Profile: Dr. Thomas H. White, Jr. is a Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Program, where he has worked since 1999. Dr. White (Tom) is responsible for planning and conducting releases of captive-reared Puerto Rican Parrots, and telemetry and nesting studies of the wild population in the El Yunque rainforest. Prior to his current work in Puerto Rico, Tom conducted a series of experimental releases of captive-reared Hispaniolan Parrots in Parque Nacional del Este, Dominican Republic from 1997-99. The release project in the Dominican Republic provided information and techniques that were later used in the releases of captive-reared Puerto Rican parrots in the El Yunque rainforest, and the subsequent successful reintroduction of Puerto Rican Parrots in the Rio Abajo karst forest in northwestern Puerto Rico. Tom has also collaborated on telemetry and nesting studies of Bahamian Parrots (Amazona leucocephala) on Abaco Island, Bahamas, and has also been directly involved in a new and first-ever ecological study of Slender-billed Parakeets (Enicognathus leptorhynchus) in southern Chile. Born and raised in western Tennessee, Tom has a B.S. in Natural Resources Management from the University of Tennessee, a M.S. in Wildlife Management from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology from Mississippi State University. Tom was also once in wildlife law enforcement, when he worked for 6 years as an undercover agent infiltrating and prosecuting organized groups of illegal wildlife traffickers and poachers throughout the southeastern United States. Tom’s hobbies are photography, gardening, gourmet cooking, and competitive target shooting with a .357 Magnum revolver and the AK-47 and M-16 rifle.
