Thomas R. Defler (born 26 November 1941;

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

) is a North American primatologist who lives and works in Colombia. Defler earned his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

at Denver in 1976 and then moved to Colombia. He worked in eastern Colombia in the

Llanos The Llanos ( Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, ...

until 1984. Defler then worked in the Amazonian

Vaupés Department Vaupés may refer to: * Vaupés River Vaupés River (Uaupés River) is a tributary of the Rio Negro in South America. It rises in the Guaviare Department of Colombia, flowing east through Guaviare and Vaupés Departments. It forms part of the i ...

where he developed and lived in his research station, Estación Biológica Caparú until 1998. In 1998, he was obligated to flee from his research station by

FARC The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conf ...

guerrillas. He had run a primate rehabilitation center in Vaupes. He is the author of several papers about primates and of the books ''Primates de Colombia'' (2003), ''Primates of Colombia'' (2004) and ''Historia Natural de los Primates Colombianos'' (2010) . He edited a monograph on

woolly monkey The woolly monkeys are the genus ''Lagothrix'' of New World monkeys, usually placed in the family Atelidae. Both species in this genus originate from the rainforests of South America. They have prehensile tails and live in relatively large soci ...

s as well. Currently, he heads another Amazonian research station that he has developed in the southern Colombian Amazon, Estación Ecológica Omé, that is affiliated with the

National University of Colombia The National University of Colombia () is a national public research university in Colombia, with general campuses in Bogotá, Medellín, Manizales and Palmira, and satellite campuses in Leticia, San Andrés, Arauca, Tumaco, and La Paz, ...

and he teaches at the

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the largest ...

campus of the same university. He and the Colombian biologist Marta Bueno are credited with first describing

Hernández-Camacho's night monkey Hernández-Camacho's night monkey (''Aotus jorgehernandezi'') is a species of night monkey of the family Aotidae. It was first described in 2007 by Thomas Defler and Marta Bueno. It has a gray neck and a white patch over each eye, separated by ...

(''Aotus jorgehernandezi'') in 2007. Together with Javier Garcia, he led an expedition in which they discovered and described a new species of

titi monkey The titis, or titi monkeys, are New World monkeys of the subfamily Callicebinae, which contains three extant genera: ''Cheracebus'', ''Callicebus'', and ''Plecturocebus.'' This subfamily also contains the extinct genera ''Miocallicebus, Homuncu ...

, the

Caquetá titi Caquetá may refer to: * Caquetá River, a river in Colombia * Caquetá Territory, a former territory of Colombia * Caquetá Department Caquetá Department () is a department of Colombia. Located in the Amazonas region, Caquetá borders wi ...

(''Callicebus caquetensis''). Using karyotypes, Defler has done work clarifying the taxonomy of various species of

night monkey Night monkeys, also known as owl monkeys or douroucoulis (), are nocturnal New World monkeys of the genus ''Aotus'', the only member of the family Aotidae (). The genus comprises eleven species which are found across Panama and much of South Ame ...

('' Aotus''). He has done field studies in the Colombian

and the Colombian Amazon on the

white-fronted capuchin White-fronted capuchin can refer to any of a number of species of gracile capuchin monkey which used to be considered as the single species ''Cebus albifrons''. White-fronted capuchins are found in seven different countries in South America: Bo ...

(''Cebus albifrons''), the

brown woolly monkey The common woolly monkey, brown woolly monkey, or Humboldt's woolly monkey (''Lagothrix lagothricha'') is a woolly monkey from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Venezuela. It lives in groups of two to 70 individuals, usually splittin ...

(''Lagothrix lagothricha''), the

black-headed uakari The golden-backed uakari (''Cacajao melanocephalus'') or black-headed uakari, is a New World primate from the family Pitheciidae. It lives in the Amazon Rainforest, and is found in the countries of Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. It has black ...

(''Cacajao melanocephalus''), the

black titi The black titi monkey (''Cheracebus lugens''), is a species of titi, a type of New World monkey, from South America. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela. It was described in 1811 as ''Calicebus lugens''. It is sometimes called th ...

(''Callicebus lugens''), the Lucifer titi (''Callicebus lucifer''), and the

Venezuelan red howler The Colombian red howler or Venezuelan red howler (''Alouatta seniculus'') is a South American species of howler monkey, a type of New World monkey, found in the western Amazon Basin in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. The populati ...

(''Alouatta seniculus'') and has accomplished many primate censuses in different parts of eastern Colombia.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Defler, Thomas R. 1941 births Living people Primatologists American emigrants to Colombia University of Colorado Denver alumni 20th-century American scientists 21st-century biologists People from Denver Scientists from Colorado 20th-century biologists