Jamie Gilardi

James Gilardi, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Jamie is a conservation biologist specializing in behavioral and physiological ecology with special focus on tropical forest birds and marine vertebrates. He has studied wild parrots and other birds for more than 25 years, authoring a number of papers on ecology and parrots in the wild bird trade. He first did undergraduate studies where he researched the roles of juvenile mortality, nest defense, and parent-offspring conflict in the evolution of predatory bird reversed-size sexual dimorphism at the University of Washington and UC Santa Cruz.  He then earned a Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Davis in parrot social behavior, foraging ecology, and soil eating in South-eastern Peru.

From 1996 through to 2001, Jamie was in charge of a number of projects for various conservation organizations, including Wildlife Preservation Trust International and the Oceanic Society.  Starting in 2001, Jamie became the Executive Director of the WPT, where his responsibilities include developing, designing and implementing field conservation programs, policy planning and campaigning, grant writing, photo and video documentation of projects, and producing educational DVDs for public distribution.