Harsha Kumar
Harsha Kumar
PhD Student
My current interests broadly lie in ecology, evolution, adaptations, animal behavior and natural history. The Trans-Himalayas of Ladakh pose some of the most unique and harshest environments on earth to animals that live there. During the course of my PhD I will study the evolution, genomic basis and adaptive significance of behavioral and physiological traits of pikas to high elevation cold and hypoxia. To adequately address these questions, I will use a combination of field experiments, comparative phylogenetics and comparative genomics.
While I have had the opportunity to study behavior across avian, orthopteran and mammalian systems, I find insect systems particularly fascinating as they are easy to manipulate and house in a lab setting allowing for controlled behavioral and genomic experiments.
Publications
Research Papers:
- Harsha Kumar, Dhanesh Ponnu, Senan D'Souza, Dhiraj Das, Skarma Thundup, Nandini Rajamani. 2023. Scale-dependent niche segregation along dimensions of rocks, vegetation, and elevation in sympatric pikas of Ladakh. Authorea. DOI: 10.22541/au.167934323.36333229/v1
- Debarpita Das, Harsha Kumar. 2023. The Sea Buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides in the diet of Ibisbill Ibidorhyncha struthersii. Indian Birds. 19(2) : 66- 67.
- Harsha Kumar, Senan D'souza, Dhanesh Ponnu, Nandini Rajamani. 2022. Characterization of haying behaviour by the Ladakh pika (Ochotona ladacensis) and the Nubra pika (Ochotona nubrica) from the Changthang, Ladakh, India. (In communication with Journal of Mammology).
- Harsha Kumar, Viral Joshi, Amrutha Rajan, Abhimanyu Lele. 2021. First reports of Alida Angle from Tirupati. Zoo's Print. 10(10): 22- 24.
- Harsha Kumar, Nandini Rajamani. 2022. Evolution of mouth markings in Estrildid finches in light of brood parasitism and Sibling Competition (In preparation). Fig share: DOI : 10.6084/m9.figshare.5807541.
Talks and Posters
- Harsha Kumar, Dhanesh Ponnu, Senan D'souza, Dhiraj Das, Skarma Thundup, Nandini Rajamani. 2023. Scale-dependent niche segregation along dimensions of rocks, vegetation, and elevation in sympatric pikas of Ladakh. Poster at ATBC 2023, Coimbatore. July 2023.
- Harsha Kumar and Nandini Rajamani. 2023. Evolution of lifestyle and associated behavioural traits in Lagomorphs. Best Poster prize winner at ISEB 4, Ahmedabad. 10th February 2023.
- Harsha Kumar, Suyash Sawant, Senan D’Souza, Viral Joshi, and Nandini Rajamani. 2022. Influence of citizen science drives in documenting moth diversity in India. Talk at the ‘Eastern Ghats Symposium 2022’, IISER Tirupati. May 2022.
- Harsha Kumar. 2021. General butterfly biology. Talk at the Summer camp for kids at Vizag Zoo. 1st July 2021.
- Harsha Kumar, Senan D'Souza, Suyash Sawant, Viral Joshi and Nandini Rajamani.2020. Influence of citizen science drives in documenting moth diversity of India. Talk at CitSci India 30th September 2020.
- Harsha Kumar. 2020. The fascinating world of butterfly behaviour. Talk at the Karnataka Butterfly Festival. 13th November 2020.
- Harsha Kumar, Senan D'Souza, Dhanesh Ponnu, Nandini Rajamani. 2020. Adaptations of small mammals to cold in the Trans-Himalayas. Poster at IISER Tirupati Bio Day. 7th March 2020.
- Harsha Kumar and Nandini Rajamani. 2019. Evolution of burrowing and associated behavioral traits in Lagomorphs. Poster at Evolution 2019 Meeting, Providence, RI, USA. 21st-25th June 2019.
- Harsha Kumar and Nandini Rajamani. 2019. Evolution of mouth markings in Estrildid finches in the light of competition and brood parasitism. Talk at the National Symposium of Avian Biology, IISER Tirupati. 8th December 2019.
- Harsha Kumar and Nandini Rajamani. 2018. Evolution of mouth patterns in Estrildid finches. Poster at the Young Ecologists Talk and Interact 2018 Meeting, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. February 2018.