Dr. Daniel Zuñiga

IMPRS Alumni
Veterinarian

Main Focus

PhD thesis

On the ecology and evolution of partial migration: a field study on migrants and residents European blackbirds, with Jesko Partecke, Department of Migration and Immuno-Ecology, MPI for Ornithology Radolfzell

Curriculum Vitae

During my last year of Vet's School, I decided to make a change in the direction of my career from classical veterinary medicine towards wildlife research (animal behavior, behavioral ecology and ecology).  Thus, I did my undergrad thesis studying the effect of biotic noise on the vocal communication of males of Batrachyla taeniata, a frog species that inhabits the southern temperate austral forest in Chile.
In 2010 I moved to Panama and I started a series of internships at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. I worked first collecting data for the Tungara frog project, moved on to work on plant ecology, measuring tree fall gaps on Barro Colorado Island (BCI) and helped in assessing an unusual increased mortality of BCI mammal's. During this time I got involved in the Camera trap project that studied the ocelots population on the the island. Panama was truly a wonderful intensive tropical biology course.

On March 2011, I moved to Germany after receiving a scholarship from DAAD to work for 6 months on a research project under the supervision of Ralph Wanker (University of Hamburg), who worked extensively to understand the vocal communication system of  Spectacled parrotlets (Forpus conspicillatus). I studied the development of contact calls in Juvenile birds.
On May 2012, I moved to Radolfzell and I did my PhD on the Ecology and Evolution of Blackbird Migration under the supervision of Jesko Partecke. On 2016 I transitioned back to Veterinary Medicine and since 2017, I am part of the Vet team at the Institute. 

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