Thomas Defler

Thomas Defler has been working in wild Colombia for 49 years as an ecologist-primatologist. He founded two research stations in the Colombian Amazon and had run-ins with both FARC guerillas and drug traffickers; fortunately for him he was able to avoid serious problems, though he was forced to flee his first research station because of threats. Defler has an extensive publication list and has published several books about Colombian primates and other mammals, both in English and in Spanish. Lately he has retired from fieldwork and is dedicated to writing his memoirs: Volume 1, "Monkey Memoirs" describes his 17-year experience with his wife, raising orphan monkeys for re-introduction and studying primates in an isolated part of Vaupés, Colombia. A Spanish version will soon be available. Volume 2 (in progress) describes five years of fieldwork in the Colombian llanos studying primates and Giant river otter while traveling more than 1,500 kilometers paddling a canoe along wild Colombian rivers.