Max Planck Partner Group in India will advance research on firefly synchrony

Akanksha Rathore has been awarded a Max Planck Partner Group, strengthening ties between India and the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies at MPI-AB

In the Max Planck Partner Group, Dr. Akanksha Rathore will lead interdisciplinary research on collective behavior in natural systems. The award establishes an independent research group at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani (Hyderabad campus), India, while maintaining close collaboration with Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany. The initiative will be anchored within the DSCOvER Group (Data Science and Computational Ecology Research), led by Rathore, which focuses on understanding collective intelligence in nature through computational and data-driven approaches.

At its core, the DSCOvER Group integrates behavioral ecology, complex systems, and artificial intelligence to investigate how individual-level interactions scale into large-scale population patterns. These insights have growing applications in ecology, conservation, and ecosystem monitoring.

As part of the new Partner Group, Rathore’s research will expand into a compelling new model system: firefly synchrony. Fireflies are a striking example of collective signaling, where simple flashing behaviors at the individual level can produce large-scale synchronized displays across entire landscapes.

“I am delighted to receive this grant, as this project has been a dream I have been working towards for the past few years,” said Dr. Rathore, who is Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at BITS Pilani. “Firefly synchrony, especially in India’s species-rich ecosystems, offers a fascinating opportunity to study collective behavior in complex, multi-species environments while also developing indicators of ecosystem health.”

The project will explore how synchronized flashing patterns vary across ecological gradients such as urbanization and light pollution, with the goal of using these patterns as indicators of environmental change and ecosystem health. The research will begin in the moist deciduous forests of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (Tamil Nadu) before expanding across the Western Ghats—including riverine habitats in Karnataka and Goa, and forest-meets-urban sites in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Rathore emphasized the importance of her continued collaboration with the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) in Konstanz, where she completed postdoctoral research for three years.

“My previous experience at MPI-AB has been incredibly enriching—the collaborative environment, mentorship, and academic freedom have strongly shaped my research journey. This grant allows me to continue that association while building a long-term interdisciplinary collaboration focused on tropical collective behavior and ecosystem monitoring,” she said.

The newly established Max Planck Partner Group will further strengthen scientific ties between India and Germany, expand research into biodiversity-rich tropical systems, and create opportunities for training, collaboration, and public engagement.

“This collaboration will nurture research capacity in the Global South, while connecting cutting-edge science with citizen science and conservation efforts,” added Rathore.

Rathore’s previous work at MPI-AB laid the foundation for this new initiative. As part of the MELA project, Rathore and collaborators studied collective animal behavior in the wild, including pioneering research on the escape dynamics of blackbuck herds in India’s Velavadar National Park. Using drone-based data collection and machine learning, the team later expanded their work to investigate lekking behavior in blackbuck through multi-drone tracking and deep learning techniques.

Building on this foundation, the DSCOvER Lab currently studies collective mating displays across species such as blackbuck, peacocks—and now fireflies. The broader goal is to develop computational ecology tools that enable the study of collective animal behavior in natural environments, with direct applications for biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem monitoring.

With its combination of advanced data science, field ecology, and international collaboration, the initiative is poised to generate new insights into how collective behavior emerges in nature—and how it can help us better understand and protect the world’s ecosystems.

 

Max Planck Partner Group

A Max Planck Partner Group is a collaborative research unit established by the Max Planck Society to foster long-term cooperation between a Max Planck Institute (MPI) and a foreign research institution. Led by early-career researchers returning to their home country, these groups (80+ worldwide) run for 3–5 years to maintain scientific ties through joint projects.