Suriname has 93% of its original forest still intact, the highest percentage of any country on earth.

I started spending time in Suriname during my undergraduate degree when I helped to organize three expeditions for Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History to study birds in Suriname’s interior. These expeditions resulted in the discovery of multiple birds never before recorded in Suriname and the first documentation of a new subspecies of bird from the Tafelberg mountain in central Suriname.

I also spent several months working at a research station in Suriname’s Raleighvallen Nature Reserve and hosted a documentary for NHK Japanese public broadcasting on the cock-of-the-rock in Suriname.

Check out the links below to learn more about these projects!

Learn more…

My work on bird’s in southern Suriname was supported by the Yale University’s B. Edward Bensinger Prize, the Yale College Dean’s Research Fellowship, and the Yale Environmental Studies Internship.

Mittermeier, J.C., and K. Gajapersad. 2012. Birding extreme southern Suriname: Kwamalasamutu and the Sipaliwini savanna. Neotropical Birding 10: 48-58.

Zyskowski, K., J.C. Mittermeier, O. Ottema, M. Rakovic, B.J. O’Shea, J.E. Lai, S.B. Hochgraf, J. de Leon, and K. Au. 2011. Avifauna of the Easternmost Tepui, Tafelberg in Central Suriname. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 52(1): 153-180.

Mittermeier, J.C., K. Zyskowski, E.S. Stowe, and J.E. Lai. 2010. New additions to the avifauna of the Sipaliwini Savanna (Suriname) confirm its affinity to the Brazilian Cerrado. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History 51(1): 97-122.

Zyskowski, K., J.C. Mittermeier, and E.S. Stowe. 2008. First description of the nest of the Band-tailed Antshrike (Thamnophilus melanothorax). Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 16(3): 246-249.

Mittermeier, J.C. 2007. A Yale student expedition discovers a new bird for Suriname. Yale Environmental News 12(2): 22-25.