ALUMNI
PHD Students
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Avik Banerjee
[email protected] Foraging is an indispensable task of all animals required for providing necessary energy for all fitness related activities, thereby, directly affecting an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Environmental risks, such as seasonality, resource uncertainty, and predators can bring about physiological challenges for animals, such as creating new nutritional demands for them. Animals should therefore adapt behaviourally by altering their foraging decisions to meet the new nutritional demands to gain maximum fitness. My study explores the role that environmental risks play in governing physiological stress responses and the dietary/nutritional decisions in the Indian Rock Agama, Psammophilus dorsalis, found in peninsular India. Research interests: Behavioural ecology, Nutritional Ecology, Predator-prey interactions, Nutritional energetics. Education: MSc in Zoology, Visva Bharati (2017) |
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Anuradha Batabyal [email protected] | [email protected] | Google Scholar | anuradhabatabyal.weebly.com/ My research focused on the beautiful colour-changing Rock Agamas (Psammophilus dorsalis), which have been remarkably successful at adapting themselves to survive in both rural and urban areas. How do they modify their colour communication system, deal with greater stress, avoid predators and become faster learners to negotiate the fast-paced and hostile urban environment? During my PhD, I tackled all these questions! |
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Madhura S. Amdekar
[email protected] | Google Scholar Animal signals usually reflect a balance between the forces of natural and sexual selection. I am interested in understanding the relative strength of these forces in maintenance of a complex signal type: dynamic colour change. Males of the peninsular rock agama (Psammophilus dorsalis) exhibit rapid dynamic colour changes on their lateral and dorsal body regions during social interactions. The costs, benefits, and adaptive significance of this dynamic colour change is yet unknown. I am interested in examining the relative importance of different components of the dynamic colour signal in sexual signalling by this species, determining the information content of the colour signal and quantifying the effect of ecological variables such as microhabitat, social intensity, and predation intensity on visual signalling. Currently working at Wiley. Research Interests: Sexual selection, Behavioural ecology, Communication and signalling Education:Integrated M.Sc. (Systems Biology), University of Hyderabad (2013) |
Master's Students
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Sagnik Nandy
[email protected] Completing my Master’s in biotechnology, I successfully transitioned to pursuing my passion of research in wildlife ecology. Aspiring quantitative, spatial ecologist–focusing on animal movement. I am interested in a bunch of things including understanding structural movement patterns and underlying processes from which they emerge, environmental drivers of movement and space use, modelling movement and distribution. Currently I am working on understanding the energetics of movement- how energy expenditure is spatially structured and the role of environmental covariates. I am interested in theoretically and conceptually linking the role of cognition—spatial memory and learning, in shaping animal movement and space use. Research Interests: Movement ecology, Spatial ecology, population dynamics, Modelling, Quantitative ecology, Statistical tools. Education: M.Sc. Biotechnology- St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata (2021) |
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Marwa Razak
[email protected] My research interests broadly lie at the intersection of evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology, with a particular interest in understanding animal behaviour from an evolutionary perspective. For my Master's Thesis with the Macrophysiology lab, I studied how fine-scale microhabitat thermal conditions vary across landscapes and how it influences the thermal physiology of two agamid lizards. Our work shows that microclimates and species-specific thermal traits are key to predicting animal responses to climate change. Currently, I am working as a Junior Research Fellow with Dr Jahnavi Joshi at the EvolEco Lab, CCMB where I study the role of diet in the ecological speciation and diversification of an ancient group of centipedes using gut metabarcoding. In other words, I spend a lot of time figuring out what the centipedes ate to test whether they really are what they eat, in evolutionary terms. Aside from my research, I love being outdoors, herping, hiking, travelling or planning my next trip :) Education: Integrated BS-MS degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Tirupati |
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Md Shahnawaz Zafar [email protected] My Master's thesis project focuses on understanding the physiological and developmental impacts of early-life stress in the lizard Psammophilus dorsalis. By experimentally inducing corticosterone levels to simulate stress, we investigated its effects on two critical aspects: wound healing and cranial morphology. The implications of this research extend beyond herpetology, providing insights into how environmental stressors can shape phenotypic plasticity and resilience in vertebrates, which is crucial for conservation biology and understanding stress physiology across species. Education: BSc (Zoology), AMU, Aligarh |
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Pushkar Wagh [email protected] | Twitter - @Pushkar_1701 My broad interests lie in the domain of thermal and visual ecology. My current research at the lab focuses on the thermal ecology of Anurans in the city of Bengaluru, examined through the lens of urbanization. I also study ontogenetic stage-specific differences in the thermal physiology of D. melanostictus individuals and investigate potential behavioral thermoregulatory mechanisms in these tadpoles. My future work will explore the effects of climate change on butterfly wing coloration and reflectance at STRI, Panama. In my spare time, I am generally watching, playing or wondering about football, hiking around my hometown or conversing with my pets. Education - BS-MS (Biology), IISER Bhopal (2024) |
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Vibhuti Shastri
[email protected] I was an MSc. student at CES and I was studying predator movement dynamics from a conceptual point of view, as well as from empirical data of carnivores from South Africa. Education: BS-MS (Biological Sciences), IISER Bhopal (2017) |
Int-PHD Students
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Shakilur Kabir [email protected] I was an Integrated Ph.D student and my interested in understanding evolution of animal communication. My research is primarily focused on understanding signal design, signaller-receiver interaction dynamics, and the role of environment in driving those patterns. To do this, I performed a comparative study of visual and chemical signals of five species of diurnal geckos in the genus Cnemaspis, endemic to the Western Ghats. Understanding changes in signals, the corresponding changes in their reception, and the cause and/or mechanism of the change is key to determine how animal communication evolves. |
Research Associates
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Saumitra Dhere
[email protected] I completed my Master's in Ecology from Pondicherry University in 2023. My thesis focused on owl populations around Pune, examining the effects of urbanization on owl occupancy along an urbanization gradient and investigating local perceptions of owls. Following my master's, I was involved a study estimating the population of the Critically Endangered Indian Kangaroo Lizard (Agasthyagama beddomei). Currently, I am a Project Associate at the Macrophysiology Lab, where I primarily work on the herpetofauna segment of the Long-Term Ecological Observatories Project. My role involves fieldwork across India, collecting data on the diversity, distribution, and thermal traits of various frog and reptile species. I am also engaged in research projects that explore the thermal physiology and sleep ecology of agamid lizards |
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Adeeb Mohammed Kunjali [email protected] I work on the lizard Psamophillus dorsalis. I used to look at how the food they ate affected their responses to predator stress, now I look at how anthropogenic and natural stressors (read as light, heat and predator attacks) affect their quality of sleep. I am currently working with Aaryan Dhawan and Nithya Mohanty exploring sleep dynamics of Psammophillus dorsalis. |
