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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel

@sanjeeta.bsky.social
27 followers 4 following 47 posts

Elephant Scientist | Paleobiology + Wildlife Endocrinology | Poet | Cartoonist | Assistant Professor @Kyoto University | Past: IISc Bangalore; Smithsonian Institution | sites.google.com/view/gajah-vigyan bhuntelephant.com

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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 18h
Way to education is not a simple luxury for many youngest Nepalese kids!
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
#EvoThan2026 happening now at UCL #ComparativeThanatology @evothan.bsky.social
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
After 9 days, who thought miracles may happen! But, miracles do happen. I call the miracle: Nepal Army 🙏🏽❤️ #NepalFlood #ShreeKrishnaJanmasthmi #NepalArmy
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Nepal #NepalFlood
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Prayers for Nepal 🙏🏽😞
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
When the elephant wept, it rained fish! The puddle, then, bloomed. And her thoughts turned to mist! And who would have thought, those fishes, the tears from those eyes, could swim the river, and could fly?! ~Sanjeeta Hridayaninadini, "Weird Dreams" + #poetry
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
No, not this kind of landscape, we want to create for our elephants! (Not my video, credits to whoever captured it)
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
These two elephants may have grown into adults now! Their playful antics as young calves remind me of siblings playing together! Already 13 years since I captured these moments at one of the semi-captive elephant camps! www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmz4... #WorldElephantDay
youtube.com
Asian elephant behavior: World Elephant Day-2014
YouTube video by Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
On this # WorldElephantDay, Bhunte and I celebrate Nepal and extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Supreme Court of Nepal and everyone behind this noble cause for recognising captive elephants not as commodities, but as sentient beings capable of feeling pain and suffering. #Nepal +
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
And, grief is not just human emotions! Credits to whoever captured. #ComparativeThanatology
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
The 2nd EvoThan Symposium is here! 14–15 Sept 2026 UCL, London & online Interested in #ComparativeThanatology? Join #EvoThan2026 to discover how animals respond to death and dying, featuring leading researchers from around the world! Free to attend!🔗 evothanatology.wixsite.com/evothan
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
And here we have the second season 🤗 Special shout-out to @fieryangelsfell.bsky.social for all his efforts and creativity 🐘😇
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
To the mountains, they return! ओम् शान्ति| 🙏🏽😞 Perhaps I feel too much. But how can this feel right? These past few days have torn at us, watching our brave Nepalese brothers fall, one by one! Let their courage root itself in our hearts, and their spirits be within us forever 🙏🏽😞
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Nepal certainly is not for beginners! A Nepalese man bathing a young, wild rhino!
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
If given the opportunity, elephants can rewild, even after years in captivity! (A more robust study design with additional years of observation would provide stronger evidence) www.sciencenews.org/article/capt...
sciencenews.org
Elephants can relearn how to live wild after years in captivity
Researchers documented behavioral similarities between 11 rehabilitated elephants and their wild counterparts.
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
The same was observed in Bandarvgadh, India, where elephants died due to fungal neurotoxin!
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
| मार्गं दर्शयति यः | The one who shows the path | On this Guru Purnima, I bow with gratitude to every teacher, mentor, guide, and every soul who became a lesson. I am grateful not only to those who believed in me, but also to those who did not. + (1)
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Dear Clouds, Thank you! Yours truly, 38°C
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Reposted by Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel
Edward Elderman @elderman.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
An incredibly intact Crinoid specimen fossil dating back to about 345 million years ago This might have been Ridley Scott's first choice for Alien
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Scientists from Japan have confirmed a monumental discovery: asteroid Ryugu contains all five nucleobases essential for DNA and RNA. 5.4 grams of material returned by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft contained adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, & uracil! Oba Y. et al (2026) Nature Astronomy @nature.com
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Do you know that elephants' tail hair can be used as a 'stress calendar' to know what happened to them in the past? Resharing my old work: #AsianelephantScience peerj.com/articles/104... via @peerj.bsky.social
peerj.com
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Many of you may have seen videos of elephants being chased by humans using fireballs (hula party), and I have found that such driving operations disrupt elephant physiological and metabolic health! Again, we do not know the long-term cost of such practices! Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Physiological responses in free-ranging Asian elephant populations living across human-production landscapes - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Physiological responses in free-ranging Asian elephant populations living across human-production landscapes
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Thank you for sharing our work @amcell.bsky.social #Asianelephant ecology in the context of human-altered landscapes!
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Are #Asianelephants behaviourally flexible? If so, how costly can it be? Most elephant studies come from protected areas with minimal human impact! That’s not the whole story! Here's our perspective on redefining elephant behaviour in human-altered landscapes 🐘 doi.org/10.1111/eth....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Rethinking Behaviors of Free‐Ranging Asian Elephants in the Context of Human‐Altered Landscapes
Context-specific behavioral flexibility in free-ranging Asian elephants navigating human-altered landscapes.
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Moving Beyond 365 of my #ProjectPositive365: Remember, sometimes knowledge does not come through pages or proclaimed expertise! But in the simplest form as people, from whom we expect least! .~ Sanjeeta Hridayaninadini sanjeetapokharel.wordpress.com/2026/04/03/m...
sanjeetapokharel.wordpress.com
Moving beyond 365: Biliya anna
Today, I will re-introduce (often wrote about him) you to Biliya anna, the finest among the many tribal brothers with whom I walked the forests of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. This photograph was take…
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Namibian desert elephants are adapted to the desert. I really liked this video! Here you can see, an elephant sliding down the dune! Seems like sliding down is one of the common behaviours while moving down hill! 🐘 Elephants behaving like "elephants"😎🤟🏽! #Namibia #Elephants #NamibElephants
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
And we have Spinosaurus 😇🤟🏽 #FossilFriday (C) @science.org
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Well, "A" discussed her ideas with "B" in the hope of having "B" as a collaborator! But, "B" started the work using "A"'s ideas! It cost a lot of mental pressure and trauma to "A"! "A" thought academia is scary!!! Timely article, I must say! ... www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
What can I do if my idea has been plagiarized?
An early-career scientist’s idea, shared at a poster session, has been published by someone else. What happens now?
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Normal world: We got scammed! Academia: Theft of scientific ideas! (Overtaking someone's projects, claiming those as their own ideas. Taking advantage of one's humility, mistaking it for weakness.) 😕
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
There are a few names that come to our minds when we talk of #elephantscience! For me, Dr Cynthia Moss has been more than a role model. Her research on African elephant sociality and behaviour has inspired many of us. And I finally got to meet her at her Amboseli Trust for Elephants 🐘❤️
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
My Bhunte elephant turns 9! Let’s all wish him an amazing year ahead! He’s excited to share a little about his sister, Sano, who is now 4 years old. Sano is learning to grow as an elephant 🐘❤️ bhuntelephant.com/2025/12/17/s...
bhuntelephant.com
Sano mimics Bhunte
Bhunte, now, is a nine-year-old bull*! And his sister, Sano, born on the 6th of November, 2021, is now over four years old. Over the years, Bhunte has been a caring brother, always protecting Sano …
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Reposted by Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel
André Gonçalves @fieryangelsfell.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
In 2024, my colleagues and I organized the @evothan symposium, bringing together experts in comparative thanatology from around the world. At the time, a French documentary team captured many of us in action: now available to watch here (w/ Eng subtitles): www.arte.tv/fr/videos/11... #animalgrief
arte.tv
Le chagrin des animaux : mythe ou réalité ? - Regarder le documentaire complet | ARTE
Que ressentent les animaux face à la mort de leurs congénères, et qu’en comprennent-ils ? À travers des exemples passionnants, une exploration d’un champ d’études en plein essor : la thanatologie anim...
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Who would have thought that Indian Rollers would shift to "Near Threatened" from "Least Concern"? Sighted these two and many during my elephant fieldwork in the Karnataka forest! #IndianRollers #Birds #IUCN
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
My Bhunte is back with the story of his elephant friends, Oni and Mithi, from West Bengal, India 🐘😓💔 bhuntelephant.com/2025/10/20/h...
bhuntelephant.com
Hula Party, Oni, Mithi and Bhunte
“Bhago, Dada!” Oni trumpetted, his trunk high in the air. “Run! The fire people are coming again!” Oni is only six years old, but his legs knew how to run like the wind when danger come. His ears f…
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
I am not frequent here, but would like to inform you about a *Paper Alert*. After a long delay (lost in processing), my paper is finally out! I studied the physiological/metabolic states of wild Asian elephants across three Indian landscapes + www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Reposted by Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel
Brandon Keim @brandonkeim.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
There've been many stories lately about how animals understand death ... but I hope you'll make space for this one. It goes deep on the philosophy & the science; it asks not only what other animals share with us, but what we share with them. My latest, for @nautil.us: nautil.us/how-animals-...
nautil.us
How Animals Understand Death
Intimations of mortality are not ours alone
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Sanjeeta Sharma Pokharel @sanjeeta.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
*Paper alert* Congrats, Nachiketha Sharma! Given the limited research on their vocalizations, this paper unravels the complex world of wild Asian elephant acoustics by addressing the simplest yet crucial questions on high-frequency calls. Truly commendable! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
When the trumpet blows: age-sex-related differences in the acoustic properties and contexts of high-frequency vocalizations of free-ranging Asian elephants - Mammalian Biology
To support their wide range of social interactions, elephants have evolved high- and low-frequency sounds for short- and long-distance communication. Our current understanding of elephant vocal commun...
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