Kavita Isvaran’s work explores mating strategies, competition, and survival tactics across animal species

It was the off-road trips and outings that nurtured Kavita Isvaran’s love for nature.

“My father loved to be outdoors. We used to go out for morning and evening walks. He was also an amateur birdwatcher; he used to point out different birds to me,” remembers Kavita, Associate Professor at the Centre for Ecological Science (CES), IISc. Apart from these explorations, her family also encouraged scientific discussions at home. Through these discussions, she developed a special interest in studying animals.

“What I really enjoy is watching animals. If I go out for birding, I prefer watching their behaviour rather than identifying them. I have always tried to figure out why animals do what they do,” says Kavita.

When Kavita decided to pursue higher studies, her parents encouraged her to reach out to experts in the field for advice. “I wrote to people in the USA and UK who came from different fields related to biology, including zookeeping and veterinary sciences.” She decided on ecology, which was then called wildlife sciences. Her cousin, Ravi Sankaran, who went on to become a famous wildlife scientist, urged her to join Madras Christian College (MCC), which had very strong zoology and botany departments.

After completing a BSc in Zoology from MCC, she went on to do an MSc in Wildlife Science from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. It was here that she worked on her first animal behaviour project – studying “lekking” in blackbuck.

Lekking is a unique mating strategy unlike conventional mating in which males and females engage in one-to-one interactions. In lekking, males defend territories clustered together in a tight group and perform elaborate behavioural displays. These territory clusters, called “leks,” are like shopping complexes visited by females. The female chooses the male in the cluster with the most attractive display and appearance of physical strength.

Lekking continued to intrigue her when she did her PhD at the University of Florida in the USA. She was keen on figuring out why lekking existed in the first place and why blackbuck do not follow the conventional way of mating.

During her postdoc at the University of Cambridge, she continued to study unconventional mating strategies, like extra-pair paternity, in which females mate with males other than their primary partners. It is a well-known phenomenon in birds, but it wasn’t studied much in mammals. After completing her postdoc, she returned to India and spent some time as a visiting scientist at the National Centre for Biological Science (NCBS) before joining CES in 2007.

Making sense of animal behaviour

Kavita’s lab at CES works on the same question that intrigued her in childhood: Why animals do what they do.

To answer that question, they take a behavioural ecology approach, which suggests that animals behave and make decisions in response to the challenges and opportunities posed by their immediate surroundings.

For example, a recent study on mosquitoes – one of the many model systems that her lab works on – decoded how female mosquitoes decide where to lay their eggs while gauging the presence of predators in water pools and competition from other females.

“If they focus on predation – let’s say [they have to choose between] lots of predators or no predators – they’ll choose no predators. But if you combine it with competition, you get a surprising result. Then, a few predators are actually better than none or lots,” explains Kavita.

This finding is unconventional because scientists always thought that only males competed for resources like accessing a mate. But recent research from Kavita’s lab and around the world shows that females also compete fiercely for resources.

One of the reasons could be that extra resources can help females produce more eggs and, as a result, more offspring that can survive to maturity. This is called reproductive fitness, a metric of evolutionary success. An individual should pass on as many successful genes as possible to their offspring. Animals, therefore, usually behave in a way that boosts their reproductive fitness.

Take the rock agama, a lizard found in the rocky outcrops of southern India, another model system that her lab studies. Females show an interesting type of competition. They often advertise their own territories that may contain rocky refuges from predators or bushes laden with insects – the lizards’ primary diet. To ward off competitors from their territory, females often perform elaborate behavioural displays such as head bobs, pushups, and other body postures. In fact, they are more aggressive than males, reacting more quickly to intrusions in their territory.

Bridging research and conservation

A key reason to study animal behaviour is its role in guiding conservation efforts. Kavita’s lab applies findings from their studies to help develop conservation strategies for endangered species like the blackbuck.

“The blackbuck is nowadays found primarily in landscapes modified heavily by humans – you have grasslands fragmented by crop fields, human habitation, and so on. How do they navigate such a landscape? From a behavioural ecology approach, can we predict whether populations are likely to persist or go extinct?” asks Kavita.

“Crops are very close to their natural foods and can be very rewarding, which can lead to blackbuck feeding on crops,” she continues. “If we can predict the locations that are more likely to be targeted by blackbuck, this information can help conservationists prepare a more realistic plan to [protect] such a vulnerable species.”

Working in the field can be challenging as researchers have to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, including the forest department and the local communities.

“Apart from science skills, you also need to engage with people, especially if you are working in a forest or ecosensitive area. It is absolutely important that you learn the importance of being very conscious of others and be responsible towards the environment,” Kavita explains.

Field research itself can be overwhelming. Many factors that are uncontrollable, like droughts or other natural crises, can delay studies. Convincing funding agencies to support projects is another major challenge for ecologists. Kavita makes it a point to guide her students through such situations.

“It is important to make sure that you are in touch with students about whether their career path is going well and also about whether they have their eye on the future,” says Kavita.

Other than the mainstream research in the lab, Kavita likes to pursue small independent projects on her own time. She occasionally conducts meta-analyses in which she sifts through data from existing publications on different species to determine whether there is a common strategy that all species follow to solve a problem or if they have unique strategies. Apart from research, she enjoys practicing Bharatanatyam and cooking.

Kavita strongly believes that doing research ethically and in a reproducible and reliable manner should be a top priority for all scientists. She says: “When we put a result out there, we should have confidence that this is something that is going to stand the test of time.”