Guilherme Frainer

My academic career was based at the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal (PPGBAN) - Department of Zoology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), where I have concluded my bachelor in Biological Sciences studying the taxonomy and systematics of freshwater fishes. During the masters and the PhD, I have investigated the ontogeny, evolution and functional morphology of the sound generating structures in dolphins. The main idea was to answer how dolphins evolved different head shapes into similar sound production capabilities, and how unique features might reflect the natural history of some particular species. I have great interest in the classification of cetacean acoustic behaviors, particularly in toothed whales. This topic is of great relevance for Passive Acoustic Monitoring (from real-time to long-term studies), and might be helpful for understanding the evolution of call patterns across species. I am now enrolled in a post-doc position at the Centre for Statistics in Ecology, the Environment and Conservation - Department of Statistical Sciences, University of Cape Town, to investigate humpback dolphin bioacoustics and population dynamics in collaboration with Sea Search Research and Conservation.