Pranav Minasandra
Nature and structure of animal behaviour | Postdoc and PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social | MSc and BS @iiscbangalore | English | ಕನ್ನಡ | हिन्दी | اردو | Dalit lives matter.
pminasandra.github.io
- Reposted by Pranav Minasandra🧪Before the day begins, meerkats share a unique ritual. After emerging from their burrows, they spend up to an hour "sunning" to warm up for the day. During this quiet time, they produce soft, tonal "sunning calls". Just standing, sunbathing, and calling. But why❓ #bioacoustics #meerkats #kalahari
- Sometimes, when I really like (or really dislike) something I read, I write a small review about it on my website. Sharing a more recent one: pminasandra.github.io/reviews/2026...
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraAfter a trip to the ER for an extremely avoidable silly accident, I started wondering about the neuroscience behind being clumsy. Sounds interesting? Have a look at my post on Substack!
- How are sound elements combined to make calls in this Pūkeko population in NZ? How do calls change based on where they're made in the call sequence? Read our paper to find out!
- My latest article is finally published: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... we examine how Australasian swamphen (Pukeko) combine different sounds into all the different calls. We also examine call sequences and find that calls become longer along some calling sequences
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraOur group is looking for two MSc students to conduct a one-year research project on meerkat navigation and vocal activity at the University of Zurich and the Kalahari Research Center. Please share around!
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraNew paper! We propose a framework to empirically study animal social relationships by modelling social network (SN) data as time-series—that is, without the need to aggregate them over time. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Periodic reminder to check out my new webcomic, Remarkable Doodles! Title: If Isaac Newton has seen further Permalink: pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?...
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraI have some brilliant news to share! I recently received a DFG-funded Emmy Noether 6-year grant to establish my own group in Germany. I will soon be looking for a PhD student and a research assistant to join the team and investigate how the balance of power is maintained in animal societies.
- Reposted by Pranav Minasandra🚨STOP SCROLLING, IT’S AN EMERGENCY BROADCAST📣 This message will self-destruct in 10…9…8…7…⏰ …now that I have your attention: 🧪Our new paper on Alerting Components in animal vocalization is out in AnimBehav🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #AnimalBehaviour #Bioacoustics #Communication
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraEver since I made a video about Fourier Transforms, one of the most requested topics on the channel has been its close cousin, the Laplace Transform. I've been having a lot of fun animating a mini-series about this topic, and the main part is now out. youtu.be/j0wJBEZdwLs
- I have a new webcomic! pminasandra.github.io/remarkable/?... Although I use Bluesky mainly for science, I think some of you might enjoy some of these more nerdy comics. Some examples uploaded below. Check out the link for more!
- Reposted by Pranav Minasandra🦅PhD position 🦅 in my new group at @fbm-unil.bsky.social in Switzerland, studying how the social and resource landscapes shape the learning process for soaring flight. Deadline: Oct 30. Pls repost! career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraI’m sorry. My Bluesky profile is meant to be mostly about science. But I have to speak up: my country is not okay. We are being ignored, both internationally and by our own authorities. The violence is real, and the world must see this. #Madagascar #GenZ
- Reposted by Pranav Minasandra⭐PhD position available!⭐ Come join us @imprs-qbee.bsky.social to study communication and collective behavior in animal groups! We're looking for someone excited to use computational approaches to tackle biological questions, using our full-group tracking datasets imprs-qbee.mpg.de/121465/analy...
- 🧠 What does collective movement look like in cognitively advanced animals? I have a new pre-print out for a super short solo-author paper I just submitted! I explore how the ability to forecast others' behaviours affects your own decision-making. Check it out: doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.14.670290
- This article neatly summarises my Google Scholar fears. If there was a workable scientific-society-run or community-driven alternative, I would switch SO FAST
- Unser Studie zu Verhaltenssequenzen wurde auf YT Channel MitWissen vorgestellt: youtu.be/5fT-lwwfmZE MitWissen (auf Deutsch) wird von meiner Kollegin @cinig.bsky.social betrieben. Schaut euch das Video an und abonniert gerne ihren Channel!
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraAnother good reason to read this paper by @pminasandra.bsky.social👇 It just won the "Best Paper Award" from @uni-konstanz.de Bio Dept 👏 Congrats to Pranav + team @livingingroups.bsky.social @meg-crofoot.bsky.social @arispeshkin.bsky.social @animal-sounds.bsky.social ▶️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- 🚨 Out this week in @pnas.org 🚨 The flagship paper from my PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social - We show surprising statistical similarities in animal behaviour across states, individuals, and even species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (🧵 1/10)
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraHey friends in bioacoustics & acoustic communication: I am (finally) sharing this post on the new version of @vocalpy.bsky.social I released after teaching a bootcamp with @tessarhinehart.bsky.social at the @nmac2024.bsky.social last year blog.vocalpy.org/posts/2025-0... #prattle 💬 #bioacoustics
- Reposted by Pranav Minasandra🚨 New paper alert! 🚨 Excited to share our new review in @royalsocietypublishing.org Proceedings B! 🎉 We synthesize research on social factors influencing animal migration and offer guidelines for future research. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #OpenAccess #Migration #MovementEcology
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraHumans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraHot off the press 📣: one of the most surprising and unsettling findings of my PhD. A novel social tradition emerged in the tool-using white-faced capuchins of Jicarón island… abducting and carrying the infants of another species. Thread with gifs, videos, and all the bizarre details 👇
- Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraCross-species teamwork from @livingingroups.bsky.social reveals unexpected similarities in three social mammals 🤔 By lead author @pminasandra.bsky.social with Emily Grout, Katrina Brock, Meg Crofoot, Vlad Demartsev, Amlan Nayak, Eli Strauss, Ari Strandburg-Peshkin🧵1/2 www.ab.mpg.de/679000/news_...
- 🚨 Out this week in @pnas.org 🚨 The flagship paper from my PhD @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @livingingroups.bsky.social - We show surprising statistical similarities in animal behaviour across states, individuals, and even species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (🧵 1/10)
- Prefer reading all posts at once, and with slightly more detail? Here's a full essay summary: pminasandra.github.io/publications... Now, onto the thread! (2/10)
- All animals behave. To quantify underlying rules of behaviour, we need behavioural sequence data. For simplicity, think of behaviour as sequences of states. E.g., a meerkat lies down (600s), stands up (20s), then moves searching for food (450s). (3/10)
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View full threadPictures and videos belong to several authors of this paper, and have been used with their permission.
- Reposted by Pranav Minasandra🐋 Moms float different 🐋 In our new @jexpbiol.bsky.social paper, we explore buoyancy control in humpback whales. Mothers seem to actively manage it; calves don't. #MarMam journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-...
- This story is my pet peeve of the week. Strongly recommend Beth Shapiro's "How to clone a mammoth" for a convincing set of arguments for why it's impossible to clone mammoths or resurrect other extinct species, at least as conventionally understood.
- Reposted by Pranav Minasandra🚨 Shrew paper alert! 🚨 Our latest study found that brain size changes stayed on track, but behavior? 🤔 Not so much❗ Captivity makes shrews hyperactive and less motivated to learn, hinting at chronic stress. 🐾 Curious? Full paper here: doi.org/10.1098/rsos... #Shrews @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraI didn’t think word could suck more. Migrate to LaTeX. It takes a few days to learn. It can integrate with Zotero via its native BibTeX. You won’t be giving money to Silicon Valley oligarchs. It creates great looking documents, and they have a bird in their logo.
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraHigh living costs paired with stagnant stipends are being blamed for a drop in PhD enrolments in several countries go.nature.com/4hYeLyJ
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraCurious about what this course is like? Here is a glimpse into the experience youtu.be/qJD1tOXZYZY?... @cbehav.bsky.social @mpi-animalbehav.bsky.social @uni-konstanz.de
- Reposted by Pranav MinasandraImportant reserarch showing 🧪 "83% of respondents believe that scientists should communicate about science with the public." but only 57% think scientists are honest... - that I find concerning
- This is the most egregious, terrible pun I've seen in the title of an accelerometer paper. I love it. The paper seems pretty cool as well!!
- Can a title be both awesome and terrible at same time? 🧪 Would be a little funnier if study took place in Maine "Collar? I barely know her: The utility of accelerometry in measuring personality in situ for a free-ranging wild mammal" (Sanders et al., 2025) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- My favourite part of working on selfish-herd style models of animal movement is these very pretty plots
