Speakers

Scientific Director

Ex–situ & in-situ Projects

An expert in ex-situ management, he has managed to reproduce a large and varied number of animal species with which he has developed his experience and knowledge. He trained in this sector, dealing directly with a variety of domestic and wild European and exotic species. While studying biology, he set up his own laboratory for breeding birds, keeping an average of more than 500 specimens per year, as well as reptiles and small mammals. This experience was essential so that, before graduating, he received a research grant from the University of La Laguna and Loro Parque Fundación (1998), where he studied the reproductive behaviour of the Spix’s Macaw, work that he carried out over several years, later forming part of the stable team of specialists from Loro Parque and Loro Parque Fundación that reproduced this extinct species in the wild.

Throughout his career he specialised in Zoology and as an ornithologist and curator of the Loro Parque Fundación team, he has advised different international projects for the reproduction of endangered species.

Recognised as an outstanding international speaker, he has given lectures at prestigious centres in Europe, Central and South America, Asia and Oceania. Author of several scripts for nature documentaries, he also participates regularly in interviews and environmental talkshows on various radio and television programmes. In addition, as a frequent writer of articles specialising in psittacine birds and publications in nature and aviculture magazines, he has managed to publish on all five continents on breeding and conservation. The accumulated knowledge of birds in the field, added to that of the species under human care, means a powerful conservation tool that translates into the effective combination of ex-situ and in-situ projects of Loro Parque Fundación, where Rafael Zamora currently holds the position of scientific director.

Tony Silva became mesmerized with parrots when 10 years old, when he started visiting a pet store that exhibited a Blue and Gold (Ara ararauna) and Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao). The store owner claimed that macaws mated in the air and would not breed in captivity. That concept seemed incredible and sparked an interest that resulted in him acquiring his first big parrot by age 16 (in 1976). Soon the number of species and individuals grew and by 1978 Tony had achieved the first US breeding of the Slender-billed Conure (Enicognathus leptorhynchus).

Tony´s curiosity, early success and interest led to more species being acquired and in travels to the Caribbean and South America to study parrots in the wild, as direct observations in the field were considered key to achieving success in captivity. Tony´s first significant field studies were conducted in Argentina during the 1980s, when weight and growth gains of hand-reared young (Amazona aestiva) were compared to young being reared in the wild by their parents. The next decade resulted in more species being studied and bred; to date, Tony has studied parrots in the field in Asia, Africa, all of Latin America and the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Tony has kept and bred in his private collection or during his tenure as Curator at Loro Parque 82% of all parrot species. His breeding achievements includes the Spix´s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), this while working at Loro Parque with various individuals and government agencies to establish the Spix´s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii)recovery program—a project that has helped save this species from extinction, established captive breeding as a conservation tool and allowed government, zoos and private aviculturists to cooperate to save a species.

During an avicultural career spanning more than four decades, Tony has had hundreds of articles published. These have appeared in English, Spanish, French, Czech, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian and other languages. Tony has lectured on parrots in all continents. He was named the best speaker in 2018 at the Loro Parque Parrot Convention. Tony has had seven books published, including the revised edition of Psittaculture that appeared in print in 2018-2020 in multiple languages. This revision took 28 years to complete, as Tony conducted fieldwork, research and bred species that had proven elusive, all in an effort to make the book the most complete work on parrots in aviculture ever to appear in print. This book was followed by Macaws in 2020, which received great acclaim. 

Tony maintains a large breeding collection in south Florida. The facility allows him to continue to expand on his vast knowledge base.

Mauricio Herrera Hurtado, was born in Montero, a city near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia and is 48 years old. Since he was a child he felt admiration for nature, always playing at being the director of a zoo. He is a biologist by profession and is currently studying for a Master’s degree in “Management of Natural Resources and Environment” at the Gabriel René Moreno University. He has been a teaching assistant at this university, as well as in the Ornithology area of the Noel Kempff Mercado Museum of Natural History for seven years. He has participated in ornithological expeditions with the American Museum and the University of Louisiana, as well as volunteering in many other wildlife conservation projects. He did his undergraduate thesis based on Diversity and Seasonal Abundance of Waterbirds at a Ramsar Site. He has worked mainly with all types of wild birds but his main motivation is parrots. Mauricio developed the Hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) Conservation Strategy for Bolivia. His greatest achievement is to have established the Programme for the Conservation of the Blue throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis) with great success for the species. He also worked as Head of Management and Conservation at the Municipal Zoo of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He is currently scientific advisor to the Noel Kempff Mercado Museum of Natural History and in charge of the programme for the conservation of the Blue-throated Macaw (Ara glaucogularis) run by Loro Parque Fundación with the Noel Kempff Mercado Museum and Aves Bolivianas.

Enrique Martínez Carretero was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in January 1962, and holds a PhD in Pharmacy from the University of La Laguna.

In his early professional stage, he worked as a clinical analyst until 2004 and from 1997 to the present he has been a university professor in the area of Parasitology. He is the lecturer in charge of the immunology and haematology subjects of the Pharmacy degree and of the subject Infectious Diseases I in the Tropical environment of the Master’s degree in Research and Diagnosis of Tropical Diseases.

As a researcher, he has carried out several internships in different centres of recognised prestige such as the Immunology Laboratory of the Hospital de la Santa Creu y San Pau in Barcelona or the Lopez Neyra Institute of Biomedicine and Parasitology of the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas).

He has been a researcher at the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands since its creation. Throughout his scientific research career, he has been awarded 3 six-year research periods, has published more than 60 international articles included in the JCR and has participated as Researcher in charge of several national and international projects.

He is a member of different scientific societies such as: the Spanish Society of Parasitology, the Spanish Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

He has carried out various university management activities, becoming Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of La Laguna, director of the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the Canary Islands, director of several masters and doctoral programmes, among others. He is currently developing a project, in collaboration with Loro Parque Fundación, on improving the diagnosis of adenovirus in various parrot species.

Petra Wolf is a veterinarian, head of the Chair of Nutritional Physiology and Animal Nutrition at the University of Rostock, a specialist veterinarian in animal nutrition and a Diplomate of the European College of Nutrition. In 1990, she began research on parrot nutrition. Since then, she has been one of the few experts in the scientific community worldwide to deal with the feeding of parrots. The results of her research have been presented at national and international congresses. Her presentation of the results on the “Protein Requirements of the African Grey Parrots” was honoured in 1992 with the Prize of the German Veterinary Society. In 2005, the research study she presented on the energy requirements of lories was honoured by the European Society of Veterinary and Comparative Nutrition. In 2003 she received the Helmut Meyer Award, which is given to scientists with a special research project. Her more than 200 publications have appeared in both German and English. She was instrumental in the publication of the special issue “Nutrition of Parrots”, which is also available worldwide in English and in which she passes on her almost 30 years of experience on the subject of feeding. She has also published research results in several books and textbooks.  She is on the board of the EAZA Nutrition Group (ENG) and on the scientific advisory board of the “Papageien” magazine and “Gefiederter Welt”. Through her nutritional consultancy Feedconsult, she assists parrot owners worldwide in keeping and breeding parrots, which include rare and difficult-to-breed species.

As a member of a science-based family with its core in biology and threatened species management, hatching in the mid-’70s, Daniel’s fate was inevitable; little did he know at the time. The family spent a significant amount of his early years in Australia’s Kimberly region, north-east Western Australia, where his father, Peter, was employed by the state’s Government as Kununara’s biologist, measuring, notating, and evaluating the wild creatures and their part in the Kimberley environment.

Avian folk have been a part of life since birth. After spending six years studying design and direction, half the time being in the discipline of Architectural building design, construction and drawing, Daniel was drawn back to the families’ ever-expanding biological reproductive research facility, located near Australia’s capital Canberra. The facility is set in native bushland, open grassy woodland, where an abundance of native species resides and frequent throughout the year.

Daniel’s accomplishments include over two decades of work at Priam Psittaculture Centre (PPC), an Australian government-registered research facility, continued reintroduction work with threatened species, creation of the National Threatened Species Institute (NTSI), a not-for-profit Registered Environmental Organisation with the Australian Government. During this time he has also assisted Governments at all levels in managing threatened species. PPC has been granted Australia’s first and currently only CITES registered Appendix I captive breeding program for Double Yellow-headed Amazon (Amazona oratrix). Daniel has also served as the Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) Captive Management Chair, overseeing a review and significant update to the Husbandry Manual, assisting in the recovery efforts for OBP’s to reach its captive insurance population target. He is also a current member of the associated Veterinary Technical Reference Group. Along with others, Daniel’s contribution has aided the Recovery Team’s wild population supplementation and trial of multiple release strategies, which has seen the population bounce back from below twenty wild individuals to most recent wild returns in excess of seventy birds.

Daniel’s presentation will take you on an inspirational journey of the design process and considerations for aviary design and its role in assisting the transition into and out of managed care.

After a 13-year dual career in science and conservation, Martin gave up his position of a chair in ecology and evolution at a University in Munich to work full time in conservation. As the CEO of Fundación Jocotoco, an Ecuadorian conservation foundation, he oversees a sustained period of growth in programs, staff, and land. Assembling a diversified, dedicated team has been key for upscaling conservation. Increasing funding streams strengthen the financial sustainability of conservation efforts. Currently, Fundación Jocotoco owns a reserve network spanning >27,000 ha protecting ~200 globally threatened species and is involved in protecting another 87,000 ha. 

Martin has been working on threatened parrots in Ecuador for 20 years. His work resulted in the reintroduction of Great Green Macaws and a 25% population increase of the El Oro Parakeet. The pronounced upslope movement of El Oro Parakeets owing to climate change shaped the long-term design of Jocotoco’s private reserves along the Andean slope where it is essential to increase the altitudinal span of reserves. 

Bärbel Köhler works for Abaxis / Zoetis, a US manufacturer of veterinary medicines and vaccines for pets and livestock.

After training as a medical technical laboratory assistant (MTLA) at the Wilhelms University of Münster, she subsequently studied medicine, specialising in haematology, clinical chemistry and tropical medicine for human and veterinary medicine under the tutelage of the University of Münster and at the veterinary examination office in Münster.

Currently she is the international project manager of the company having worked in laboratory diagnostics and training in primate diagnostics, e.g. Gorilla Doctors Dian Fossy Rwuanda, Uganda, Congo, Jane Goodall chimpanzee projects, Indonesia: Orangutan projects.

Exotic parrot projects with wildlife projects around the world where she has given lectures, workshops and training courses.

Member of several relevant organisations including the Orangutan Advisory Group (OVAG) and Ambassador for Loro Parque Fundación.

Bettina Buchmüller was born in 1969 in Ulm (Germany).

Ever since she was a little girl she has been enthusiastic about birds and increasingly about parrots. After starting with some cockatoos in 1987, she got by chance a pair of blue-backed Parrots (Tanygnathus s. sumatranus) in 1994.

She wrote several reports, among other for Arndt editorial, in the specialized magazine Parrots and in WP-Magazin Magazine. Also for Nova Exota (CZ) and Papageienzeit Verlag.

Her aim is to successfully keep this rare species under human care. Her male specimen named “Casanova”, acquired in 1994, still lives with her. Bettina has managed to breed 26 hatchlings of this species with two females until 2021, mainly through natural breeding.

Jon Paul Rodríguez has been working for the conservation of Venezuelan species and ecosystems since he was a biology undergraduate at Universidad Central of Venezuela (UCV) in the late eighties. With other students he co-founded Provita in 1987, an NGO that has championed numerous evidence-based projects, including several editions of the Red Book of the Venezuelan Fauna and of the Red Book of Terrestrial Ecosystems of Venezuela. After graduating from UCV in 1991, he went to Princeton University for a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology (1999), and a Certificate on science, technology and environmental policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (2000). He currently Chairs the IUCN Species Survival Commission, is Professor at the Center for Ecology of the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Investigations (Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas ― IVIC), and continues to be active in Provita as the organization’s President. He defines himself as a biologist that is interested in generating information useful for informing conservation policies, without being a politician. Jon Paul is author in more than 230 publications, including books, chapters, and peer-reviewed articles in major international scientific journals.

Antonin Vaidl has been a bird lover all his life. He has been a private parrot breeder from his childhood. He became fascinated with birds and birding at a young age and this passion remained a constant in life through veterinary high school. In 1995 he moved to Prague Zoo to work as keeper and incubator attendant, and from 2002 he worked as assistant to the bird curator. In 2007, he worked as a curator-consultant at BII bird park in the Philippines. After several months he came back and since 2008 he became curator of birds in Prague Zoo. Over the last 20 years, he has had the opportunity to work with more than 600 different bird species including about 80 parrot species. During his work as a curator, they began to breed Palm cockatoos, Pesquet´s parrots, Hyacinth macaws, Kea parrots, Blue-naped parrots, Golden shouldered parakeets, Yellow and black-billed Jamaican amazons, Red-tailed amazons and other parrot species. The various collection of birds also includes difficult-to-breed fig parrots represented in four species. Antonin is the author of the zoological concept of a new biotope Parrot house for rare parrot species. With his wife Helena – an avian vet – he owns a specialized veterinary welfare clinic focusing on birds. Together they also wrote a comprehensive book on the issue of parrot breeding and veterinary care. Antonin is also the Chairman of the Bird Committee Czech and Slovak Zoos, and he is a member of the IUCN working group for herons and Asian passerines. He´s a member of the Advisory Board of Vulture Conservation Foundation and EEP Coordinator for Egyptian vulture and Rufous Philippines hornbill. As a monitoring person he is responsible for Pesquet´s parrots, Apo-mount lorikeets and Yellow-billed Jamaican Amazons within the EAZA. He publishes articles on the breeding of various species of birds and has presented his lectures in more than 20 countries around the world.

Brazilian biologist, postgraduate in wild animals, breeding and management and Curator of birds at Loro Parque and Loro Parque Fundación.

She has been working for more than 30 years in ex-situ breeding, always prioritising research and improvement of breeding techniques. During her first 26 years she managed zoos and renowned breeding centres for psittacine birds in Brazil, obtaining excellent results that have been published in various media.

In 2016 she accepted the invitation to become Bird Curator at Loro Parque and Loro Parque Fundación, where she is adapting and applying the breeding methodology to her main objective, which is to further strengthen the very important global gene pool of psittacines maintained by Loro Parque Fundación. She believes that the adaptation and application of specific methodologies for each species and breeding reality is the main way to achieve the expected results.

She is also the Management and Breeding Consultant for the Integrated Programme in controlled environments of Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) coordinated by ICMBio in Brazil. The Lear’s Macaw is an endangered Brazilian native bird, owned by the Brazilian Government and with which Loro Parque Fundación has an undisputed breeding success. Moreover, the LPF team’s greatest pride was to have sent so far 9 macaws born in our facilities for controlled reintroduction into the wild in the Brazilian Caatinga.

Marcia Weinzettl has given lectures in different parts of the world showing her extensive knowledge with complex tropical psittacine species of South America and psittacine management in general. She has excelled in the management of some species such as the Hyacinth Macaws, (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) or the marvellous Guaruba conures, (Guaruba guarouba), with which she obtained impressive numbers of chicks.

The results of her work can be easily seen in the numbers she has achieved during her 5 years of commitment, always with the support of the spectacular team she has been able to build during this time.

Marcia will undoubtedly be one of the international references with whom the congress participants will be able to share and receive information.

Juan Carlos Noreña Tobón Colombian biologist, ornithologist and nature photographer, director of Fundación Vida Silvestre and director of the Risarada Bird Festival. Researcher in the projects carried out by Loro Parque Fundación in Colombia with two species of parrots Hapalopsittaca fuertesi and Ognorhynchus icterotis, which seeks, apart from research and field work, to generate knowledge and a sense of belonging in the population for their protection and conservation.

He is the promoter of several public actions aimed at turning birds into symbols of each of the 14 communities of the department of Risaralda, involving them in municipal agreements. With these projects he has managed to turn the department of Risaralda (Colombia) into “a model of biodiversity conservation for the world”, also made official by means of a departmental ordinance.

In the same way, the community of Pereira, by municipal agreement, has been declared a “centre of world importance for birdwatching”, and in the same arrangement, three important avenues in the city have been renamed after birds. Likewise, all 50 cable car cabins that pass through the city bear the image and name of a bird.

He is now in the process of getting each of the streets in the municipalities also named after birds and other animals to generate greater knowledge and a sense of belonging in the population and to truly make Risarada a model of biodiversity conservation for the world. He has achieved that the Indigo-winged parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi) is the heraldic bird of the municipality of Santa Rosa de Cabal and is in the process of obtaining the consent of the municipality for the Yellow-eared Parrot (Ognorhynchus icterotis) to become the emblematic bird of the community of Guática.

Professional qualifications: Degree in Oceanography. Master in Biology – specialized in animal behaviour and bioacoustics. PHD student at Max Planck Institute for ornithology. Psychology student at UNED.

Sara Torres Ortiz is originally from Spain, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in Oceanography at the University of Cadiz and a master’s degree in living marine resources. After that, she moved to Denmark, where she became a researcher at South Denmark University and finished her master studies in Animal Behaviour and Bioacoustics in 2016.

Sara works on several research projects involving animal behaviour and bioacoustics, both in the field and the lab. When she started her job in Denmark in 2013, she was working as a trainer with a group of grey seals, cormorants and parrots participating in hearing and/or cognitive tasks. For many years, she has been part of several research projects with all types of animals, from whales to penguins. 

Currently, Sara works at Max Planck Institute located in Loro Parque, where she is doing her PHD with parrots and dolphins. Besides, she is studying a degree in Psychology by distance learning at the National University (UNED)

Twitter @sharinade

Instagram sarinade_delfin

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-torres-ortiz-b329765a/

Email [email protected]

Lubomir Tomiska is a zoologist and aviculturist, who was born in 1991 in the Czech Republic. He spent much of his childhood in pet shops, which were a part of his family business. At that time, his interest in animals, birds particularly, had risen. During his youth, he kept many bird species, especially small Australian Parakeets, Lovebirds, and exotic finches. In 2007, he started breeding lories and lorikeets which became his favorite group of parrots. Later on, he built a special facility for these birds and kept more than 20 different species and subspecies.

In 2015, he obtained Master of Science Degree at Charles University (Prague), in the field of Ecology and Zoology. During studies, he dedicated his time to research activities focused on the topic “How to manipulate sex ratio in birds”. For this purpose, he built a research aviary complex in his house for 30 pairs of Zebra finches where the above-mentioned hypothesis was tested.

In 2016, he moved to Tenerife and started working at Loro Parque Fundación as Assistant Bird Curator. Due to this opportunity, he had a chance to work with the most diverse collection of parrots in the world. He worked there as a right hand and deputy of the bird curator Marcia Weinzettl. As a team, they participated in the management of the bird department. His tasks included supervision of the breeding center La Vera, development of feeding and breeding protocols, and arranging bird imports and exports.

In 2021, he returned from Tenerife to the Czech Republic. Today, he works as a consultant in bird breeding and bird import/export. Besides that, he cooperates with the Arndt Verlag publishing house as a Member of the Editorial Board. He is actively publishing articles, interviews, and reports from the world of aviculture in bird magazines Papageien, Gefiederte Welt, Nova Exota, and Australian Birdkeeper. He also runs a blog website ParrotsDailyNews.com.  

Dr. Matthias Reinschmidt, born in 1964, received his diploma in biology from the University of Tübingen and his doctorate from the University of Giessen. This passionate parrot specialist was editor of the magazine PAPAGEIEN from 1993 until 2001. Between 2001 and 2010, he was curator at Loro Parque and the Loro Parque Fundación before being appointed zoological director there in 2010.

Since July 2015, he has been zoo director at Karlsruhe Zoo, where he founded the Zoo Karlsruhe Species Conservation Foundation in 2016. He has appeared in hundreds of TV documentaries from Loro Parque and Karlsruhe Zoo. He has also been filming a 90-minute documentary series on species conservation together with German TV legend Frank Elstner for SWR every year for over ten years. To date, he has written a total of nine books on the subjects of parrots, zoos and species conservation, and has passed on his knowledge in hundreds of articles.

Chaona Gertrude Phiri is a Zambian accomplished and energetic landscape ecologist and ornithologist with a solid history of achievements in project management, teaching and research in natural resources management. She is currently at the tail-end of her PhD studies in Conservation Ecology supported by Loro Parque at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Under the supervision and guidance of professors Stuart Marsden, Nigel Collar and Dr. Christian Devenish, Chaona’s PhD studies seek to “Devise realistic land-use management interventions for the Black-cheeked Lovebird(BCL) (Agapornis nigrigenis) in Zambia” with through the accomplishment of the following objectives:

• a. Delimit the specie’s range, and estimate abundance and population size as precisely as possible using a distance sampling transect method and to relate these results to historical studies of the species in order to detect trends.
• b. Identify factors limiting the population and distribution of the species such as habitat quality, water pool characteristics and availability, and anthropogenic threats (e.g., land-use change).
• c. Monitor and document spatial and temporal usage by lovebirds, of a series of water pools using citizen science, remote sensing and ecological modelling.
• d. Use historical and current presence records (e.g., from (a)) along with remotely sensed data to build species distribution models (SDMs) for BCL, and explore scenarios of potential changes in habitat quality and water pool availability to model future population changes and requirements.
• e. Use the results from a ‒ b to prescribe appropriate management strategies for the long-term conservation of the species.

The Black-cheeked Lovebird is a Zambian endemic parrot, listed as vulnerable in the IUCN red list of threatened species due to habitat degradation and possibly water scarcity. Chaona hopes her work can make significant contributions to the improvement of the species’ status.

She is an avid birder who loves camping and visiting wild places and is she capable of turning any conservation into a discussion about birds and wild places.

Named in many parts of the world as “the aviculturist’s aviculturist”, Jacobo Lacs was born in Lima, Peru and it is in Panama that he maintains an extraordinary wildlife breeding centre. With parrots as the undisputed protagonists, he keeps little-known species and some, such as the Azuero parakeet (Pyrrhura eisenmanni), endemic to Panama, which has managed to reproduce under his care for the first time in the world. Other species such as the blue-headed macaw (Primolius couloni), toucan species and 11 different bird species have also been bred under his care.

He also keeps extraordinary rarities of parrots with mutations that originated in nature and not by breeding selection.

Jacobo Lacs’ background with many species of birds is fascinating, where his experiences and understanding of aviculture is extraordinary.

His stock of birds is unique, but also of frogs, felines and other species that have come to his facilities as rescues. The keepers who work in their conservation centre were formerly hunters. Thanks to their teachings, in direct contact with the animals, they have changed, giving an important turnaround to their lives and to the local community.

Mestranda no Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia – IB/USP

CV Online
Grupo de Pesquisa e Conservação da arara-azul-de-lear:

Arara Azul de Lear/Pesquisa e Conservação

Fernanda is a biologist graduated at University of São Paulo. Being part of the Lear’s Macaw Research and Conservation Group since 2016, she has been participating in several researches focused on the Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari), a globally endangered parrot endemic to the Caatinga biome of Brazil, and the develop of conservation strategies for the species: the annual monitoring of the macaws’ breeding biology and the study of the population dynamics; the study of the impact of invasive Africanized honey bees on the Lear’s Macaw breeding biology, which compete for cliff cavities used by nesting macaws; the developing and application of alternative and innovative methods for monitoring parrots, such as numbered medals and new bio-logging technology, that is allowing the extension of the research outside de known breeding sites of the species, in order to study the macaws’ movement ecology to better estimate the species’ home range and understand the macaws’ distribution, dispersal, space-use patterns and ecological needs (a research that is part of Fernanda’s Masters’ study at University of São Paulo); alongside with the release of captive bred and rescued Lear’s Macaws at Boqueirão da Onça site, aiming the monitoring of these individuals to locate the feeding sites and the critical areas of refuge of the species in this locality and to propose conservation strategies in these areas, creating an infrastructure to rescue a functionally extinct sub-population in the long-term – an initiative developed in collaboration with partners located in different parts of the world, including the Loro Parque Fundación.

Nanda Kishore Reddy holds a Masters Degree in biotechnology and has worked extensively in the field of tissue culture. His interest in animals and birds made him quit his job and pursue his hobby of bird-keeping. His mother had budgies as a child, and was an avid bird lover. The seeds sowed by his mother bloomed, making Nanda an Aviculturalist.

His work on standardisation of protocols for Conures and Macaws made him a prominent speaker in a number of Conventions held in India and abroad. Articles about him have also been covered in a number of print and electronic media. His work has been recognised by the Forest Department in India, and has made him the Consultant for a number of Zoological Parks. He works on various in-situ and ex-situ conservation programs, trying to increase the native bird population. He also has a large walk-in aviary open to public of central India.

He is also a part of a non-profit, non-government organisation called Animal Rehabilitation & Protection Front. This is a student run organisation. It works towards the rejuvenation of forests and protection of endemic wildlife. Nanda also has his own organisation, called the Raaga Foundation, which funds a number of conservation projects.