About
Position: Managing Director Field Programs, Center for Conservation and Sustainability, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park
Dr. Alfonso Alonso is a research scientist at the National Zoo Conservation Biology Institute at the Smithsonian. He has done research on monarch butterflies at the overwintering sites in Mexico for more than 30 years. Examples of his research include the analysis of the crawling behavior that monarchs have to avoid predation when they are on the ground and it is too cold for them to fly. He also investigated bird and mouse predation as it relates to forest density. He also determined the rate in which monarch butterflies consume their lipid reserves during the overwintering period.
Board, Advisors & Staff