News

Major happenings in the Sciurid Lab

2023
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016


2023 #

November

  • Nivetha Murugesan presents her PhD pre-synopsis talk titled 'The Evolution of coat colour and patterns in palm squirrels: An integrative approach'.

October

July

  • Eight lab members present talks, speed talks, and posters at the 59th Annual Conference of the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation at Coimbatore between 02-06 July 2023. More here.
  • Harsha Kumar presents his PhD pre-synopsis talk titled 'Evolution and adaptive significance of burrowing in Lagomorphs'.

June

  • Nandini presents gives a talk synthesising our work at colour and camouflage in palm squirrels at the Understanding Behaviour conference, IISER Kolkata between 27-30 June 2023.

March

February

  • Harsha Kumar wins the Best Poster Presentation award at the 4th Annual Conference of ISEB. Poster title: Evolution of lifestyle and associated behavioural traits in Lagomorphs, by Harsha Kumar, Nandini Rajamani.
  • Harsha, Nivetha and Swati present talks and posters at the 4th Annual Conference of ISEB at Ahmedabad University between 9-11 February 2023.
  • Harsha Jagadeesh wins 3rd position at Talk Your Thesis(#TYT2023) event at India Science Fest 2023. Talk title: "It's a Squirrel Thing".



2022 #

November

October

  • Swati Udayraj presents a talk on our work on the Squirrels of India database at the TDWG 2022 conference. Talk title: Building a Database using Unconventional Sources: Squirrels of India, by Swati Udayraj, Senan D'Souza, Aravind P S, Nandini Rajamani.
  • The Ladakh field season draws to a close. Big ups to the team of interns and lab-members who helped in data collection. Shout-out to 'Technology for Wildlife Foundation' with whom, the Sciurid Lab is collaborating, on some exciting drone technology.

September

  • After months of work spread out over the year, the field work on the occurrence of palm squirrels across the Tirupati landscape is complete. Kudos to the large team of interns and lab members!

June

  • Mingyur Rigzen's article on conserving glaciers in Ladakh titled "Melting Glaciers And Human Adaptability" is published in Sanctuary Asia, Vol. 42 No. 6, June 2022. https://sanctuarynaturefoundat...
  • Rithika S, MSc Ecology student at Pondicherry University, defends her Master's thesis titled "A study on the usage of a citizen science platform as a tool for biodiversity analysis across the urban-rural gradient of Tirupati".

May

  • A batch of interns complete their internship on the 'Squirrels of India' database.
  • Harsha Jagadeesh, BSMS IISER Tirupati, submits her Master's thesis titled " A study on camouflage-influenced behavioural decisions in Funambulus palmarum".
  • Keerthi O., BSMS IISER Tirupati, submits her Master's thesis titled "Coat colouration and camouflage advantages in giant squirrels in the genus Ratufa".

April

  • The Eastern Ghats Symposium 2022 was held on 30th April and 1st May at the Marasa Sarovar, Tirupati, organised by Dr. Nandini Rajamani and team. The symposium brought together researchers, managers and policy-makers who have worked in the landscape in the last two decades or more, in an attempt to consolidate existing knowledge, and promote dialogue and collaborations.

2021 #

December

November

October

June

  • Mrugank Dake, BSMS IISER Tirupati, submits his Master's thesis titled "Statistical and machine learning approaches to squirrel acoustics".
  • Anushesh Nigam, BSMS IISER Tirupati, submits his Master's thesis titled "Macronutrient analysis of three-striped palm squirrel's diet".

May

January

  • Article in the Mid-Day titled 'Meet the squirrels of India', about species of squirrels found in India and the sciurid lab's social media outreach initiative.

2020 #

October

September

  • Amira Sophia SP, Masters's student at AVC Mayiladuthurai College, submits her Master's thesis titled "A study on the acoustics of Malabar giant squirrel, Ratufa indica, in Kodaikanal".
  • CitSci India 2020 virtual conference, where the lab presents two posters - one on Squirrels (Bishwarup, Senan, Swati, Aravind) and one on Moths (Harsha, Suyash, Senan, Viral). Nandini is on the Steering Committee of the event and co-author on a poster with researchers from SACON.

August

July

  • Nandini joins the Editorial Board of the journal Nature Communications Biology.

June

  • Shijisha AC, BSMS IISER Tirupati, submits her Masters thesis titled "Evolution of coat colour variation in palm squirrels: An image analysis of museum specimens".
  • Pranav Unnikrishnan, BSMS IISER Tirupati, submits his Masters thesis titled "Explaining the evolution of colour & patterns in squirrels using meta-analyses and experimental approaches".

May

April

March

  • A Day of Life - the first annual Biology Day at IISER Tirupati. Talk by Nandini about how the lab studies adaptations at various scales. Two posters from the Sciurid Lab-one featuring work in the Trans-Himalayas (Senan and Harsha) and another on selection for signals in tree squirrels (Nivetha, Shijisha, Amira, Suyash).
  • Bioday poster

February

  • Science Day at IISER Tirupati. The lab turns out in full force, with a high-altitude photo booth and a squirrel camouflage game on three iPads.
  • Squirrel game2
  • Squirrel game
  • The Sciurid Lab gets artwork and t-shirts!

2019 #

December

  • A reconnaissance field trip/ joint lab retreat - Sciurid and Bird labs at Pulicat.
  • Talk at SV University (Nandini)
  • Two talks (Harsha, Nandini) and a poster (Nivetha) at the National Symposium on Avian Biology, organised at IISER Tirupati.
  • Bioblitz at the Tirupati Bird Festival. Talk by Nandini, massive participation by the lab (nature walks, workshops, etc).

November

June

  • Athira Aravind, Masters student at Mar Athanasios College For Advanced Studies, submits her Master's thesis titled "Amplification and Sequence Analysis of Nuclear gene (EMB) of Indian Euphorbia species".
  • Evolution 2019 meeting (ASN/SSB/SSE) at Providence, RI, USA. Talk (Nandini) and poster (Harsha).

April

  • Athira Aravind, Master's student at Mar Athanasios College For Advanced Studies, submits her Masters thesis titled "Amplification and Sequence Analysis of Nuclear gene (EMB) of Indian Euphorbia species"

March

  • Invited Seminar at IIT Tirupati (Nandini)
  • Talk at SACON (Nandini)

2018 #

December

  • Poster presentations (Aravind, Dhanesh, Senan, Swati) at the 42nd Annual Conference of the Ethological Society of India, and a poster award (Dhanesh and Aravind).

September

  • The first Sciurid Lab retreat; at Periyar & Kodaikanal.

April

  • Dhanesh P, Master's student at AVC College Mayiladuthurai, submits his Master's thesis titled "Nest site selection in Funambulus palmarum."

March

  • Poster presentation by Nandini at YIM 2018, Thiruvananthapuram.

February

  • Talk by Nandini at the Humboldt Kolleg on ‘Climate Change and Energy Options’ at Aurangabad.

January

  • Poster presentations at YETI 2018 (Harsha, Nivetha, Senan, Swati, Shijisha).
  • DSCN5428

2017 #

September

  • Talk by Nandini at National Seminar on Himalayan Biodiversity, University of Kashmir, Srinagar
  • Poster presentation (Mihir, Nandini) at the International Biogeography Society meeting, Bangalore.
  • The lab attends the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS), Bangalore.

2016 #

April

  • The Sciurid Lab is set up at IISER Tirupati.