Dr Santiago Zuluaga Castañeda

PhD (National University of Comahue, Argentina)

John Day Building Room 1.02

I am an interdisciplinary Raptor Biologist working not only with wildlife species but also with human communities. I am originally from Colombia where I founded the Black-and-chestnut Eagle Project Colombia (in 2008) to work closely with government and private institutions to save this endangered species in Colombia. In 2017, I scaled this project up to the South American continent in the frame of my PhD. For my PhD (2017-2022), I studied the socio-ecological factors influencing human-raptor interactions affecting the Black-and-chestnut Eagle in several countries of South America. I also worked for over a decade as a consultant with several NGOs in South America advising several raptor conservation projects. Since 2022, I have been a member of the “Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group” of the International Union for Nature Conservation (IUCN).

I joined the FitzPatrick in May 2024, as an ABAX Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, hosted by Assoc. Prof. Arjun Amar to work on raptor conservation research projects. My main role in these projects is to analyze existing data on the movement ecology of African raptors to improve our understanding of their ecological requirements and making recommendations to further raptor conservation in the face the huge growth of wind energy in South Africa. This research is being carried out in close collaboration with Dr. Megan Murgatroyd, Honorary Research Affiliate at FitzPatrick Institute and Associate Director of African and Asian Programs at HawkWatch International.

 

Peer-reviewed publications:

Restrepo-Cardona JS, Kohn S, Renjifo LM, Vásquez-Restrepo JD, Zuluaga S, Vargas FH, et al. 2024. Implications of human-wildlife conflict on the diet of an endangered avian top predator in the northern Andes. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 13077.

Soares L, Cockle K, Ruelas-Inzunza E, Ibarra JT, Miño CI, Zuluaga S, et al. 2023. Neotropical Ornithology: Reckoning with historical assumptions, removing systemic barriers, and reimagining the future. Ornithological Applications

Restrepo-Cardona JS, Narváez F, Kohn S, Vargas FH, Zuluaga S. 2023. Human Persecution is An Important Threat to the Conservation of the Endangered Black-and-Chestnut Eagle in Northern Andes. Tropical Conservation Science 16.

Zuluaga S, Vargas FH, Aráoz R, Grande JM. 2022. Main aerial top predator of the Andean Montane Forest copes with fragmentation, but may be paying a high cost. Global Ecology and Conservation, e02174.

Zuluaga S, Vargas FH, Kohn S, Grande JM. 2021. Top-down local management, perceived contribution to people, and actual detriments influence a rampant human‒top predator conflict in the Neotropics. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation 20, 91–102.

Zuluaga S, Speziale KL, Lambertucci SA. 2022. Flying wildlife may mask the loss of ecological functions due to terrestrial habitat fragmentation. Science of the Total Environment 803, 150034.

Zuluaga S, Speziale K, Lambertucci SA. 2021. Global aerial habitat conservation Post-COVID-19 anthropause. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 36(4), 273–277.

Zuluaga S, Vargas FH, Grande JM. 2021. Integrating socio-ecological information to address human–top predator conflicts: the case of an endangered eagle in the eastern Andes of Colombia. Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation 19, 98–107.

Giraldo Amaya M, Aguiar Silva FH, Aparicio KM, Zuluaga S. 2021. Human Persecution of the Harpy Eagle: A Widespread Threat? Journal of Raptor Research 55, 281–286

Zuluaga S, Grande JM, Schulze M, Aristizabal DF, Vargas FH, Aguiar-Silva FH. 2018. Nest records of two large eagles in Colombia and Ecuador. Journal of Raptor Research 52, 522-527

Zuluaga S, Grande JM, Marchini S. 2020. A better understanding of human behavior, not only of ‘perceptions’, will support evidence-based decision making and help to save scavenging birds: A comment to Ballejo et al. (2020). Biological Conservation 250, 108747.

Zuluaga S, Salom A, Vargas FH, Coulson JO, Kohn S, Grande JM. 2020. Acknowledging Andean condor predation on livestock, a first step in addressing the human-condor conflict: A commentary to Estrada Pacheco et al. (2020). Biological Conservation 247, 108618.

Zuluaga S, Ospina-Herrera, O. 2020. Reducción poblacional del cóndor andino (Vultur gryphus) en los Andes Centrales de Colombia: un llamado urgente para evitar su extinción local. Ornitología Colombiana 18:eA04.

Grande JM, Zuluaga S, Marchini S. 2018. Casualties of human-wildlife conflict. Science 360 (6395), 1309.

Zuluaga S, Echeverry-Galvis MA. 2016. Domestic fowl in the diet of the Black-and-Chestnut Eagle (Spizaetus isidori) in the Eastern Andes of Colombia: a potential conflict with humans? Ornitología Neotropical 27, 113–120.

 

eBook chapter:

Rivas-Fuenzalida T, Grande JM, Kohn S, Vargas FH, Zuluaga S. 2022. Black-and-chestnut Eagle (Spizaetus isidori), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA.