Stotra Chakrabarti, PhD

13 years of studying 🦁
📸 Dec 2025, Tsavo Simba Research Project: documenting behavior of a collared 🦁
📸 Dec 2012, Documenting a mating pair of 🦁 during my MSc in Gir 🇮🇳
From grad researcher to PI—the title changed, the work didn’t. Still learning from lions in the wild. Grateful & humbled🙏🐾🦊🪶

This #GivingTuesday please consider donating to @abcmicrogrants.bsky.social to support undergraduate students globally!! 🫶🗺️
Help us make #animalbehaviourresearch more inclusive 🐝🐝🐝
Sign up to be a monthly donor, or make a one time contribution using this link
opencollective.com/animal-behav...

Also, newly launched ig page for our project www.instagram.com/tsavosimbapr...
Please share widely and give us a follow to learn about our latest work, updates and field stories 🙏🦁 #scicom #TsavoSimbaResearchProject #newPI #NSFFunded 🧪🪶🦊🔬

TSAVO SIMBA RESEARCH PROJECT Spanning ~40,000 km², Kenya’s Tsavo Conservation Area is the country’s largest protected wilderness—an expansive, semi-arid landscape shaped by dramatic shifts in habitat, water, and wildlife...

📢Jumping back on here amidst busy fieldwork to announce
📢 🌍🦁 Our Tsavo Simba Project website is LIVE!
From the red-dust plains of Tsavo straight to your 💻🤩
Dive into our research, field stories & lion insights 🦁💛
🔗 www.tsavosimba.com
#jointhepride #tsavosimbaresearchproject #nsffunded

I am recruiting 1-2 postbacs for our NSF-funded Tsavo Simba Research Project, investigating fission-fusion! The position is for recent undergrads who have not yet started grad school. Come be a part of our team and help us track/monitor 🦁🌍🛰️📸🧪 Job ad⬇️

careers-macalester.icims.com/jobs/2221/po...

Grateful to @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org for an amazing opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues🤩Loved showing them around the City of Joy – and ofc, no trip to #Kolkata is complete without diving into its irresistible food scene! 🍲🕌🥘🧆🤤 #behaviour2025

Closing @behaviour2025.bsky.social with a very nice talk by @stotra.bsky.social on the costs and benefits of co-existence for wolves, coyotes and cougars in Yellowstone National Park. @asab.org

🔥 Into wolves, coyotes and pumas? 🐺🐾 Come thru 📍Hall 2 at 4:20pm for some neat Yellowstone carnivore science! Last-day energy @behaviour2025.bsky.social @asab.org — let’s GOOOOO! 🐺🐾 #Behaviour2025 #collaborativescience
Artwork credit @ayuna-lh.bsky.social 🙏

Had the pleasure of presenting our collaborative work on 🦁 comparative behavior alongside fantastic colleagues at #behaviour2025 @asab.org

Super fun to engage in such a thoughtful symposium on the challenges and future directions of comparative social behavior across species 🦁🐒🧪🔬

#Behaviour2025 @asab.org 🦁 Pls Don’t sleep on our lion talk tomorrow at the Comparative Research in Animal Social Behaviour Symposium! 👀
🗓️Aug 28 ⏰ 3:50 PM | 📍 Hall 2
Stoked to share the stage with truly amaze colleagues 🤝#LionResearch #AnimalBehaviour
Artwork Credit: @ayuna-lh.bsky.social 🙏

Three members of the ABC standing by their poster at Behaviour 2025

Folks looking for support/guidance/mentorship in Animal Behaviour, pls come talk to us! We are representing @abcmicrogrants.bsky.social at #Behaviour2025 @asab.org poster session!! What a joy to be able to do this with colleague phenomenal @delphinedemoor.bsky.social and @emmasmcewen.bsky.social 🐝🤝

#behaviour2025 drumroll begins🥁 In Kolkata, picking up dear colleague and friend @delphinedemoor.bsky.social!! Excited for a week of #animalbehavior science and #networking
#academicconference #wildliferesearch #animalbehaviorresearch #colleaguesmeetup 🦁🧪🐒

🦁 13 years of working with lions — still in awe #WorldLionDay
Update: GPS/SAT-collared 10 lions in Tsavo for our #NSFfunded project 📡🐾 with KWS supervision + permits 🩺
We are now tracking movement + social dynamics in this semi-arid landscape 👣🦁🌍🔬🧪
🙏 to partners: wrtikenya, KWS, TsavoTrust, UMN

It’s official🎉 Thrilled (& relieved) to share that I've been awarded an NSF grant to study high-res fission-fusion and social dynamics in Tsavo 🦁🌍
This 3y grant supports
📡 Telemetry-based field research
🧩 database dev
🏕️ Expanding our research base
🙏 #NSF POs and reviewers
www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

Love in the air, lessons in the wild, and science in action!
From a mating 🦁 pair 💘 to curious sub-adults learning never to mess with a mongoose 🐾💥, to collar checks and sampling kits 🧪— ‘tis all happening in Tsavo! 🌿🔥🔬🦊
#TsavoSimbaResearchProject #WildlifeResearch #EcologyInAction #ProudPI

Best. Birthday. Ever. 🦁🎉
Couldn’t be more thrilled to officially launch our Tsavo Simba Research Project — right here in Kenya, and on my BIRTHDAY! 🎂✨ A dream come to true, working on something so close to my ❤️, with the most phenomenal team and partners 🤝 To new adventures, big cats, and science🧪🦁

Kicking off my pre-tenure sabbatical - EXCITED and getting ready to head out to Kenya for fieldwork for our Tsavo Simba Project! 🦁 Can’t wait to collar some 🦁 and dive into pride dynamics🤩 🧪🔬🦊🪶
Also, look at our gorgeous new logo—big shoutout to the amazing Kimberly Boustead for the design! 🎨🙌

2/2 Excited that both Sophie and Ayuna will continue to work in the lab this summer as they finish up analyses and write their papers! Huge thanks to our collaborators in Tanzania and Argentina, and to Macalester for backing these awesome projects 🙏🤩 #UndergradResearch 🧪🪶

1/2 Tough semester😮‍💨 but so grateful for my amazing lab fam🤩 Huge (belated) shoutout to Sophie Carpenter for crushing her undergrad thesis on predation mapping in N. Tanzania🐆🦁🐂 & @ayuna-lh.bsky.social for wrangling ~1M cam-trap photos 📸 to investigate puma–fox–prey dynamics in 🇦🇷 🦊🐾 Legends #ProudPI🧪

What’s on the menu for Tsavo lions, and what does it mean for the conservation of their prey?   | Current Conservation Current Conservation What’s on the menu for Tsavo lions, and what does it mean for the conservation of their prey?

What’s on the *royal menu*—and how does it impact critically endangered herbivores?🦁 Check out our popular article in current-conservation spotlighting new undergrad-led research from my lab on lion diet in Tsavo, Kenya. ⬇️ #collaborativeresearch 🧪🔬🦁🦌🦊

www.currentconservation.org/whats-on-the...

This weekend has be difficult😢😢 Pls send pet photos 🙏🏽🦊🪶

JOB ALERT! We are hiring two seasonal field technicians for mid July - mid October to conduct research on mule deer in the Santa Monica Mountains, CA. The project is a collaboration between UC Davis and NPS. Ungulate capture experience preferred. Please share! jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id...

Looking for a mentor? Sign up to our next Animal Behaviour Mentorship-Matching Event, March 26th 2 pm UK time on Zoom

Want to support a student? Sign up as a mentor to our next Animal Behaviour Collective: Mentorship-Matching Event March 26th 2 pm UK time on Zoom

It is spring and time for a new round of mentorship matching!

This time we are also looking for new mentors, so if you are interested in supporting animal behaviours students do join us!

Mentee sign up here: forms.gle/zPgk4Nwq2znE...
Mentor sign up here: forms.gle/cD3cEqoXHaLT...

Friendly reminder: if you are waiting on something from a US-based scientist/reviewer/editor, please realize that we're barely making it through each day putting out non-stop fires and trying not to collapse into tears. We're trying our best, but things will take longer right now. Give grace.

Same here!!

Ugh! Anyone has any idea how this might affect proposals that are currently in review/pending?

Sunset with a fading crimson glow over the horizon, contrasting with busy traffic on the road in the foreground

‘Of crisp winter days and pretty sunsets’ 🌅

Views from my study have been lately very poetic 😍😍 Def. helping with this lengthy review panel 😋 🧪🦊🪶

I have been trying to submit an abstract for #behaviour2025 but the site keeps glitching☹️ Also, can’t go back to editing the abstract; I’ve started over 6 times☹️ My lab members are facing similar issues 🙈
Org. Commitee - help? 🧪🦊🪶

Spending New Year's Eve solo, but honoring the 'palate tradition' 😋 Enjoying some slow-cooked goat with caramelized 🧅, 🥔, and a blend of spices, along with generous amounts of 🫚🧄 🌶️. An indulgent Bengali dish in an otherwise grey MN evening🥶 #HappyNewYear2025 #NewYearsEve #Foodie

2/2 The colors in the poster represent the red hues of the Tsavo landscape, and the 🦁 mimics a typical scrawny-maned Tsavo (male) lion 🦁 ⬇️🧪🦊🌍🪶