Alejandro Arteaga

Alejandro Arteaga is the lead author of the Reptiles of Ecuador book, a decade-long project to create a white-background-photography scientific field guide of all non-avian reptiles in the country. His quest began in 2010 and is still onging, but has so far resulted in the discovery of 35 new species, 27 scientific articles, and the publication of two books: Amphibians and Reptiles of Mindo and Reptiles of the Galápagos.

In addition to creating and editing the book’s contents, Alejandro spends most of hist time socializing the achievements of the project and fighting towards the completion of the book’s fundraiser. As of today, Alejandro and his team have photographed or illustrated 100% of the nearly 500 species of reptiles in the country, generated species accounts for 72% of them, and raised 90% of the costs needed to complete the project.

Alejandro’s research on the reptiles of Ecuador has been made possible thanks to the support of 326 donors, 24 institutions, his eco-tourism company Tropical Herping, and his NGO Khamai Foundation.