EspañolAbout us
In 1998, after many years of hard work with whales, dolphins and other animals, the biologist Maria Eugenia Rodriguez and the wildlife photographer Eduardo Lugo created Wildlife Connection, this is an enterprise which aim is to share with other people the experience of becoming a researcher for a few hours during our tours while enjoying the contact with animals in their natural environment and, at the same time, sponsor the research that created this work.
Whale tours were our first activities, and then we had the tours with dolphins which gave us the opportunity to offer an experience with free dolphins instead of captive ones, being the first company in México to work with completely free dolphins.
Today, our tours also offer birds and turtles and other outdoor activities like hiking and snorkeling, and from 2010 special tours are offered and you will be able to learn more from these in that section.
Our guides are professional biologists with masters degree in Marine ecology and Wildlife Photographer all featured in magazines and documentaries including National Geographic and Animal Planet. We will share with you our knowledge and experience at the same time you will participate in research projects with dolphins and whales in Banderas Bay, making these excursions a once-in-a-lifetime
Wildlife Connection is indeed your real connection to Mexico’s wildlife.
Staff
Biologist Ma. Eugenia Rodríguez
Maru is graduated from Universidad de Guadalajara and started her research on cetacean since 1994.
Her work and thesis have contributed to a major understanding of hunmpback whales at Bahia de Banderas, this has promoted regulating standards of whale observing activities in the country.
She did her master’s degree at Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CISESE for its initials in Spanish). Her thesis is about Spatio-temporal abundance and distribution of bottlenose dolphins (tursiops truncatus) up north of Bahia de Banderas, Jalisco – Nayarit, Mexico.
Nowadays she is the leader of Wildlife Connection and its research projects.
Photographer Eduardo Lugo
Eduardo Lugo did his studies as a photographer in Mexico City at AGFA institute, Kodak Mexicana and at the university center of cinematography studies where he had Doña Lola Álvarez Bravo as a teacher. He began his career as a photographer in 1982. For ten years he worked mostly for advertising photography and audiovisual production. Beginning in 1987 he also worked on naturalistic photography and he has photographed a remarkable number of species of the Mexican fauna ever since.
Since 1989 he has specialized on the photograph and study of dolphins and whales; his work has been published on elementary and junior high school textbooks, in nature related books, several newspapers and the most important magazines of Mexico. Read More…
He has participated in more than 10 exhibitions, six out of them on his own and the rest with other photographers.
Zoologist Petr Myska
Peter is zoologist and has achieved two master degrees, one of them on Ecology and Animal Behavior and the other on Environment Protection. Both degrees were done at Charles University in Prague, Republic of Czechoslovakia.
He has worked and traveled extensively in Latin America, focusing on preservation problems.
He published the book The Field Guide of Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals of West Mexico. Currently he is studying Mexico’s biodiversity and he is also part of the research team.
Biologist Gemma Rivera
Gemma is graduated from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Started her research on cetacean since 1998. The research project “Impact of Ecotourism in gray whale’s behavior” was the topic of her thesis research, proposing recommendations for the management and research actions for conserving this species.
She did the master’s degree at Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada CICESE. The research project “Diversity and Distribution of Odontoceti at Costa Azul, Baja California” was the topic of her thesis research.
Currently she is part of Wildlife Connection’s research projects.
Marine Biologist Zeida Foubert
Zeida Foubert majored in Marine Biology at the Universidad de Baja California Sur.
Her thesis’s approach was on the study of coral at the Gulf of California. Her master’s degree was done at Universidad de Baja California Sur and her thesis was about Cetacean Netting.
She is part of the research team.