The People of The Peregrine Fund: Julio Gallardo

For most of those tuned in that night, the TV documentary was just an enjoyable evening viewing. But for one 14-year-old boy in a rural town in northeastern Mexico, the film would be life-changing. “[The Peregrine Fund’s founder] Tom Cade was in it, talking about the recovery of the Peregrine Falcon,” remembers Julio Gallardo, our Conservation Biologist for International Projects. “At that moment, I just remember watching that segment and saying, yeah, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Julio would go on to do just that. He would next encounter The Peregrine Fund in his early twenties, while working at a hawkwatch site in Veracruz, Mexico. “The organization for which I worked had a bunch of magazines, and among them were a bunch of Peregrine Fund newsletters,” he explains. “Mostly it was just the adventures of [our Madagascar & West Indies Conservation Director] Russell Thorstrom." He became quickly became Julio's role model. “I just really wanted to be like that guy.” 

Inspired, Julio decided to reach out to us to learn more about our work. That conversation would ultimately lead to a position monitoring Aplomado Falcons in northern Mexico in 2002, and though he hasn’t remained an employee the entire time, his career has been inextricably interwoven with The Peregrine Fund ever since. His doctoral research in Puerto Rico helped make him an expert on the Puerto Rican Sharp-shinned Hawk, and he collaborated with The Peregrine Fund to establish what would become our Puerto Rico Program in 2015. More recently, he partnered with us to study Aplomado Falcons in Mexico for his post-doctoral research before joining our team as a full-time staff member in December of 2023.

Today, Julio provides both logistical and on-the-ground support to several of our projects, including today’s iteration of the Puerto Rico Program and our Ridgway’s Hawk Project in the Dominican Republic. He is also currently developing projects to search for two “lost” species (species that have not been detected by scientists for many years), the Cuban Kite in Cuba and the Pernambuco Pygmy-owl in Brazil. Julio maintains an office at our headquarters in Boise, but due to his frequent travels he shares the space... with his mentor, Russell Thorstrom.

“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I was going to be sharing an office and traveling to so many countries with my hero,” says Julio. “It’s difficult to put into words how meaningful it’s been for me to become part of The Peregrine Fund legacy, and to help keep building that legacy. It’s not just the 50 years in the past—that legacy is happening now, day by day.”