Carlos Aquila Chan Miranda

Research

My bachelor’s work was focused on producing models of viperids snakes in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico to assess the role that natural protected areas are playing in their conservation and to suggest new areas for conservation. In Mexico there are over 50 viperids snakes species and around 51% of these are endemics.

Neotropical forests host some of the largest sources of biodiversity in the world but they also provide important natural services. However, these ecosystems are under severe pressure from different factors, such as deforestation, land-use change, pollution, non-planned natural resources extraction and intensive hunting among others, that have a strong impact on the the complex interactions that occur in them. Ensuring its preservation is one of the most important challenges we face nowadays.

About me

I like travelling, meeting new people, food and music. I prefer walking and biking than any other transportation. I enjoy reading; the books of Oscar Wilde and Gabriel García Márquez are among my favourites, but also Carl Sagan, Peter Kunzig (oceanographer) and Anthony Pagden (historian) are of great interest.

I like listening to Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Joy Division, Portishead and Manu Chao. My favourite animals are reptiles and amphibians and I feel comfortable when working out in the field, in a lab or in front of a computer.