Senan D'Souza
Senan D'Souza
Researcher
My research interests lie in ecology and biogeography. I work on documenting the occurrence of small mammal assemblages, primarily in extreme habitats of the Trans-Himalayas, but also in other landscapes like the Eastern and Western Ghats. I work with environmental predictors to understand how species have evolved to specific conditions, and how climate change and anthropogenic pressures could impact species in the future. Additionally, I am part of a team that is cataloging and monitoring biodiversity in developmental projects around the Tirupati landscape.
Previously, I have worked on non-volant small mammals in North-east India as part of a large project aimed at understanding the distribution of small cats and their non-volant small mammal prey. For my Master’s dissertation, I looked at the effect of selective – logging on non-volant small mammal assemblages in Pakke Tiger Reserve and the adjoining Papu Reserve Forest in Arunachal Pradesh, North-east India, with Dr. Krishnapriya Tamma, NCBS, Bangalore; and Dr. André P. Silva, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
In the past, I’ve also been involved with other research projects involving line-transects, occupancy frameworks and questionnaire surveys, with organizations like Centre for Wildlife Studies, Wildlife Conservation Society, National Centre for Biological Sciences and Wildlife Institute of India.
Publications
Research Papers:
Kumar H., D’Souza S., Ponnu D., Rajamani N., 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 Mammalogy).
Talks and Posters
- 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.
- Swati Udayraj, Aravind P S, Senan D’Souza and Nandini Rajamani. 2022. Pan-India to Tirupati: Understanding trends and patterns of squirrel occurrence. Talk at the ‘Eastern Ghats Symposium 2022’, IISER Tirupati. May 2022.
- Biswarup Paul, Senan D’Souza, Swati Udayraj, Aravind P S and Nandini Rajamani. 2020. Modelling palm squirrel distribution with citizen science, social media and traditional data sources. Talk at the ‘CitSci India 2020’ conference. Online. September 2020.
- 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 the ‘CitSci India 2020’. September 2020
- Senan D'Souza, Harsha Kumar and R Nandini. 2020. Adaptations of small mammals to cold in the Trans-Himalayas. Poster at IISER Tirupati Bio Day. 7th March 2020.
- Senan D'Souza, Swati Udayraj and Nandini Rajamani. 2019. Poster at Understanding species limits and genetic connectivity, and modelling range shifts of marmots in the Indian Trans-Himalayas. Evolution 2019, Providence, RI, USA. 21st-25th June 2019.
- Senan D’Souza, Swati Udayraj and R. Nandini. 2018. Distribution and occurrence of two species of marmots in Kashmir & Ladakh. Poster at ESI Annual Conf/Seminar on Animal Behaviour, Biodiversity and Human Future, Kozhikode, Kerala. December 2018.
- Dhanesh P, Aravind P. S., Senan D’Souza, and R. Nandini. 2018. Is commensal behaviour responsible for range shifts in a palm squirrel?. Poster at XLII Annual Conference of Ethological Society of India & National Conference on Animal Behaviour Biodiversity and Human Future. Calicut University, Calicut. December 2018 | Awarded second best poster prize.
- Senan D’Souza, Swati Udayraj and R. Nandini. 2018. Distribution and occurrence of two species of marmots in Kashmir & Ladakh. Poster at ‘Young Ecologists Talk and Interact’, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. February 2018. DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.5808300.v2
- Senan D’Souza*, Krishnapriya Tamma, Andre P. Silva, Mats Bjorklund. 2016. “Effect of selective- logging on non-volant small mammal assemblages in a tropical forest in Arunachal Pradesh, North-east India”. Poster at Students Conference on Conservation Science, September 2016.