Interests: Evolution, Behavior, Conservation

Tica de corazon-Born in Palmar Sur, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Positions:
Lecturer and Research Associate at the Department of Biology, University of Vermont

Program Director of Life Science Scholar 
College of Arts and Sciences, 
University of Vermont

​Affiliations:
Research Associate at CIMAR (Centro de Investigacion en Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia), Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica
​Affiliated Professor at Universidad Maritima Internacional de Panama.
​Co-Founder of Panacetacea.org

Member of the Committee of Scientific Advisers for The Society for Marine Mammalogy ​
Scientific Adviser to MI AMBIENTE, Government of Panama
Phone: (802) 656-4138, Office: 217A MLS Department  of Biology, UVM
Email: lmaycollado@gmail.com; lmaycoll@uvm.edu

Research

My research interest is on the evolution of acoustic communication in marine mammals. I use a number of methods including phylogenetics, data mining, bioacoustics, and behavior to study how acoustic signals evolved in these animals and to understand how they respond to changes in their soundscape. I am also interested in the application of remote underwater recording systems to study various scales of geographical and temporal variations in soundscapes and how these changes may affect the acoustic communication spaces of marine organisms that rely on sound for the survival and reproduction.

Awareness & Outreach

Habitat loss, overexploitation, and increasing noise levels are threatening the soundscape of many marine organisms,  including marine mammals. A significant part of my research career is to use monitoring data to address conservation concerns on marine mammals, provide  training, and develop awareness and outreach activities for the general public. 

New Publications

Listening to Nature

Studying marine soundscapes

In partnership with Conservation International Costa Rica, CIMAR-University of Costa Rica, Panacetacea, and the Ministry of Environment (Mi Ambiente) Panama, Dr. May-Collado is leading the project Ondas-Costa Rica and project Acustica Panama which main goal is to document the marine biodiversity using sound as a cue for species richness. The project also seeks to understand the impact of increasing noise levels associated to boat traffic to migratory species like humpback whales, and resident species of dolphins and fish. The project uses three models of underwater acoustic recorders to capture the soundscape of three marine habitats and online tools from ARBIMON II to catalog and analyze the information. For more information go to Project Ondas/Project Acustica.

Partnership with Panacetacea, MI AMBIENTE and PDUN Panama, CIMAR-UCR

Partnership with Conservation International Costa Rica & CIMAR-UCR 

Picture
Listen to a humpback whale singing at 2 a.m. on September 20, 2016 near Isla del Cano, Costa Rica.

Studying dolphin acoustic response to dolphin watching boats

I am co-advising graduate student Betzy Perez (McGill-STRI). She is studying how bottlenose dolphins from Bocas del Toro, Panama respond to dolphin watching boats. She is collecting skin samples (Permit MI AMBIENTE #SE-A-75-17) to measure stress hormone levels and deploying two RUDAR-mk2 underwater recorders to study how their acoustic behavior changes throughout the day in two locations that vary on boat traffic.

On the communication of a newly discovered species of river dolphin

Graduate Student Gabriel Melos is studying the acoustic behavior of a newly discovered river dolphin in Brazil. Visit Gabi's blog to learn more about what it takes to develop this kind of research
Photos by Gabriel Melos et al.

Communicating our science