Page 9 - Tracking Tortoises: The Mission to Save a Galápagos Giant

AINOA NIETO IRENE PEÑA
CLAUDIN Title: Volunteer with the
Title: Researcher for the Charles Darwin Foundation
Charles Darwin Foundation Education: Veterinary
and Saint Louis Zoo Institute Medicine degree from the
for Conservation Medicine Complutense University of

Education: Veterinary Madrid
Medicine degree from the Irene grew up in a family
Complutense University of with lots of animals—
Madrid and currently working everything from dogs and
on a PhD in Veterinary
Medicine cats to cows and pigs. She
was interested in medicine
Ainoa Nieto Claudin grew up but wasn’t sure she wanted
in Madrid, Spain, and has to work with people, so her
wanted to be a veterinarian mom suggested veterinary
since she was four years old. medicine. She volunteered with the foundation for a year,
Her aunt was a vet, and by the time she was ten, she was helping to prepare samples for analysis in the lab.
helping out at her aunt’s clinic, even assisting with
surgeries. She says working with the Galápagos Tortoise
Movement Ecology Programme in the Galápagos Islands
is a dream come true.