Stotra ChakrabartiMacalester College · Department of Biology
Stotra Chakrabarti
MS & PhD (Wildlife Sciences)
About
24
Publications
11,511
Reads
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133
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Currently a faculty at Macalester College, USA. I teach undergrad and graduate courses in Animal Behavior and Wildlife Conservation at Macalester, University of Minnesota & Wildlife Institute of India. I study proximate patterns of animal interactions and their ultimate causes. My research interests largely involve understanding predator-prey dynamics, group living and its causes, feeding ecology and animal physiology, and behavioural patterns underlying human-wildlife conflict.
Additional affiliations
September 2019 - October 2020
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Research on: 1. lion behavior across multiple sites, 2. wolf demography, survival and effects on ungulates, 3. animal cultures, 4. Tsavo elephants. Teaching and mentoring of undergrad and grad students
September 2013 - April 2019
Position
- Senior Researcher
Description
- Field research pertaining to behavior, predation ecology and ranging patterns of Asiatic lions in Gir through long-term monitoring and radio-telemetry. Supervision of research pertaining to human wildlife conflict in India.
Education
June 2011 - July 2013
May 2008 - April 2011
Publications
Publications (24)
A thorough understanding of mechanisms of prey consumption by carnivores and the constraints on predation help us in evaluating the role of carnivores in an ecosystem. This is crucial in developing appropriate management strategies for their conservation and mitigating human-carnivore conflict. Current models on optimal foraging suggest that mammal...
In species exhibiting infanticide by males, females lose out with high stakes and should adopt pre-emptive mechanisms, pitching the genders in an evolutionary arms race for maximizing fitness. African lions remain a quintessential model of this gender war, with a coalition of males gaining temporary but exclusive breeding rights over a female-group...
The influence of kinship on animal cooperation is often unclear. Cooperating Asiatic lion coalitions are linearly hierarchical; male partners appropriate resources disproportionately. To investigate how kinship affect coalitionary dynamics, we combined microsatellite based genetic inferences with long-term genealogical records to measure relatednes...
Understanding sexual segregation is crucial for comprehending sociality. A comparative analysis of long-term lion data from Serengeti and Ngorongoro in Tanzania, and Gir in India, reveals that male-female associations are contingent upon male and female group size, prey- size and availability, and the number of prides that each male coalition curre...
Biodiversity conservation and human well-being are tightly interlinked. Yet, mismatches in the scale at which these two priority issues are planned and implemented have exacerbated biodiversity loss, erosion of ecosystem services and declining human quality of life. India houses the second largest human population on the planet, while < 5% of the c...
Predator recolonization often evokes innate as well as learnt anti-predatory responses in prey. To test white-tailed deer risk allocation amidst an expanding wolf population in Michigan, we used a paired experimental approach to investigate deer behavior in areas with and without wolves. We treated sites with wolf urine, a novel scent (lemon juice)...
Biodiversity conservation and human well-being are tightly interlinked; yet mismatches in the scale at which both priorities are planned have led to biodiversity loss, erosion of ecosystem services, and declining human quality of life. In India, <5% of the land area is effectively protected for conservation, while the rest is impacted by the second...
Survival is a key determinant of population growth and persistence; computation and understanding of this metric is key to successful population management, especially for recovering populations of large carnivores such as wolves. Using a Bayesian frailty analytical approach, we evaluated information from 150 radio-tagged wolves over a 16-year time...
Adoption of unrelated young can have detrimental consequences to the caregivers’ fitness in the form of costs emanating from maladaptive altruism. Owing to such costs, complete adoptions and allo-nurs- ing are relatively rare in the animal world, more so between species that compete with one another. Lions and leopards compete through both exploita...
Asiatic lions typify most challenges faced by large carnivores: single population, historical bottlenecks, habitat loss, poaching, and conflict with humans. Their recovery from <50 in a few hundred km2 to >500 occupying 13,000 km2 of agro-pastoral Saurashtra landscape, Gujarat, India is an enigma. We review and evaluate the multidisciplinary aspect...
To maximize fitness, males and females of the same species often engage into strategies that are at loggerheads. Infanticide is a male strategy which is costly for females, as killing of dependent young by males cause considerable loss to maternal investment. African lions are social, with a group comprising of females, their cubs and a coalition o...
Rationale: Group living is an evolutionary-strategy which exhibits a wide array of alternatives between and within species. Lions are social, with a group comprising of related females (and their cubs) and a coalition of adult males. Coalition- males cooperate to access female-group(s), siring all cubs born to the females during their tenure. Uniqu...
Behavioral plasticity within species is adaptive which directs survival traits to take multiple pathways under varying conditions. Male–male cooperation is an evolutionary strategy often exhibiting an array of alternatives between and within species. African male lions coalesce to safeguard territories and mate acquisition. Unique to these coalitio...
Rationale: Answering questions pertaining to patterns and processes governing ecological dynamics of long-lived species warrants long-term research. Records of life-histories of recognisable individuals are crucial in deciphering their role in an ecosystem. Directions in conservation biology rest upon the fine linkages between the 3 tiers of specie...
Reintroducing Asiatic lions, restricted to a single-population in Gir, at alternative sites is essential to ensure against environmental-stochasticity and extinction of the species. Yet, the proposed reintroduction programme at select-site has been stalled because of ‘conservation-politics’ regarding a ‘monopoly-claim’ on the species by Gujarat-Sta...
Studies from Africa reveal that lions are the only social felids, with a ‘pride’ comprising of related females (and their cubs) and a pride-owing male-coalition. Males in a coalition cooperate to gain access to female-groups and their lands, siring all the cubs born to a pride during their tenure. Unique to lion societies is the absence of dominanc...
Questions
Question (1)
I want to know how the matrix of the interaction-data is made (as in what fields are required), in my case it is mating events between individual lions, and how to run a network analysis. Also, what software to be used for this? Looking forward to a prompt response, as I have been trying to figure this out for quite some time now.
Projects
Projects (2)
Understanding key population parameters of wolves, hunter-selection and its affects on demography, as well as the effects of wolves on prey behaviour in the 'great lake states' of USA
The longest standing carnivore research project in India, we aim to generate data on ranging patterns, habitat needs, dispersal, demography, behaviour and breeding requirements of lions on a long-term basis. With the range and number expansion of the only extant free ranging Asiatic lion population, human-lion interface has increased over the years, and more so in unprecedented scale in the last decade. Through continuous monitoring, radio-telemetry and social surveys we also look at lion-human interactions inside and outside Protected Areas.
