Just recently, Diego Garcia visited the Instituto de Investigación para el Desarrollo Sustentable de Ceja de Selva (INDES-CES) at the Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza in Chachapayos, Amazonas, Peru to lead a workshop on “Introduction to Occupancy Models using R”.  Diego is a PhD candidate in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at University of Florida co-advised by Bette Loiselle and Scott Robinson.  He is undertaking a large environmental gradient study in nw Peru examining bird community composition.  His own research involves point counts, mist-netting, and remote-sensing and drone technology to understand how bird populations are distributed along environmental and vegetation gradients within the dry forests.  He will be applying occupancy models, and likely multi-species occupancy models in his research.  His work is funded by numerous sources including a fellowship from the Peruvian government, Rufford Foundation and National Geographic Society.