Ramiro Daniel Crego

Ramiro Daniel Crego, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Researcher

B.S., National University of La Plata; M.S., Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Ph.D., University of North Texas

Ramiro D. Crego is a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Conservation Ecology Center, with focused research objectives across the Laikipia Plains in East Africa. He aims to advance the current knowledge on wildlife movements and land-cover/land-use change across grassland ecosystems in Kenya. He will spend a portion of time at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya, where he will assist with workshops.

Crego has been conducting research focused on the conservation of ecosystems and has worked in the high Andes of Argentina, studying interactions of large mammals. He has also assessed current and future distribution of wet meadows under the effects of climate change in the arid and semiarid Patagonia to guide future conservation initiatives in the region.

More recently Crego focused research on the effect of invasive mammalian species at the southernmost forest of the world in Chile. Specifically, he investigated occupancy dynamics and niche shifts of the American mink using camera traps, and assessed mink impact on native bird and rodent communities and facilitative interactions with other mammalian invaders, such as American beavers and muskrats. This information is helping to better understand the dynamics of invasive species and their impacts, as well as to improve current management programs.

Crego is from Argentina and obtained his bachelor’s degree at the College of Natural Sciences and Museum Studies, National University of La Plata, Argentina. He earned his master's at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He recently completed his doctorate at the University of North Texas, working on invasive mammals on the southernmost forest ecosystem of the world — the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve in southern Chile.

Recent Publications:

Crego, RD, JE Jiménez, and R Rozzi. 2018. Potential niche expansion of the American mink invading a remote island free of native-predatory mammals. Plos One: DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194745 RD. .

Crego, RD, JE Jiménez, and R Rozzi. 2016. A synergistic trio of invasive mammals? Facilitative interactions among beavers, muskrats, and mink at the southern end of the Americas. Biological Invasions, 2016: 18.

Crego, RD, CK Nielsen, and KA Didier. 2014. Climate change and conservation implications for wet meadows in dry Patagonia. Environmental Conservation, 41.