of Dr. Gordon Burghardt
After
graduation I taught a course of tropical ecology for 
huge audience with the conservation message. I
do have a strong teaching vocation and often I am torn between the
possibilities of teaching in a regular school where I would have the
opportunity to teach in depth a small group of students or of doing films in
which I can reach a huge audience albeit in a much more superficial
manner. I worked as at Somerset Community College for four years and I
recently took a position at New Mexico Highlands
University where I run the NMHU
Ecology Lab and continue my research and teaching. We do have a Master program and NMHU. Students interested in working with me can
contact me with a letter of interest. I am planning to teach a comprehensive
program of Tropical
Ecology Program that I have developed from 
my work with Boston University, the Organization for
Tropical Studies, and the School for International Training.
Before
getting into the career of biology I worked as a fireman
for seven years at the Cuerpo de Bomberos
Universitarios de Caracas. During this time I worked not only on emergency
calls of all natures (Emergency Medicine, Save and Rescue, and Building and
Forest fires being the most common) but also in education and instructing the
community in dealing with emergencies.
Since the people from the community are the first ones to react to any
emergency, we did substantial work in educating the community in effective
emergency procedures. The last year of
my service in the fire department I was the Commander Chief of the
station. Then I was faced with a fireman
carrier which would had demanded that I lived in a large city or finish my
degree in biology and work with wildlife and nature. It was a tough decision since my heart was
equally split in both directions.
However, I considered that there would be always people willing to help
and protect people, while the same cannot be said for the environment. I resigned to my fireman carrier and went to
the llanos to work with wildlife.
My experience as a
fireman taught me things about conservation that I would have never
learned in an academic setting. It put
me in contact with the harsh social reality of the large city and led me further into my interest in nature and the study
of the secret life of animals. It also taught me that the solutions to conservation problems, among other social
issues, cannot be accomplished with shortsighted programs attempting to
attack one or just a few dimensions of the whole problem. I am deeply concerned
about habitat degradation and human activities that affect the well-being of
other animals. I believe that until we
offer real solutions for people that live in rural areas to live in harmony
with nature we will continue to sink in our current environmental crisis. I am
a firm advocate for conservation education at both the early
grades and at the college level.
I
also believe that if we are to succeed in the campaign for habitat conservation
it will not be by using a whole lot more of technology, but by using a little
bit more of common sense. We hear a lot
about research projects that cost half a million dollars to assess the need to
protect a piece of Ecuadorian cloud forest that would cost $100K to buy and
protect in perpetuity. To really address
the issues we need to reach out beyond the boundaries of biology and science
and adventure into the domains of things that most biologists no nothing about. I am talking about economics, political as
well as social issues.
In
my opinion the only way to work effectively in
conservation is by working actively in education of the masses, guiding them to
demand from their elected officials the right measures to protect the
environment. Of course, like any other conservationist, I find it
disheartening that, while a few of us work trying to save a piece of the
planet, there are so many interests trying to destroy it all. Until we
have a war-free world the is not
much we can accomplish in the conservation arena. Unfortunately the nations of the world do not
seem to be heading in that direction for a long shot. There is no path to peace; peace is the path.
I find working in scientific research
fascinating and a source of new challenges every day. However, lately I
am a bit turned off by the emphasis in many scientific trends to have ever
close-minded approaches to understand nature and more and more reduccionistic interpretations. Sometimes some
scientific positions can be so extreme that they are nothing short of religious
fundamentalism, often ignoring our own biases when we
do science. My preferred way to do science is by collecting original data
in the field in wild animals and to look for new trends and new interpretations.
In the long run, I plan on raising
international conservation money to create a nature
reserve in the llanos and other areas across
e-mail to Jesus A.
Rivas
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