Alcides Morales - 2009 Josephine Daneman Herz International Seabird Fellow

Alcides L. Morales Pérez received his Bachelor's Degree in Crop and Agro Environmental Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez Campus. He has also taken courses on biodiversity assessment and monitoring for adaptive management from the Smithsonian Institution, and participated in workshops for the conservation of wetlands and the West Indian Whistling Duck. For the past ten years he has been involved with bird and plant conservation projects in Puerto Rico. His first contribution was in high school, when he started conducting White-tailed Tropicbird censuses on the north cliffs of the town of Quebradillas. He then joined the Puerto Rican Ornithological Society and has taken the leadership of doing bird censuses on different parts of the island while monitoring and identifying important bird areas. Since 2007, he has conducted marsh bird and waterfowl censuses in the Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge for the Fish and Wildlife Service, and has monitored the endangered West Indian Whistling Duck breeding population. He is currently participating in ongoing research with the Red-footed Booby nesting colony located on Mona Island, and breeding ecology of Snowy Plovers in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. As a participant of the seabird restoration program internship in Maine, he expects to implement the skills learned during the field season which will help develop new seabird restoration programs in Puerto Rico for boobies, tropic birds, terns, frigatebirds and pelicans.

To read about ALL of our Herz Fellowship recipients (past and present), please click HERE.