Interests and responsibilities

Gaby is an ecologist and veterinary nurse from Mexico. She has been living and working in the UK for almost 20 years. Her work has revolved mostly around animal reintroductions, animal health, and wildlife forensics from the little bumblebees and spiders through to white tail eagles and wolves.

Her most recent work brought her to Scotland where she studied live and dead birds of prey to look at diseases and chemicals found in these predators at the top of the food chain to better understand how this could explain ecosystem health. 

Helping set up molecular laboratories in Africa and train people how to extract DNA from elephant ivory, pangolins and many more endangered species to provide evidence in court against wildlife crime has been a more recent side branch of her conservation work.

As the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Coordinator she wants to help the partners of the scheme and all its members continue with the incredible work they have been doing for over 20 years. She finds that a very big perk of the job is to work very closely with all the friendly SRSG members and learn from the huge raptor expertise that all those involved in the scheme have to offer.

Qualifications

PhD, University of Edinburgh: Raptor Health as an indicator of ecosystem health: development of novel surveillance tools for conservation, 2021

MSc Wild Animal Biology, Royal Veterinary College, 2007

Advanced Certificate in Veterinary Nursing & Diploma in Animal Technology, CIT, Canberra, Australia, 2004

BSc. (Hons) Biology, major in Ecology, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla Mexico,
2002

Recent BTO publications

Other publications

Peniche, G., Shaw, D.J., Anderson, NE., Thompson, D.B.A., Brain, J.C., Reid, R., Weston, E., Benn, S., Anderson, D. Grant, J., Pate, L. & Meredith, A.L. 2022. Establishing haematological and biochemical reference intervals for free-ranging Scottish golden eagle nestlings (Aquila chrysaetos). European Journal of Wildlife Research 68: 43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-022-01586-7

Peniche, G., Shaw, D.J., Dures, S. Ciavaglia, S., Thompson, D.B.A., Anderson, NE. &Meredith, A.L. 2022. Determining sex in golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) chicks; European Journal of Wildlife Research. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10344-022-01586-7

Lancaster, S., Peniche, G., Alzahrani, A., Blanz, M., Newton, J., Taggart, M.A., Corns, W.T., Krupp, E.M, & Feldmann, J. 2022. Mercury speciation in Scottish raptors reveals high proportions of inorganic mercury in Scottish golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos): Potential occurrence of mercury selenide nanoparticles. Science of the Total Environment 829: 154557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154557

Mead, D., Ogden, R., Meredith, A., Peniche, G., Smith, M., Corton, C., ... & Blaxter, M. 2021. The genome sequence of the European golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos chrysaetos Linnaeus 1758. Wellcome Open Research 6: 112. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16631.1

Taggart, M.A., Shore, R.F., Pain, D.J., Peniche, G., Martinez-Haro, M., Mateo, R., Homann, J., Raab, A., Feldmann, J., Lawlor, A.J. & Potter, E.D. 2020. Concentration and origin of lead (Pb) in liver and bone of Eurasian buzzards (Buteo buteo) in the United Kingdom. Environmental Pollution 267: 115629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2020.115629

Serna, H., Pocknell, A., Sainsbury, A.W., Peniche, G., Blake, D.P. & Beckmann, K.M. 2018. Eimeria spp. in captive-reared corncrakes (Crex crex): results of a GeneScan assay consistent with high prevalence of infection and extra-intestinal life stages, Avian Pathology 47: 375-383. https://doi.org/10.1080/03079457.2018.1451621

Peniche G., Rodriguez-Ramos Fernandez, J., Shinto, J., Macgregor, S., Durrant, C., Cunningham, A. & Lawson, B. 2017. Nested PCR for (Suttonella ornithocola) reveals widespread infection in British Paridae species. European Journal of Wildlife Research 63: 50. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10344-017-1105-6

Sainsbury, A.W., Yu‐Mei, R., Ågren, E., Vaughan‐Higgins, R.J., Mcgill, I.S., Molenaar, F., Peniche, G. & Foster, J. 2017. Disease Risk Analysis and Post‐Release Health Surveillance for a Reintroduction Programme: The Pool Frog (Pelophylax lessonae). Transboundary and Emerging Diseases 64: 1530-1548. https://doi.org/10.1111/tbed.12545

Peniche, G., Olson, P.D., Bennett, D.J., Wong, L., Sainsbury, A.W. & Durrant, C. 2017. Protecting free-living dormice: molecular identification of cestode parasites in captive dormice (Muscardinus avellanarius) destined for reintroduction. EcoHealth 14:106-116. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10393-016-1108-x

Hopkins, T.H., Peniche, G., Murphy, S., Carter, I., Shorrock, G., Blunn, G., Goodship, A.E. & Sainsbury, A.W. 2013. Shooting of a hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) confirmed through advanced imaging and spectroscopy. Veterinary Records Case Report 3: 1. https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/20153057621

Simpson, S., Blampied, N., Peniche, G., Dozières, A., Blackett, T., Coleman, S., Cornish, N. & Groombridge, J.J. 2013. Genetic structure of Introduced populations: 120-year-old DNA footprint of historical introduction in an insular small mammal population. Ecology and Evolution 3: 614-628.  https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.486

Peniche, G., Vaughan-Higgins, R., Carter, I., Pocknell, A., Simpson, D. & Sainsbury, A.W. 2011. Long-term health effects of harness-mounted radio-transmitters in red kites (Milvus milvus) in England. Veterinary Record 169: 311. https://doi.org/10.1136/vr.d4600