Presentation
Short History
The Animal Biology Graduate Program (PPGBA) was recommended by Capes (OFÍCIO Nº 273-23 / 2010) on 12/15/2010 and began its implementation activities in the first semester of 2011. Its first group, called 2011 Class, entered and began its activities in August of the same year. Based on the demand of professionals graduated in Biological Sciences courses and related areas, but without qualified training in the different areas related to animal biology, there was great potential to implement the PPGBA in order to offer the academic master’s degree and thus fill this gap in the region of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) and bordering states to work in the labor market in the area of the academy and research field. In addition, a group of teachers working in different areas of the Biological Sciences of UFMS involving animal organisms, but which until then had little integration between them and / or with little expression and insertion in the postgraduate studies (due to the lack of framework in their lines of research), were anxious to leverage the development of integrated studies that encompass areas related to zoology, as well as to increase their inclusion and participation in the formation of human resources in this area. These teachers, added to others with scientific production and already consolidated guidelines, had great potential to become a group of excellence in the area of animal biology. All these aspirations added to the current regional context favored and motivated the implementation of a PPG that contemplated one of the main regional treasures of MS: its rich biodiversity, with emphasis on the production of basic science with application in teaching, conservation and understanding of biology of the animals. Due to the high level of soil heterogeneity, topographic, altitudinal and phytophysiognomic diversity, with representative regions of the Cerrado, Pantanal, Atlantic Forest and Chaco domains, it offers an enormous field of study covering the wild fauna associated to this environmental variety in the state. Thus, in view of this academic and regional scenario, the PPGBA was proposed in order to enable human resources training in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul and Central-West region, the development and increase of research in the area of zoology, in different facets of animal biology.
Mission
The main objective of the Program is to integrate teachers from different areas of biology and motivate multidisciplinary studies with wild fauna, thus stimulating the interdisciplinary formation of students, with the development of research in the interface between different disciplines of Biology and Zoology in a fertile environment of scientific discussions, through the postgraduate / graduation multiplier effect. The line of research “Systematics and Animal Bionomics” aims to develop studies that involve aspects related to animal systematics and taxonomy, biogeography, behavior and natural history of taxon, while the line in “Morphology and Animal Physiopathology” emphasizes studies related to morphology, physiology and animal pathology, at different levels of structural organization (cells, tissues, organs and systems). However, as already described above, these two lines of research tend to work in an integrated way, or at least in partnership, involving aspects of both lines. UFMS covers a geographic-educational area with more than 350,000 km2 where approximately 100 municipalities are included, including several bordering states, such as: São Paulo, Paraná, Goiás, Mato Grosso and Minas Gerais, as well as border areas (Paraguay and Bolivia) . In addition to its headquarters in Campo Grande, the PPGBA brings together professors from other UFMS campuses in the cities of Aquidauana, Corumbá and Três Lagoas, making it possible to increase the attendance to the demand of the students in these places through counselors. The implementation of the PPGBA of UFMS aims to fill a large regional gap, since there are few Postgraduate Programs with this theme throughout the central-western region of the country.
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