Green areas in urban landscapes are key to maintaining biodiversity, because they provide shelter for many animals and plants species. In cities, the primary experience of people with nature occurs most often through urban parks, so these places are perfect for carrying out mediated activities that arouse the interest of visitors in the environment, by reconnecting them. Aiming to study part of this biodiversity, researchers at the Museu Biológico of the Instituto Butantan have been conducting for the second year a monitoring of the urban butterflies present in the Institute’s park. All this information collected is essential for the creation of scientific outreach activities that increase people's interest in conserving butterflies. The objectives of this work are:

Nyctibius griseus is the most common and widely-distributed species of potoo in Brazil. However, there is relatively little information about the species' reproductive biology and its general behavior. They are more easily found during the reproductive period, when male and female vocalize during courtship. It is believed that reproductive activities coincide with the rainy seasons in distinct regions, but there are no studies determining the reproductive period of N. griseus.
This work aimed to define the reproductive season of common potoo (Nyctibius griseus) over Brazil through data from the citizen science platform Wikiaves.

Urban areas have been increasingly occupied by birds, including migratory species, and in order to live in this modified environment, urban species must adopt different strategies. Foraging behavior involves complex interactions, contributing to the understanding of ecological niches. In urban environments the generalist behavior is expected to be prevalent. Although the Instituto Butantan park is in the midst of urbanized areas, it is composed of large green areas with heterogeneous forests, with exotic plant species prevailing over native ones. Different bird species of the Tyrannidae and Vireonidae families are found on the different environments available in the park.
This study objective to describe and analyze foraging behavior of eight species of birds, including six migratory (Myiodynastes maculatus, Tyrannus melancholicus, Empidonomus varius, Lathrotriccus euleri, Vireo chivi, and Tyrannus savana) and two residents (Pitangus Sulphuratus and Megarynchus pitangua), to access if there are competition among these species.

Outdoor activities provide positive experiences with great potential for promoting human health and foster positive attitudes towards conservation. The green spaces of the park of the Instituto Butantan can be used as a tool for improving public health and scientific outreach. In addition to research aimed at biodiversity knowledge and conservation, this park has been used in the last four years as an “open Natural History Museum”, and a means to scientific outreach based on the biodiversity. Through the elaboration of scripts with different themes focused on scientific outreach, it is expected that the number of activities carried out in these spaces will increase, stimulating the use of green spaces as a tool to promote health and extending the communication of science to a larger and more diversified public.
Thus, the following objectives were established:
To raise the history of the green areas of the park of the Instituto Butantan.
To elaborate outreach materials to deepen the approach and cover broader subjects whilst carrying on guided tours. 
To create new scripts to stimulate the continuous use of the trails.

Diapause is a strategy to cope with winter/dry season that is characterized by metabolic depression, cease of growth and reproduction, and changes in locomotor behavior. Functionally, diapause is similar to hibernation.
The neotropical butterfly Epityches eupompe (Nymphalidae, tribe Ithomiini), unlike most species of the same tribe, is not known to aggregate nor stop reproduction, which are features of diapause. However, the recent discovery of winter aggregations of thousands of individuals of this species in a preserved Atlantic forested site (Intervales) suggests that this population may be entering in winter diapause.

The niche shift hypothesis proposed by MacArthur in the 1970’s predicts that similar species have to differentiate in one or more niche dimensions (e.g., preferred habitat type) to avoid competition in order to coexist. We studied space use of six species of migratory birds that occurs in eastern Brazil and breed in the city of São Paulo during spring/summer: Tyrannus melancholicus, Tyrannus savana, Empidonomus varius, Myiodynastes maculatus, Lathrotriccus euleri and Vireo chivi. We also studied two species of resident birds, Pitangus sulphuratus and Megarynchus pitangua. Our objectives were to describe spatial patterns of habitat selection of migratory birds in heterogeneous urban landscapes and to compare spatial patterns of habitat selection of resident and migratory species.

Since the beginning of 1900 Instituto Butantan traditionally presents to its visitors and to the general public talks, demonstrations and activities related to snakes, poisonous animals and venoms. In 2016 four research groups from Instituto Butantan (LETA, Laboratorio de Imunopatologia, LECZ and Museu Biológico), associated with researchers from three Universities in the US, are working together on an NSF-FAPESP grant that has the evolution of venom as the main theme. Together with systematics, omics and venom function and composition, an important part of the “Scales of Biodiversity” project is to bring information to the public, as outreach and scientific dissemination of the project’s findings for all the distinct labs participating of this broad research program. We developed activities, and thematic series about snakes and venoms, designed to communicate the various aspects of the project to the public, using a website and social medias (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). The objective is to propose, create and design actions and digital media to communicate with the public through the internet and in events offered in the park of Butantan and together with partners outside the Instituto, having snake evolution and venoms as the main focus.

Behavioral and physiological adaptations that allow organisms to cope with environmental changes are crucial for their survival and reproduction. Many insects deal with seasonality using diapause, a predictive strategy synchronized with the annual variation in photoperiod. Diapause is a state of low metabolic activity characterized by higher resistance to abiotic factors, changes in behavior, and interruption of growth and reproduction. Nonetheless, climate change imposes a serious challenge to organisms: how to conciliate predictive strategies based in fixed environmental cues (e.g., diapause synchronized to photoperiod) with rapid environmental changes and the increasingly frequent occurrence of extreme climatic events? Here we will test the hypothesis of diapause in Ithomiini butterflies by analyzing their reproductive characters over the annual cycle. These butterflies form dense and localized multispecies aggregations during winter/dry season, which we suspect that could be an expression of diapause. Our hypothesis predicts that reproductive activity (measured by morphological traits of gonads) will be suppressed during winter/dry season. Our objectives are:
 Analyze gonadal development (morphology and histology) of Ithomiini individuals raised in captivity to characterize normal gonad development and 
Analyze gonad morphology/histology of individuals captured in nature to check for differences among seasons.

The resistence of some species to snake venom is an important aspect in the ecology and evolution of snakes, theirs predators, and their prey. Some species of marsupials (clade Didelphini) are known to eat snakes, including species of Bothrops, and be resistant to their venom. In non-resistant species, a blood protein called von Willebrand Factor (vWF) binds venom C-type lectins (such as Botrocetin), causing coagulopathy. Research on Didelphini has shown that at least part oftheir resistant to venom may be due to amino acid substitutions in vWF. Interestingly, recent work suggests that resistance to Botrocetin-like venom components might be present among opossums outside the clade Didelphini, and that venom resistance might be more commonly found in both predators and prey of Bothrops. 
This study aims to explore resistance to several components of Bothrops jararaca venom in predators and prey of these snakes. We will investigate
I) platelet aggregation in response to Botrocetin
II) the hemorrhagic action of the venom
These assays will be carried out for one species with in Didelphini (snake predator), one marsupial outside the clade Didelphini (prey),and one rodent prey item.

Butterflies can be divided into two feeding guilds, the nectarivorous and the frugivorous. This work focuses on the frugivorous butterflies of the park of Instituto Butantan, represented by Nymphalidae subfamilies Biblidinae, Charaxinae, Nymphalinae and Satyrinae. Butterflies are excellent indicators of the quality of the vegetation duo to their very specific plant-host relationship. In addition, their colors, daytime habits and change in the community structure throughout the year, they are also a taxonomic group that can be used in education and recreational activities, especially for kids, engaging the public in biodiversity conservation.
The objectives of this work were:
i.) To create a program of survey and monitoring of butterflies (Lepidoptera, Rhopalocera) presents in the park of Instituto Butantan. 
ii.) To gather scientific knowledge about the butterfly species that will serve as a basis for outreach activities, such as the “#vemborboletar”, a butterfly walker open tom the public and offered by the staff of Museu Biológico
iii.) To access and keep track of changes in the park’s vegetation at the local urban forest

A Bird Atlas is a long term ornithological monitoring based on extensive use of maps. It has the advantage of covering the entire area of interest with standardized data collection. Many atlases are applied to entire countries and cities, and the larger the area covered by the atlas, the coarser the spatial resolution and broader the patterns found. Atlas studies are important tools for monitoring trends and distribution patterns, and so more than 400 of such studies were conducted around the world. The Butantan Bird Atlas is the first to be conducted in Brazil. The area monitored is one of the largest green areas in the city of São Paulo, with migratory and resident species covering a broad range of ecological functions, such as pollinators and seed dispersers fundamental to the maintenance of this island of forest To conduct a long term monitoring of bird species of the Butantan Park, using a fine spatial and temporal scale. We also aim to use the results to inform the society about biodiversity and engage people in conservation.

Frugivory can be defined as the process by which an animal feeds on fruit. The study of frugivory in urban areas allows the understanding of the many processes related to the ecology and structure of the vegetation and interaction with the native fauna. This could be fundamental to the management and conservation of the urban ecosystems and improving the wellbeing of the fauna, flora and human population too. More recently, the widespread access to the internet and smartphones vastly expanded the reach of participation of the society in gathering scientific data, and ornithology has been one of the fields that benefitted most from networking involving birders and scientists. Wikiaves is a Brazilian platform of bird records based on pictures and sounds. Records uploaded by citizen scientists to Wikiaves since 2008 resulted to date in dataset that surpass 2 million pictures that might be used to study natural history of bird species. The objective of this study is to identify, analyze and quantify frugivory by birds in the city of São Paulo, using data available on the Wikiaves.

Native stingless bees are essential for the maintenance of biological diversity and the reproductive success of plants, as well as considered good bioindicators. In Brazil there are around 3000 species of bees, 300 of which are stingless. Knowledge about the number of species that are nesting in the Park of Instituto Butantan is fundamental to subsidize long term monitoring and conservation strategies for this urban park. Butantan has been famous for outreach and public dissemination of science, and scientific knowledge about these insects are also part of the strategies to communicate with the visitors about biodiversity and the importance of the environment, including animals and plants, to human health and well being. 
Therefore, the objectives of this work are:

• To survey of the species of native bees (Apidae: Meliponini) nesting in the Park of Instituto Butantan and gather information about their natural history.
• To elaborate information panels to be installed near the nests and around the park containing basic information about native bees.
• To create an illustrated guide with the species of stingless bees of the Park of Instituto Butantan.
• To create a meliponary that can be shown to the visitors, thus offering more information about social insects and the importance of pollinators
• To elaborate scripts that can be used to have “beewalks” in the park.

Participation of the society in collecting and analyzing scientific or citizen science has been on since the beginning of the 20th century, and has expanded greatly due to the availability of the internet. In the field of ornithology birders have traditionally represented a major source of information and knowledge. WikiAves is a Brazilian collaborative platform of bird species data based mainly on digital images. Other platforms such as Biofaces and the Macaulay Library also comprise valuable data. We used data from these platforms to analyze the feeding habits of Piaya cayana (Suirrel cuckoo) (Figure 1), a South American cuculidae. This species is known to feed mainly on invertebrates hunted as the bird it moves through the trees. There are also records of other types of prey such as amphibians, lizards, fruit and bird’s eggs. Our goal is to characterize the diet preferences of this species.

Birds have a great diversity of ectoparasites, such as lice, feather mites and ticks. These ectoparasites can be found in the skin, feathers, nests and respiratory passages, thus making the bird more susceptible to infections. In addition, ectoparasites may decrease reproductive success, slowing down the growth of nestlings. We assume that the pressure over birds living in small forest patches located in urban environments could influence the rates of occurrence of ectoparasites, thus making birds subject to higher levels of stress.
The objective of this work is to analyze the prevalence of ectoparasite infestation and their seasonal dynamics in birds living in continuous forest areas and urban parks in São Paulo, and subsequently correlate these results to the stress level in birds

Migration is a common phenomenon for many species, and in birds it can be defined as seasonal, predictive movements between breeding and non-breeding areas. Migration patterns in the Northern Hemisphere, or the Palearctic and Nearctic-Neotropical, are well known. However, the knowledge about migration patterns in Southern Hemisphere, specifically in the Neotropics, is still scarce. The Streaked Flycatcher (Myiodynastes maculatus) (Figure 1) is an intertropical migratory species. Its known distribution goes from Mexico to Argentina, including Brazil. In Brazil, this species reproduces from September to April then, in the case of south and southern populations, migrate to the North. Recent studies in the Northern Hemisphere pointed out that some species of birds are changing their timing of migration due to climate change whereas others are not, causing their population decline. This study aims to determine the variation of Myiodynastes maculatus arrival timing in the State of São Paulo , based on data from the Wikiaves platform.

Butterflies of the tribe Ithomiini (Nymphalidae, Danainae) are known to form dense multispecies aggregations during winter (dry season) in most of central and eastern Brazil. The strong relationship between aggregations and photoperiod - but not to rainfall - suggests that diapause may be involved in aggregations. Diapause is a predictive strategy, usually synchronized to photoperiod, that makes organisms more resistant to extreme abiotic factors allowing them to cope with seasonality. During diapause the organism enter in metabolic depression, cease growth and reproduction, and change anatomical and behavioral traits, such as locomotor performance. Understanding how organisms deal with seasonality is crucial to understand the evolution of adaptations, and also to predict organisms’ responses to climate change. Here we tested the hypothesis that Ithomiini species which aggregate during winter are in diapause by measuring their locomotor performance in the field throughout the annual cycle.

Science dissemination has been a part of the mission of Instituto Butantan since the beginning of the twentieth century. To that end, twice a year, during the vacation period, the institute organizes an event called “Férias no Butantan” in which several outreach activities are organized for the public. On July, 2018, as a proof of concept, the Observatório de Aves (Bird Observatory) of the Museu Biológico (Biological Museum) offered an activity for this event in which kids of all ages could dissect owl pellets (remains of undigested material regurgitated by the owl, see Figure 01). The pellets, containing pieces of bones, fur, scales, exoskeleton and other animal fragments, were collected from burrowing-owl (Athene cunicularia) nests. 

The Little Nightjar, Hydropsalis parvula (Figure 1), is one of the 24 Brazilian species belonging to the family Caprimulgidae. The nightjars are known to be hard to identify and observe in the wild because of the cryptic plumage and nocturnal habits, and therefore, little is known about their biology. Although the Little Nightjar is usually reported as a migratory species, the patterns of migratory movements for this species is still poorly known. The understanding of migration patterns of bird species can have a broad impact that ranges from conservation issues to environmental health vigilance related with diseases such as the Avian Flu.
This study aims to shed a light on the migratory patterns of the Little Nightjar (Hydropsalis parvula) in Brazil through the use of data available in the Citizen Science platform Wikiaves.