Santiago Perea
About Me
I grew up surrounded by nature and fascinated by wildlife: the variety of shapes, colors, and sounds, and the fact that so many species manage to coexist and occupy different niches in the same ecosystem. At some point, that fascination began to mix with concern. Habitats are changing faster than most people realize, and so is the wildlife within them.
That tension is what led me to conservation biology. Protecting biodiversity is not just about caring deeply; it requires generating the right evidence, at the right scale, in time for people to act on it, and working with land managers, local communities, and policymakers to make sure it is understood, trusted, and actually used.
I see myself as a mix of a conservation biologist and a data enthusiast. My research combines bioacoustics and camera trapping with AI-driven species detection, soundscape analysis, ecological modeling, and remote sensing to study how wildlife communities respond to forest management and human disturbances across multiple spatial and temporal scales.
Research Interests
Education
Modeling winter foraging ecology of bats on working forest lands in the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain
Research
My research focuses on one central challenge: how do we monitor biodiversity at the scale and speed that forest management decisions actually require? My projects span tropical and temperate systems, from tropical forests in the Amazon and the Congo Basin to working pine forests in the U.S. Southeast, but they share a common goal: generating biodiversity data that is rigorous, scalable, and actionable.
Impacts of Liana Cutting on Tropical Forest Biodiversity
Liana cutting is increasingly proposed as a tool for enhancing carbon sequestration in selectively logged tropical forests, but what does it mean for the wildlife that live there? In collaboration with Conservation International and Peruvian researchers, we are assessing how wildlife responds to this practice. This project integrates AI-based species detection and soundscape analysis to evaluate the ecological trade-offs of liana cutting and its potential role in sustainable forest management.
Soundscape Baseline Project: Biodiversity Baselines for Evidence-Based Conservation
How do we know what a healthy forest sounds like? And how do we detect when it starts to change? Together with a network of local scientists, conservationists, and community partners, in The Sound Forest Lab we are establishing biodiversity baselines in some of the world's most intact forests.
Soundscapes of the Tapytá Natural Reserve
What can sound tell us about biodiversity in one of the most fragmented forests in South America? The Tapytá Reserve, located in Paraguay's Caazapá department, is a biodiversity-rich protected area within the highly fragmented Atlantic Forest of Paraguay. Led by the Moisés Bertoni Foundation in collaboration with the Facultad Politécnica of Universidad Nacional de Asunción, this project uses Passive Acoustic Monitoring and AI to map biodiversity across the reserve.
Modeling Winter Foraging Ecology of Bats in Working Forests
Forests are widespread across the eastern U.S., with about 86% of them in the southeastern region privately owned. Forest management plays a key role in conserving these landscapes and preventing their conversion to other land uses. Many bats are year-round residents in this region and remain active during winter or migrate from colder areas to seek milder conditions. However, the winter foraging ecology by bats and how forest management influences their habitat use remain understudied. My research evaluated multiple dimensions of winter bat ecology across forests of the southeastern U.S. Coastal Plain.
Publications
See all publications →Google Scholar · ORCID: 0000-0002-2166-2375
News
Undergraduate Mentee Research Goes Global: Bats Glow Green Under UV Light
Research I mentored with undergraduate student Briana J. Roberson on photoluminescence in North American bat species attracted international press coverage, documenting UV fluorescence in six bat species.
📄 Roberson, Perea et al. (2025). Glowing Green. Ecology and Evolution, 15(8), e71885.