Ms Magdalena Bennett

I am from Chile, where I graduated in Geography from the P. Universidad Católica de Chile in 2004 and then worked as an Associated Researcher in the Ecology Department for four years. As a member of the Andean Cat Alliance, I have been working in the conservation of this little known cat in the Chilean High Andes. In 2010 I completed a Masters in Conservation Biology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain. The main focus of my work has been the integration of Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing for the conservation of wildlife.

I have been associated with WildCRU scientists since 2006 as a collaborator in the the Darwin Initiative project 'Conservation of Andean cats across national borders' (2005-2009). I am now a doctoral student at Wolfson College studying the effects of the landscape and climate change on the High Andes biodiversity. This is a collaboration between WildCRU and the School of Geography and Environment, supported by a Darwin Initiative Fellowship, a CONICYT scholarship and the Wildlife Conservation Network.

Publications

Marino J, M Bennett, D Cossios, A Iriarte, M Lucherini, P Pliscoff, C Sillero-Zubiri, L Villalba and S Walker. 2011. Bioclimatic constraints to Andean cat distribution: a modelling application for rare species. Diversity and Distributions 17: 311–322

Marino, J., M. Lucherini, L. Villalba, M. Bennett, D. Cossíos, A. Iriarte, P. Perovic and C. Sillero-Zubiri. 2010.  Highland cats: ecology and conservation of the rare and elusive Andean cat. In: Macdonald D. W and A. Loveridge, Felid Biology and Conservation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Bennett, M., Villalba,L., Marino, J. and Sillero-Zubiri, C.  2009.  'Proyecto Huella Unica': Impact and mitigation of off-road tourism in High Andean environments of the triple frontier Argentina-Bolivia-Chile, Report 2007-2009, Andean Cat Alliance and partners.

Napolitano C, M Bennett, W Johnson, S OBrien, P. Marquet, I Barría, and A. Iriarte. 2008. Ecological and biogeographic inferences on two sympatric and enigmatic Andean cat species using genetic identification of fecal samples.  Molecular Ecology 17: 678-690

Cossíos D., Beltrán Saavedra, F., Bennett, M., Bernal, N., Fajardo, U., Lucherini, M., Merino, M.J., Marino, J., Napolitano, C. Palacios, R., Perovic, P., Ramirez, Y., Villalba, L. Walker, S. and Sillero-Zubiri, C. 2007. Manual de metodologías para relevamientos de carnívoros alto andinos. Alianza Gato Andino. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bennett, M., Merino MJ., Sorli L. 2006. La Puna: un ambiente inhóspito y hermoso. In: Merino, M.J. editor, Guía para Educadores Altoandinos. GECM, UNS, Bahía Blanca, Argentina.