Ecology Explained

The Kashmir Valley holds many secrets, including its role as a home to diverse wildlife. Every few years, livestock herders move into the valley for a few months, a practice that has been ongoing for generations. But how do the wild animals adapt when their habitat is shared with livestock? Learn more from Munib Khanyari, a researcher at the Nature Conservation Foundation in Bangalore, who has been studying Kashmir’s wildlife for many years. It was a pleasure chatting with you at IWEC, @munibkhanyari ! We can’t wait to share more of your exciting research with our audience! #kashmir #kashmirvalley #coexistence #sheep #sheepherding #ibex #snowleopard #brownbear #coniferforest #ecology #research #science #scicomm #instadaily #reels #instagood #trending #natureeducation #biology #Nature #socialmediagrowth #reelsindiaofficial #funscience #sciencecommunication #artsmeetscience #naturedrawing #scienceworks

You love kabutars, don’t you? Well, you do or you don’t.... This video is a must-watch! #pigeon #citypigeon #kabutar #funny #funvideo #trending #trendingreels #ecology #research #science #scicomm #instadaily #reels #instagood #trending #natureeducation #biology #Nature #socialmediagrowth #reelsindiaofficial #funscience #sciencecommunication #artsmeetscience #naturedrawing #scienceworks #followforfollowback

How did scientists find out about different fruiting timings of mangoes? From - people across India, from people like you and us! For scientists studying fruiting and flowering of trees, it is difficult to travel across India and collect information on different varieties of trees. This is where they need help from you, me, and everyone else. We can help by providing scientists information about trees around us. This data we provide allows researchers to understand patterns in nature. Information collected over multiple years can also help us understand if fruiting and flowering of trees is changing with every passing year. One such wonderful way of providing information on trees is through SeasonWatch — just download the app, choose a tree you would like to provide information on, and contribute to understanding nature. For the mango study, people across India uploaded their observations on mango trees to the SeasonWatch app — which helped scientists gather information and identify patterns quickly and efficiently. What’s more? This data is freely available for all, so you can ask for the data and play around with it yourself! At IWEC, we had the opportunity to chat with Dr. Geetha Ramaswami from SeasonWatch. Thank you, Geetha, for sharing this wonderful information with us. #mango #mangoseason #india #northindia #southindia #citizenscience #ecology #research #science #scicomm #instadaily #reels #instagood #trending #natureeducation #biology #Nature #socialmediagrowth #reelsindiaofficial #funscience #sciencecommunication #artsmeetscience #naturedrawing #scienceworks

Want to learn how to mimic bird calls? Comment ‘wish to learn’ below, and we’ll share a snippet of Anup teaching us these calls in our story tomorrow! We’ll, we don’t know what other scientific conferences are like, but a conference full of ecologists is most often exciting, with people like Anup making it so! Thanks @anup.b.prakash for chatting with us the other day 😊 Thanks @jiggilypop for making this video happen. Wouldn’t have been possible without you 😊 #birds #indianbirds #science #nature #sciencefacts #birdsofindia #bird #forestbirds #birdresearch #birdscience #ecology #naturefacts #ecologyexplained #india #indianscience #indianecology #birdmimic #birdcall #vocalist #conference #iwec #mimicry #mimicryartist

Do you know how #scientists find out if a bird has #malaria? And do you know how many birds are infected with malaria in forests? The numbers will shock you! *Watching Part 1 will help you understand this video better.* At the Indian Wildlife Ecology Conference (IWEC 2024) held in Bangalore, we had the opportunity to chat with Ashwin Warudkar from the Bird Lab at IISER Tirupati. He discussed his PhD research on malaria in birds in the Western Ghats and shared some mind-boggling insights! His advisors are Dr. V.V. Robin frm IISER Tirupati, Dr. Farah Ishtiaq from inStem, and Dr Dharmarajan Guha from KREA University. As a Maharashtrian, I have always wanted to explain ecological research in Marathi, and I’m grateful to Ashwin for sharing my passion for the language. I hope the subtitles do justice to Ashwin’s insights. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Ashwin will be more than happy to answer! #malaria #birds #westernsghats #indianbirds #science #nature #sciencefacts #mosquito #birdsofindia #iiser #upsc #hawaii #evergreenforest #forest #bird #forestbirds #birdresearch #birdscience #ecology #naturefacts #ecologyexplained #india #indianscience #indianecology

Did you know that birds can get malaria too? Until recently, we had information about malaria in birds only from islands like Hawaii and New Zealand. At the Indian Wildlife Ecology Conference (IWEC 2024) held in Bangalore, we had the opportunity to chat with Ashwin Warudkar from the Bird Lab at IISER Tirupati. He discussed his PhD research on malaria in birds in the Western Ghats and shared some mind-boggling insights! His advisors are Dr. V.V. Robin frm IISER Tirupati, Dr. Farah Ishtiaq from inStem, and Dr Dharmarajan Guha from KREA University. As a Maharashtrian, I have always wanted to explain ecological research in Marathi, and I’m grateful to Ashwin for sharing my passion for the language. I hope these captions do justice to Ashwin’s insights. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Ashwin will be more than happy to answer! #malaria #birds #westernsghats #indianbirds #science #nature #sciencefacts #mosquito #birdsofindia #iiser #upsc #hawaii #evergreenforest #forest #bird #forestbirds #birdresearch #birdscience #ecology #naturefacts #ecologyexplained #india #indianscience #indianecology

The three days we spent at the Indian Wildlife Ecologists Conference (IWEC 2024) were truly heartwarming and filled us with immense gratitude. Amdst a group of dedicated researchers, we were at our Ecology Explained stall, highlighting the importance of sharing secrets of the natural world with a broader audience. The positive response we received from scientists and students was incredibly encouraging. Many students, who have been loyal followers of our content, shared how Ecology Explained has impacted them. One student fondly recalled a video we made on bats a couple of years ago as her first introduction to the fascinating world of bats. She was so inspired that she’s now studying bats! 🦇 Another student expressed how our Hindi content has made it easier for his family and friends to understand and appreciate nature, and his choice to become an ecologist, more than ever before. We met students who recognized us from our logo and others who encouraged us to post more often! Working on social media means we rarely meet our viewers face-to-face, so we usually measure our impact through numbers—views, shares, comments, and likes. While we constantly strive to improve these metrics, personal stories and heartfelt conversations provide unparalleled motivation. Thank you to everyone who visited us at the conference, appreciated our efforts, and encouraged us to continue. Your support means the world to us, and we hope to meet your expectations in the future. – If you’re a researcher or student with an exciting research story, a solution to an ecological issue, advocating for a cause or if you’ve created a wonderful book or game, we would love to promote it through our channel. We’re also eager to share videos or photos of your observations or experiments. These glimpses into the natural world, often stored away on our hard drives, can foster deep curiosity and appreciation among our audience like nothing else. You can reach out us at ecologyexplained@gma

Weaver ants are so common that we all must have seen them around us at some point. But what they do will blow your mind! 🤯 They use glue sticks to stick leaves together to make nests. What is this glue stick though!?!? Watch the reel to find out. *If you have interesting nature videos which you would like us to use to explain a mind blowing nature fact, DM us or send us an email: [email protected]* #weaverants #nest #weavernest #ecology #research #science #scicomm #instadaily #reels #instagood #trending #natureeducation #biology #Nature #socialmediagrowth #reelsindiaofficial #funscience #sciencecommunication #artsmeetscience #naturedrawing #scienceworks

Join us to know exciting facts about this crazy natural world of ours. Facts which are backed by years of science and research, brought to you straight from the researchers...😊 #ecology #research #science #scicomm #instadaily #reels #trendingreels #biology #artsmeetscience #socialmediagrowth #reelsindiaofficial Which bird produces ‘milk’?🪶 *Find out in our next reel*

✨Congratulations to all our birders for making GBBC 2024 an outstanding success! ✨🐦Your dedication has provided invaluable data that helps scientists understand India’s birds better. 📊Watch this video till the end to know which is the most commonly seen bird in India. 🇮🇳 Let us know in comments which bird you think is *second* most commonly seen in the country! :)Discover more exciting statistics and additional results at the Bird Count India website: birdcountindia.in. 🌿Congratulate all birders by tagging them in comments and sharing this video with them! Let us all appreciate their efforts together :) Video editing: Ahana Bera #gbbc2024 #gbbcindia #birds #ebird #birdcountindia #citizenscience #ecology #research #science #scicomm #instadaily #reels #instagood #trending #natureeducation #biology #Nature #socialmediagrowth #reelsindiaofficial #funscience #sciencecommunication #artsmeetscience #naturedrawing #scienceworks[ GBBC 2024, Bird Count India, eBird, Citizen Science, GBBC Result, Common Myna]

Like animal babies grow inside their mother’s womb, babies of these plants grow ON their mother, travel for up to a year and only then are ready to grow into a new plant. Let us see how!‘Mangroves’ are plants which grow where rivers meet the sea. That is, where salt water and fresh water are mixed. Because of high salt content in such water, mangroves have developed many specialities which help them survive and grow. One such speciality is how they make babies!Usually in plants, flowers develop into fruits with seeds. Seeds come in contact with soil, and if the conditions are good, a baby plant is born. But the water in which mangroves grow is so salty that the mangroves can’t just produce fruits with seeds and expect them to grow.What is it then, that the mangroves do!?Like in other plants, mangroves flower and the flowers develop into fruits with seeds. Now, the seeds sprout and a new plant starts growing when the fruits are still ON the plant! This means that just like animal babies grow inside a mothers womb, mangrove babies grow ON the parent mangrove plants!Now, after growing a bit, this baby mangrove detaches, falls in the water below and starts floating. It can float like this for up to a year! While floating, it absorbs water and its tip becomes heavy. Because its tip is now heavy, it changes to a vertical position and starts floating again. When it comes across suitable water conditions, this baby mangrove falls down and pierces into the soil below. And from here grows our new baby mangrove! Once it grows, this baby will flower and will be ready to make more mangrove babies!If you learnt something new today, share this video with family and friends and follow us on Instagram and YouTube, for more of such fascinating pieces of ecology, explained! #mangroveplants #mangrove #germination #ecology #research #science #scicomm #instadaily #reels #instagood #trending #natureeducation #biology #Nature #socialmediagrowth #reelsindiaofficial #funscience #s

These are rock lizards, found in rocky and dry regions of southern India. These lizards talk to each other by changing their body colours! Males turn bright orange on the top and black on the sides when they see a female. They change to yellow on the top and red on the sides when they are competing with other males. Females on the other hand are grey and drab in colour and change to a darker colour at times. Scientists are still trying to figure out what females have to say when they turn darker. But what a wonderful way of playing with colours, isn’t it? To know more about these colour changing lizards, we have explained 2 papers on males of these lizards. DM us and we will send you links to the post. Do you know any other animals which change their colour to talk to other animals? Let us know in comments :) Source: Deodhar, Shreekant, and Kavita Isvaran. “Why do males use multiple signals? Insights from measuring wild male behavior over lifespans.” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 6 (2018): 75. #rocklizard #colourchange #holi #happyholi #indianfestival #science #ecology #research #scicomm [Rock Lizard Change Body Colour Science Communications Ecology Research Happy Holi]

African elephants are being born tuskless, said the American scientists in 2021. But hey, Indian scientists said something similar in 2013! Read on to find what Dr Karpagam Chelliah and Dr Raman Sukumar from Indian Institute of Science proposed more than a decade back. Let’s motivate our scientists by understanding and sharing their work far and wide! :) Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/L7xKRf0GVbE?si=wc6Se5nhCUlRmdmB and follow to know more about Indian ecology research.. #elephant #tusks #india #ecology #research #science #scicomm [ Elephants Tuskless Indian Ecology Research Science Communication ]

On the occasion of women’s day today, we are celebrating 3 boss ladies of the animal world 1. A paper wasp nest has a queen which gives birth to baby paper wasps. The queen really doesn’t do anything else and mostly stays on the nest. There are others in the nest which take care of the young, build and repair the nest and and even go out and find food. *The queen stays away from these wasps which go out and bring back food, because they are more likely to carry viruses and other germs! If they get transferred to the queen, the whole wasp colony will be doomed!* What we learnt during the pandemic, these little insect queens have been following for generations! 2. Predators like birds find the Danaid egg butterflies very tasty 😋 *Tiger butterflies in the other hand are mildly poisonous and the birds have learnt to avoid eating them. The females of the Danaid egg flies have copied the tiger butterflies and look exactly like them. What happens then? The birds think they are poisonous and avoid eating them!* So cool, isn’t it? Has anyone here seen one of these butterflies? 🦋 3. Some reptiles don’t need a mate to reproduce. One of them is this whiptail lizard’, which reproduces without a male! *Before the eggs are formed, the cells in female animals get double the usual number of chromosomes. As a result, the eggs have a complete set of chromosomes, similar to that of a lizard reproducing through sexual means.* Nature is crazy! Know of any such boss ladies of the animal world? Let us know in the comments :) #womensday #paperwasp #danaideggfly #tigerbutterfly #whiptaillizard #womenempowerment #science #nature #bosslady

On the occasion of women’s day today, we are celebrating 3 boss ladies of the animal world 1. A paper wasp nest has a queen which gives birth to baby paper wasps. The queen really doesn’t do anything else and mostly stays on the nest. There are others in the nest which take care of the young, build and repair the nest and and even go out and find food. The queen stays away from these wasps which go out and bring back food, because they are more likely to carry viruses and other germs! If they get transferred to the queen, the whole wasp colony will be doomed! What we learnt during the pandemic, these little insect queens have been following for generations! 2. Predators like birds find the Danaid egg butterflies very tasty 😋 Tiger butterflies in the other hand are mildly poisonous and the birds have learnt to avoid eating them. The females of the Danaid egg flies have copied the tiger butterflies and look exactly like them. What happens then? The birds think they are poisonous and avoid eating them!So cool, isn’t it? Has anyone here seen one of these butterflies? 🦋 3. Some reptiles don’t need a mate to reproduce. One of them is this whiptail lizard’, which reproduces without a male! They reproduce asexually which means the development of embryo occurs without fertilisation. They don’t need sperms, both the set of chromosomes come from the females. #womensday #paperwasp #danaideggfly #tigerbutterfly #whiptaillizard #womenempowerment #science

Instagram Our cities are looking stunning with these pretty pink flowers. In the first part of this video, we saw why these trees lose their leaves when they flower. If you haven't seen the first part yet, do take a look. But why have SO MANY flowers at once? Everything in nature happens for a reason :) This year, let's take a step ahead in knowing these trees better. If you want to contribute in understanding if the trees are blooming earlier with every passing year, let us know in the comments and we will DM you the details of how you can contribute. #nature #pinkflowers #tabebuia #bangalore #science #summer #india #photography #naturephotography #flowerstagram #flowers #trees #botany

Our cities are looking stunning with these pretty pink flowers. In the first part of this video, we saw why these trees lose their leaves when they flower. If you haven’t seen the first part yet, do take a look. But why have SO MANY flowers at once? Everything in nature happens for a reason :) This year, let’s take a step ahead in knowing these trees better. If you want to contribute in understanding if the trees are blooming earlier with every passing year, let us know in the comments and we will DM you the details of how you can contribute. #tabebuia #pinkflowers #bangalore #summer #ecology #science #scicom

In a study carried out in 2020, scientists from NCBS (Bangalore) compared honeybees from high polluted areas with those of low polluted areas. What they found was mind boggling! Have you seen the effects of pollution on wildlife around you? Let us know. *To watch this video in English, visit our YouTube channel. Link in bio. Original paper: Thimmegowda, Geetha G., Susan Mullen, Katie Sottilare, Ankit Sharma, Rishika Mohanta, Axel Brockmann, Perundurai S. Dhandapany, and Shannon B. Olsson. "A field-based quantitative analysis of sublethal effects of air pollution on pollinators." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 34 (2020): 20653-20661. #indianwildlife #india #honeybees #insects #insectsofindia #pollinator #pollinators #pollinators #pollution #ecology #research #science #education #upsc #neet #gate #indianecology

Birds often display a behaviour of beak-wiping. They rub their beaks against various surfaces. Do you know why? Reference: Cuthill, Innes, Mark Witter, and Luka Clarke. "The function of bill-wiping." Animal Behaviour 43.1 (1992): 103-115. #natureart #wildlifeart #wildlifeartistsofinstagram #marineart ##biologythroughart #artisticconservation #wildlifeillustration #nature_art #nature_artist #visionbiography #iucn #naturedrawing #sunbirds #purplesunbird #purplesunbirdmale #birdbehaviour #animalbehaviour #passerine #nectariniidae #avifauna #birdsofindiansubcontinent #conservation #aves #avianfauna #wildlifeconservation #fieldbiology #fieldwork #biology #ornithology #planetbirds #animalplanetindia #wildlifephotography #planetearth #birdsofindia #protectwildlife #iucnredlist #birdsofinstagram