Daniel Fernández is the Director of the research group Grup the Recerca de l’Escola de la Natura de Parets del Vallès(GRENP). His passion for nature, and especially for amphibians and reptiles, started when he was very young. As he grew up, he got involved in several wildlife conservation associations focusing mainly on the conservation of herps. In 2014, he funded GRENP, an association in which research, recovery of injured wildlife, management of invasive species and environmental education go hand by hand. This center looks after and recovers hundreds of reptiles and amphibians annually, and it is the only authorized and specialized center for the management of venomous species in Catalonia. Being expert in fieldwork, Dani takes part in the LIFE Tritó Montseny Project focused on the conservation of the most endangered urodele species in Europe, Calotriton arnoldi, monitoring its populations and as an advisor. He is the field coordinator of a project working on the management of an outbreak of the emergent diseases Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans in Catalonia. Dani also collaborates with the Torreferrussa Wildlife Recovery Center, helping in the identification and the recovery of wildlife species. He is responsible for a maintenance installation of viperids, taking part in a project involving venom’s composition, genetic diversity and biology of the three viper species from the Iberian Peninsula. He has traveled to Arabia together with other research groups to study arid adapted reptile taxa and especially venomous snakes, with the aim of understanding their biodiversity and distribution. To learn more about Dani’s work, please visit his blog and the website of his association.
