Professor
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
Phone: 979-845-5750
Email: tlacher@tamu.edu
Webpage: http://wfsc.tamu.edu/directory/faculty-directory/thomas-e-lacher-jr/
My current research is focused on the assessment of conservation status in mammals and the analysis and monitoring of large-scale patterns and trends in biodiversity, primarily in the tropics. I was founding director of the Tropical Ecology, Assessment and Monitoring Network, based at Conservation International and currently under the direction of Dr. Sandy Andelman. This project is implementing standardized protocols for the monitoring of a variety of vegetation, climate and vertebrate indicators at field stations in the tropics.
I am also involved in the Global Mammal Assessment, done in collaboration with the IUCN Species Survival Commission, which has evaluated the conservation status of all species of mammals in the world. Texas A&M University is also one of ten members of the Red List Partnership and I am interested and involved in policy decisions related to the Red List. I am also Co-Chair of the IUCN Small Mammal Specialist Group. Recent graduate student research includes mammalian community patterns along an altitudinal gradient in Mexico, spatial and temporal patterns of space and resource use of macaws in Peru, cultural values and conservation in the Iwokrama Forest region of Guyana, conservation policies and corridor conservation in Costa Rica, and assessment of corridor-level conservation of a plant-pollinator system in the Big Bend-Carmen Corridor region.