He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences,[1] and for the past thirty-five years, has been actively involved in tropical ecology and conservation issues.

An authority on avian and mammalian ecology in Neotropical forests, Terborgh has published numerous articles and books on conservation themes.

[7] Terborgh's study of how competition limits bird ranges involved surveying the Cerros del Sira, "a corner of the world so remote that one must travel a full week to obtain even the most trivial supplies".

[8] The Acknowledgements of this paper state "[Terborgh]'s life was saved in a grueling ordeal of emergency by the extraordinary exertions of several unnamed Campa Indians and four Peruvian assistants...".

In 2005, he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation during the organization's annual meeting held in Uberlândia, Brazil.