He had run a primate rehabilitation center in Vaupes.
He is the author of many papers about primates and of the books Primates de Colombia (2003), Primates of Colombia (2004) and Historia Natural de los Primates Colombianos (2010) .
He and the Colombian biologist Marta Bueno are credited with first describing Hernández-Camacho's night monkey (Aotus jorgehernandezi) in 2007.
Together with Javier Garcia, he led an expedition in which they discovered and described a new species of titi monkey, the Caquetá titi (Callicebus caquetensis).
Using karyotypes, Defler has done work clarifying the taxonomy of various species of night monkey (Aotus).
He has done field studies in the Colombian llanos and the Colombian Amazon on the white-fronted capuchin (Cebus albifrons), the brown woolly monkey (Lagothrix lagothricha), the black-headed uakari (Cacajao melanocephalus), the black titi (Callicebus lugens), the Lucifer titi (Callicebus lucifer), and the Venezuelan red howler (Alouatta seniculus) and has accomplished many primate censuses in different parts of eastern Colombia.