Jesús A. Rivas

Jesús A. Rivas (born in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan herpetologist, tropical ecologist, and television correspondent. His research interests include natural history, ethology, and conservation. He has been working for several years studying the behavioral ecology and conservation of large tropical reptiles of the llanos of Venezuela. Most of his experience has been with green iguanas and green anacondas, but he has also worked with other reptiles such as the Orinoco crocodile, spectacled caiman, and green sea turtles. His current research is with anacondas. It was the topic of his dissertation at the University of Tennessee and it is the topic of a forthcoming technical book.

After graduation Rivas taught a course of tropical ecology for Boston University for one year and then worked making TV documentaries for National Geographic Television as a field correspondent during three years. Rivas taught in a few other schools in Ohio (Otterbein College) and Kentucky (Somerset Community College) before settling at New Mexico Highlands University where he teaches currently.

Before getting into the career of biology Jesús worked as a fireman for seven years at the Cuerpo de Bomberos Universitarios de Caracas. During this time he worked not only on emergency calls of all natures (Emergency Medicine, Save and Rescue, and Building and Forest fires being the most common) but also in education and instructing the community in dealing with emergencies. Rivas worked his way through the ranks until becoming Chief commander of the institution. At that point he was faced with the choice of a career as a fireman, which would have demanded he live in a large city, or to finish his degree in biology and work with wildlife and nature. Rivas chose the latter and started working with biology of reptiles and other wildlife of his native country

His experience as a fireman taught him things about conservation that he would have never learned in an academic setting. In his own words “It put me in contact with the harsh social reality of the large city and led me further into my interest in nature and the study of the secret life of animals”1. Rivas’s social awareness also led him to incursion in the area of political writing and political activism. He believes that until we offer real solutions for people that live in rural areas to live in harmony with nature we will continue to sink in our current environmental crisis. I am a firm advocate for conservation education at both the early grades and at the college level.

He is the author or co-author of several journal and popular articles, and maintains an informative website on anacondas at anacondas.org.