Arata Honda

Arata is a conservation biologist and biodiversity scientist in training, who is exploring the eco-evolutionary drivers of mammalian arboreality from macro-ecological and evolutionary scales to the fine-scale ecological interactions and behavior across communities, populations and individuals. Canopy-dwelling mammals are one of the most threatened from habitat loss and degradation but remains one of the most understudied due to technical challenges in surveying the forest canopy. Increasing efforts and advancements in arboreal camera trapping and space-borne remote sensing now allows us to capture the ecological dynamics of these animals at fine 3D resolutions. Neotropical forests harbors the richest fauna of arboreal mammals across the globe and provides an exciting and valuable opportunity to better understand how species interact and coexist in the forest canopy, as well as their climatic, anthropogenic and ecological susceptibilities. However, alike most tropical forests across the globe, the neotropics continues to face high levels of deforestation threatening local livelihoods and biodiversity across the landscape. Arata has 4 years of training in Spanish, but is keen to advance his language skills and engage more into the biocultural heritage across Latin America.