Expert talk: Dr Brinky Desai

Today we had a fabulous talk from our resident mugger expert Dr Brinky Desai, co-founder of the Early Career Croc Network.  Now Chief Scientist at the Mahim Pandhi Wildlife Foundation (https://pandhi.org/), Bhuj, India, Brinky took the hot seat to share highlights from her academic research on mugger crocodiles. She shared her engaging journey through years of fieldwork, crocodile encounters, research challenges, surprising discoveries, and let us hear some of the stories behind the science. Brinky discussed her work on individual identification of crocodiles with drones, on behavioural and endocrine measures to inform biology, working with communities in conflict and coexistence, and on broader conservation and community initiatives. We were delighted by an epilogue of mugger behavioural videos too, sharing the drama of life as a crocodile, and as a crocodile scientist!  We had an exciting Q&A with insights from others working on the species, and with co-occurring species in South Asia.