Collective motion of animal groups continues to capture the imagination of engineers and biologists alike. To engineers, collective motion provides inspiration for the design of robotic swarms that can perform tasks far beyond the capabilities of a single inexpensive robot. To biologists, emergent behaviors raise questions about decision-making and individual perception within the group. In this workshop we will learn about the process of going from mathematical models to laboratory and field experiments in order to validate a hypothesis. We will begin with looking at two different models of collective behavior and discuss the techniques and challenges in data collection used to validate these models. We will then ask the question of whether collective behavior can be modulated? This will motivate a discussion on the use of robots in interactive experiments both for use in animal behavior as well as for field deployment where robots can aid in search and rescue. The format of the workshop will involve going through some recent papers in these areas, watching experimental videos, and discussing results.

In the animal world, as in our own, looks aren’t everything. In fact, some of the most aesthetically challenged creatures — from warthogs and proboscis monkeys to bull elephant seals — are also the most fascinating. A stunning variety of these ghastly yet glorious forms are explored in NATURE’s The Beauty of Ugly.

On the Web site for The Beauty of Ugly, you’ll get an in-depth look at some of these intriguing creatures. You’ll learn about the remarkable sensory abilities of the weird little star-nosed mole and the unusual social system of naked mole-rats and their imperious mole-rat queen, discover the threats faced by the Cape Griffon vulture, and get a fish-eye’s view of the needle-toothed viperfish and other deep-sea creatures, as photographed by a unique undersea camera called the Eye-in-the-Sea, designed by ocean researcher Dr. Edith Widder.

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/the-beauty-of-ugly-introduction/425/

Captive elephants in temples, festivals, zoos, circuses and other types of human use often have health issues, such as foot problems and joint inflammations. Additionally, training and handling of elephants is usually based on the “breaking the will” approach, in which the elephant is controlled by inflicting pain and fear. In addition to the suffering experienced by elephants, the situation also claims human lives every year, because painful experiences are one of the main reasons for the aggressive attacks by captive elephants at mahouts and other people.

Many of the responsible government officials, private elephant owners and mahouts do genuinely care about the well-being of elephants. The root cause of the problems is their lack of knowledge on other methods of training and management. Elephant-friendly and efficient methods for training and management have been developed, based on animal behaviour science. But expertise on them is scattered around the world, unavailable to an average mahout or elephant owner.

Elephant Experts is an international non-profit organization that works to bridge this gap. We provide advice and courses on science-based, elephant-friendly practices of training, handling and management, delivered by selected international experts. The first country in which we have tested this approach is Nepal, where we have worked since 2005. Funded by WWF and WSPA among others, we have created constructive collaboration with mahouts, elephant owners, local and national government, the tourist industry and NGO’s, all of whom have been very welcoming to the improved methods of captive elephant training and management, once they have seen them in action and experienced the benefits, such as increased obedience, calmness and learning rate in the elephants. At present, the Nepal programme is at the stage on which the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (the government body in Nepal responsible for elephants) has asked us to take the lead in planning and implementing a full transition in Nepal to modern, elephant-friendly methods of training and management. The key elements will include establishing a system of vocational training for mahouts, developing elephant-friendly forms of tourism and enacting legislation on elephant welfare. At the same time, we will continue our research programme to develop new tools for veterinarians, scientists and others to detect chronic pain and other health issues in elephants, in order to better recognize the elephants that need medical treatment. Another line of research we are working on involves research into elephant cognition, especially developing advanced methods for objectively measuring emotional states in elephants.

From the beginning, the aim has been to not only work in Nepal, but to utilize that experience for consequently making similar advancements available in other elephant range countries. We have received requests from several Asian countries to start similar collaborations. As India is one of the most important countries in terms of Asian elephants, we are giving the requests from India the highest priority. We are currently starting discussions with several stakeholders about potential collaboration in bringing meetings and courses available for elephant owners, officials and mahouts in Karnataka, and in potential collaboration in research into elephant cognition and health.

Rote-based, didactic and uninspiring education in India has deprived over 250 million disadvantaged children of the tools to overcome poverty. Instead, it has produced education apathy, a high dropout rate and youth that lack skills and confidence, creative-thinking and problem-solving abilities. Most schools do not have labs. Opportunities for participative, hands-on learning that sparks curiosity, and stimulates and empowers children and teachers are almost non-existent. Teacher training is divorced from the realities of the school classroom. Seeing little value in education, rural parents prefer to send their children to work in farms, thus perpetuating a cycle of poverty. Operating one of the largest hands-on science education programs in the world, Agastya offers disadvantaged children access to dynamic hands-on education that makes learning fun, awakens curiosity, encourages questioning, enhances understanding, and fosters creative-thinking, problem-solving and communication skills. Agastya’s vision of ‘a creative India’ - ‘tinkerers, creators, and solution-seekers …humane, anchored and connected’ – is being achieved through its mission to spark the creative temper among millions of disadvantaged children. Using experiential and hands-on, child-centric learning, teacher education and scalable methods, Agastya aims to bring about a shift in five vital behaviors - ‘Yes to Why,’ ‘Looking to Observing,’ ‘Passiveness to Exploring,’ ‘Text-book to Hands-on,’ and ‘Fear to Confidence’.

The World According to Monsanto is a 2008 film directed by Marie-Monique Robin. Originally released in French as Le monde selon Monsanto, the film is based on Robin's three-year-long investigation into the corporate practices around the world of the United States multinational corporation, Monsanto. The World According to Monsanto is also a book written by Marie-Monique Robin, winner of the Rachel Carson Prize (a Norwegian prize for female environmentalists), which has been translated into many languages. The film reports many controversies surrounding the use and promotion of genetically modified seeds, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Agent Orange, and bovine growth hormone. Cases in the United States (including Anniston, Alabama), Canada, India, Mexico, Paraguay, the United Kingdom (Scotland) and France, are explored, claiming that the corporation's collusion with governments, pressure tactics, suppression and manipulation of scientific data, and extra-legal practices aided the company's attempts at dominating global agriculture. Scientists, representatives of the United States Food and Drug Administration and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, civil society representatives, victims of the company’s activities, lawyers, and politicians are interviewed. In March 2008, French journalist Marie-Monique Robin released the results of her three years of worldwide research into Monsanto. A book was published by La Découverte, a French editor, and a video documentary, Le Monde selon Monsanto (The World According to Monsanto), was released on DVD and shown on Arte, the Franco-German culture TV channel. Robin travels to India, Mexico, Argentina, and Paraguay to see how Monsanto's genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have affected local farmers using it for their crops. The film claims that GMO use has increased suicide rates of farmers in India. However, research by IFPRI has shown that this is not the case.

Source: Wikipedia

The unique geological history of the Indian Plate and its current position at the junction of biogeographic realms make it a fascinating landscape for biogeographers. Geckos are a useful model system for studies in historical biogeography because of their diversity and antiquity. The bent-toed geckos in India include the Palaearctic naked-toed geckos ('Cyrtopodion'), Cyrtodactylus and Geckoella. Each of these have unique distributions, the arid-adapted Palaearctic naked-toed geckos are at the southeastern limit of their global distribution, Cyrtodactylus at the northwestern limit, and Geckoella is endemic to Peninsular India and Sri Lanka. I sampled for bent-toed geckos across India and placed each group in a dated global phylogeny to understand how each group diversified, gaining insights into the biological history of the Indian subcontinent from gecko biogeography. The first chapter deals with the Palaearctic naked-toed geckos and Hemidactylus. Palaearctic naked-toed geckos track the aridification of NW Peninsular India, with middle Miocene dispersal into India and late Miocene diversification while data from Hemidactylus suggests Peninsular India had also begun drying by the early Miocene. The second chapter deals with Cyrtodactylus, the most speciose lizard genus in the Himalayan region. Cyrtodactylus diversification in the Himalayas and Indo-Burma closely tracks geological events related to India-Asia collision, with a number of geographically concordant subclades resolved in Indo-Burma. The third and final paper presents a Geckoella phylogeny and contrasts historical diversification in Geckoella and Peninsular Indian Hemidactylus, which overlap in geographic range and both date to the Oligocene. Geckoella phylogeny reveals deep splits between India and Sri Lanka, and between Indian dry and wet zone species going back to the late Oligocene. Peninsular Indian Hemidactylus and Geckoella show contrasting diversification through time. Geckoella shows signals of niche conservatism and appears to have retained its ancestral forest habitat, and a slowdown in diversification followed by a late Miocene burst in speciation may be linked to historical forest contraction and expansion with global climatic fluctuations. Indian gekkonid diversity is vastly underestimated with sampling revealing 30 potential new species. The Indian dry zone is an overlooked reservoir of biodiversity and field sampling is vital to document basic diversity and distribution. Distinct geographic associations and high diversity make geckos in India an excellent system for historical biogeography.

Cooperation is widespread in the animal kingdom. Studies have sought to explain the evolution of cooperation through kinship, reciprocal interactions, and spatial structures arising from limited dispersal of offspring. However, animals across taxa live in complex dynamic social groups that constantly merge and split. In such cases, these mechanisms cannot be invoked to explain cooperation. Using individual-based simulations, we show how emergent differences in the movement characteristics of cooperators and defectors can lead to the evolution of cooperation without communication, kinship, reciprocity and limited dispersal. I propose an empirical test of our model in a semi-virtual system with real fish predators and virtual simulated prey.

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Two morphologically indistinguishable host races of the fall armyworm have been identifies and we examined the behavioural and chemical ecology of pheromone mediated mating in the two races, as well as in the hybrids, to determine the possible role of both male and female sex pheromones for reproductive isolation.

In this talk, I will focus on how growth rate of ecological knowledge has been limited by statistical issues that we did not deal with well, at least initially. But of course there are recommendations for how we can do better, and, I share some of these ideas with students and practitioners as they embark on answering new questions and/or meeting new challenges.