Scientific Director of the LORO PARQUE FUNDACIÓN
Tenerife, Spain
Rafael Zamora Padrón is an expert in ex-situ management He has managed to reproduce a large and varied number of animal species with which he has developed his experience and knowledge. Rafael trained in this sector, dealing directly with various domestic and wild European and exotic species. While studying biology, he set up his own laboratory for breeding birds, keeping an average of more than 500 specimens per year, as well as reptiles and small mammals. This experience was essential so that, before graduating, he received a research grant from the University of La Laguna and Loro Parque Fundación (1998), where he studied the reproductive behaviour of the Spix’s Macaw, work that he carried out over several years, later forming part of the stable team of specialists from Loro Parque and Loro Parque Fundación that reproduced this extinct species in the wild.
Throughout his career, he specialized in Zoology, and as an ornithologist and curator of the Loro Parque Fundación team, he has advised different international projects for the reproduction of endangered species.
Recognized as an outstanding international speaker, he has given lectures at prestigious centers in Europe, Central and South America, Asia, and Oceania. Author of several scripts for nature documentaries, he also participates regularly in interviews and environmental talk shows on various radio and television programs. In addition, as a frequent writer of articles specializing in psittacine birds and publications in nature and aviculture magazines, he has managed to publish on all five continents on breeding and conservation. The accumulated knowledge of birds in the field, added to that of the species under human care, means a powerful conservation tool that translates into the effective combination of ex-situ and in-situ projects of Loro Parque Fundación, where Rafael Zamora currently holds the position of scientific director.
Rafael Zamora Padrón shares interesting news from the Loro Parque Fundación in the AWIPARROTS international digital magazine as well as in the czech parrot magazine PAPOUSCI and many other periodicals.
