jeudi 31 mai 2018

BBSRC funded PhD project: Using Bio-logging to Improve Sheep Health and Performance

Project Title: Using Bio-logging to Improve Sheep Health and Performance

This cross-disciplinary project will provide the student will comprehensive training in animal behaviour science and the use of bio-logging devices (GPS, Accelerometers and Proximity Sensors) to monitor animal behaviour, health and welfare.  By working directly with the industry partner (Activinsights Ltd) and a group of progressive sheep farmers, the project will address some of the biggest challenges facing the UK sheep industry.

Candidate requirements: Applicants should have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree. Applicants with experience of working with large datasets and or mathematical/statistical modelling would be particularly welcomed.

Further information:

Closing date for applications is 11th June 2018; Interviews will be held during the week of 25 June 2018.

mardi 29 mai 2018

Mandrillus Project - Information for Volunteers


Volunteer Field Assistant Positions

Role description
The Mandrillus Project is a non-profit organisation aiming at longitudinally studying wild mandrills in Southern Gabon. We are currently recruiting Volunteer Field Assistants for our 2018-2019 field season. These positions combine practical research with training and are entirely field-based. The volunteers are trained by and work alongside local field assistants, field managers, sometimes students and researchers, contributing to the research activities of the Mandrillus Project. Following established protocols, the fieldwork will primarily involve daily follows of a natural population of mandrills on foot, collecting data on the behaviour of individually recognisable animals, together with the collection of non-invasive measurements and samples. Please visit the website of the project to get an idea of the scientific programs that are currently running (http://www.projetmandrillus.com/research-and-conservation.html).

Positions available
Two Volunteer Field Assistant positions are currently available, each running for six months from early-mid September to late February / mid March.

What we cover
Once the volunteers arrive in the field site, the Mandrillus Project covers all their work-related costs, including accommodation (private equipped room with air-con and private bathroom, shared kitchen) and a stipend for meals (about 200€/month). The association will also cover the costs of the volunteers’ travel insurance. On the successful completion of fieldwork, we also contribute a minimum of 150€ towards the cost of the volunteers’ travel fees.

Who are we looking for?
These positions are open to all with an interest in animal behaviour and ecology. We are particularly keen to hear from applicants who:
  • Are friendly, easy-going people, happy to live in small team at a remote field site
  • Are strongly motivated, reliable, honest and committed
  • Have good levels of physical fitness and stamina - you will be following the mandrills on foot several hours a day, 6 days per week, over mountainous terrain, in heat
  • Show good initiative, with a willingness to learn and show attention to detail
  • French is a plus but not eliminatory

What do volunteers get out of it?
  • An amazing opportunity to share the lives of wild mandrills in an equatorial forest landscape
  • An opportunity to learn new skills and gain experience, especially those relevant to research in behaviour and ecology
  • An opportunity to be involved in a long-term project on African wildlife, hosted by an international research institution
  • An opportunity to use this field experience with the Mandrillus Project as a stepping stone on to future Masters and PhD degree courses
  • Experience a new culture and share knowledge with local assistants

Further information
For further details about these positions, including the work involved, our living conditions in the field, preparations prior to departure, and what to bring with you, please see below (and additional information will be provided to successful candidates).

How to apply
If you would like to apply, please prepare a CV and a detailed covering letter that should explain why you would like to work on the project. The CV should include the names of two referees with e-mail contact details.
Applications must be sent at marie.charpentier@umontpellier.fr by 5pm Tuesday 19 June 2018. We will notify successfully shortlisted candidates until Wednesday 20 June, and interviews will be held in Montpellier (for local successful candidates) or by skype Friday 22 June. Applicants should keep this date free for interview, since no other dates will be available. Telephone/skype interviews will be possible for overseas applicants.

* * * * * *

The Study Site
Weather
Gabon has an Equatorial climate with little seasonality. Precipitations are important, almost every day from October to May, and days may be hot (up to 30°C), although the Lekedi Park benefits from a cooler weather because of its altitude (600m). The long dry season, from June to September, is characterized by cool weather (temperatures can fall below 18°C) with no precipitation.
Landscape
The Lekedi Park is characterized by a mix of savannas and gallery forests interspersed with rivers and riverbeds. Equatorial Marantaceae forests are found in the area.
Wildlife
The Lekedi park is home to a variety of wildlife including forest buffalos, several Apes (chimpazees, gorillas) and other primates (cephus, nictitans) and, of course, mandrills! Predators include, occasionally, leopards (but don’t expect any encounter with them!). Birds and reptiles also abound.
Location
The Lekedi park is located in Southern Gabon. It is only a 1.5 hour drive from Moanda, the nearest town that comprises hotels, petrol stations, banks, basic shops and markets.

Working Conditions
Daily and weekly work schedules
Data collection requires full-day follows of the study group. This ensures that the location of the sleeping sites used by the mandrills each night is known, which in turn facilitates their pick-up by observers early the next morning. If the day begins late, or ends early, the mandrills can be lost and may take several days to relocate. Each day, seven days a week, two teams (at least two persons) alternate: the morning team leaves the camp at 5.45am and come back around 1-2pm while the afternoon team starts at noon and come back at 6-6.30pm. A driver brings every day the two teams by car the closest to the mandrills. When mandrills are located with high confidence, the team enters into the forest and starts following the mandrills. Field assistants work 6 half-days per week and benefit from one day off per week during the entire stay.
Working with mandrills in the Lekedi landscape
Observers and local field assistants spend half the day on foot in the company of the mandrills in the forest. Forested environments may be physically demanding because there are often closed and hilly. Field team members travel (with small backpacks) up to 5-8km a day, ascending and descending small hills and slippery, muddy, slopes as they follow the mandrills. The mandrills are habituated to the presence of human observers, allowing data to be collected from close proximity without causing disturbance, but observers must always act carefully and responsibly when in the company of these wild animals. Data collection is largely conducted with handheld computers. Faecal and urine samples are also collected on a routine basis. On-site supervision and detailed guidelines will be provided describing how to work with the mandrills in the forest.

Living Conditions
Accommodation
The fully-furnished, air-conditioned rooms are located in a small research complex where the lab and offices are. It is located at the entrance of the park near other houses: the house of the managers of the project, the one of the director of the park and another one for the vet of the park.
Food
Field team members prepare their own food in the communal, fully-furnished kitchen located in the research complex. Once every two weeks, the manager brings the field team members to Moanda to buy food and supplies.
Telephone and e-mail
The Project has access to wi-fi in the park available to volunteers (skype or facebook are, however, not allowed as is movie download). The project covers the costs of the wi-fi service. Field team members are advised to buy a local mobile phone chip when they arrive in Libreville or in Moanda.
Visitors and vacation
Volunteers cannot make arrangements to receive visitors during their stay at the Project (including local visitors). In addition, tourists are not allowed to visit the study group of mandrills. For vacations, volunteers need to plan to stay additional weeks following their 6-month commitment to the project. In these cases, a visa extension will be needed. Volunteers need to make their own arrangements.

vendredi 25 mai 2018

PhD / Postdoctoral fellowship on depth perception using behavioural / neuroimaging (fMRI) measurements in human and non-human primate

Centre de Recherche Cerveau et Cognition, Toulouse, France

Starting date: September – December 2018

A PhD / postdoctoral (depending on the experiment of the applicant) research position is available to work with Benoit Cottereau in the ECO-3D team of the CerCo laboratory (Toulouse). The aim of the project is to investigate how 3D properties within natural scenes influence visual processing and depth perception in primate. The project will include behavioural (psychophysics) and neuroimaging (fMRI) recordings in both human and macaque (see Cottereau et al., Cerebral Cortex 2017 for an example of fMRI study in non-human primate) so as to determine the homologies but also the differences between the neural mechanisms involved in the two species.

The city of Toulouse is an attractive city with high quality of life located in the south west of France (close to the Pyrenees, the Mediterranean sea and the Spanish border).

The position is for 36 months for a PhD student and 18 months (with potential for a renewal) for a post-doctoral student with standard French salaries. The starting date should be between September 1st and the end of 2018. Applications should be sent tobenoit.cottereau@cnrs.frincluding a CV and 2 names of references.

Reference:

- Cottereau, B. R., Smith, A. T., Rima, S., et al. (2017). Processing of egomotion-consistent optic flow in the rhesus macaque cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 27(1), 330-343.

jeudi 24 mai 2018

PhD proposal - dead line : May 31st


Thesis title: Equine welfare in animal assisted interventions
3 keywords: Welfare / animal assisted interventions with equine / ethology

Unit / team: Pegase, laboratoire éthologie animale et humaine, France

Supervisor’s name: Hausberger Martine & Grandgeorge Marine
Phone number: +2223235810
Email address:
martine.hausberger@univ-rennes1.fr
marine.grandgeorge@univ-rennes1.fr

Socio-economic and scientific context :
The project has important societal issues, i.e. human health and animal assisted interventions as well as animal welfare. The assumption here is that human welfare and animal welfare go hand in hand in all animal assisted interventions (AAI). AAI growth widely and concern more and more health facilities and animal professionals. AAI involve human health and / or animal health professionals. A wide audience is thus concerned which, besides these professionals, includes the clients and their families. In Brittany, many facilities, some of which are well-known, such as Kerpape, aim to use these interactions with animals to promote the well-being of the clients (physical recovery through horse riding, improvement of social skills thanks the link to animal). To date, however, scientific data are lacking, especially about the assessment of the impact of these practices. This remains important to promote best practices. Pegase team (EthoS) is internationally recognized for its expertise in the field of the human-animal relationships and the well-being of the horse. It will provide to the PhD candidate a perfect scientific environment to the success of the PhD.

Working hypothesis and aims :
This project is focused on animal assisted interventions with equines and raises questions about 1) the characterization of such practices, 2) the assessment of the well-being / bad welfare of equids involved in animal assisted interventions and finally, 3) the identification of the practices that affect this state of well-being / bad welfare of equines in order to establish the link between this state and the behaviors of horses with the clients.

Main milestones of the thesis :
1 / Characterization of AAI practices (Sept 18-Sept 19): direct observation study that permits assessment of the practices as well as their impacts on the welfare and behaviors of equines. Observations focus on the clients, the professionals and the equines, e.g. their management, their type of AAI, their state of well-being and their behaviours towards humans with or without disabilities. The study bases on validated indicators of the state of welfare in horses (e.g. Lesimple et al., 2016) as well as on standardized human-horse relationship tests (e.g. Hausberger et al., 2008).
2 / Impact of the welfare of the equine on the AAI sessions (sept 19-sept 20): specific study on centers evaluated as positive or negative for the welfare of the equine. Several parameters are evaluated: sequence of AAI sessions, equine behaviours and perception of the AAI sessions by the people (i.e. clients & professionals). We can objectively measure (1) the impact of the animal's welfare on its use in AAI as well as (2) parameters which impact, positively or negatively, the success of the AAI sessions, thanks to animal’s behaviours and the perception by the clients and professionnals (questionnaires). In addition, we take into consideration the type of horses and, in order to answer a frequent question, we compare AAI sessions with horses to AAI sessions with donkeys.
3 / Result analysis and writing (sept 20-aug. 21): during the last year, the PhD candidate does synthesis in which all the collected data allow an overview and is dedicated to the writing of scientific articles and the PhD manuscript

Scientific and technical skills required by the candidate :
The candidate must have an important background in ethology. Knowledge in EEG data processing, the behavior of the horse and / or the human will be appreciated. The candidate must be mobile across France (driving license is recommended), be autonomous, have no fear of big animals and speak French (or want to learn it).

3 publications from the team related to the topic (last 5 years):
Marine Grandgeorge, Yentl Gautier, Pauline Brugaillères, Inès Tiercelin, Carole Jacq, Marie-Claude Lebret, Martine Hausberger. (2017). Social rivalry triggers visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorders. Scientific Reports, 7(1):10029.
Hausberger, M., Fureix, C. & Lesimple, C. (2016). Detecting horses sickness: in search of visible signs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science,175, 41-49.
Séverine Henry, Carole Fureix, Rebecca Rowberry, Melissa Bateson, Martine Hausberger. (2017). Do horses with poor welfare show pessimistic cognitive biases? Naturwissenschaften, 104(1-2):1-15

National and international collaborations:
Numerous collaborations, see here : https://ethos.univ-rennes1.fr/partenaires

How to apply? Please send a CV, a letter of motivation and the names and contact information of at least two scientists available for reference to : martine.hausberger@univ-rennes1.fr & marine.grandgeorge@univ-rennes1.fr

Application deadline: May 31st 2018.

research manager striped mouse project

Position as research manager (September 2018-November 2019)
at the striped mouse project in South Africa,


We are looking for an extremely motivated and independent biology student with a master’s degree to join the striped mouse project in August or September 2018 at least until November 2019 and for a maximum of 3 years as research manager. This position is suitable for somebody who would like to gain experience in field work and scientific management. Managers get free accommodation at the station and a compensation to cover their daily costs. Travel costs can be refunded by up to an additional R 12 000 / year. As such, the position compensates for all arising costs but does not represent a real employment.
As research manager you will work closely together with the station manager and both managers will share responsibilities. However, each will have specific main duties, but should also be able to deal with all other duties (for example when the other manager is on leave, or when a new manager has to be trained). Our current research manager will leave the project in October 2018. The new research manager will be instructed by the present research manager.
Skills needed: Good experience in field work and good knowledge of behavioural ecology or a similar field of research. Experiences in working with small mammals, radio-tracking, blood sampling, living at a remote location are of advantage.
You must be hard-working, highly motivated, able to work independently, good in communicating with people, able to supervise others, and not afraid of snakes. You must have a drivers licence and you must love to live at a remote place in nature, without regular internet and cell-phone reception. Most importantly, you are fascinated by nature and science!
Great opportunity: This is a great opportunity to spend 1.5-3 years in Africa, acquiring important skills in field biology and project management, while improving your CV. These skills will become valuable whether you later continue with a PhD or other jobs. It will be very hard and demanding, but also a once in a life time experience!
Job description: Five working days a week (Mo, Tue, Thu, Fr, Sat), with Wednesday being used for a shopping trip to town (not counted as working day) and Sundays being free. Included are four weeks of holiday for 12 months, which has to be taken outside the main breeding season (August to November) during periods when other students are present at the research station.

Primary duties research manager / secondary duties station manager
·         Data:
o   Weekly data entry
o   Weekly data check
o   Monthly data backup
o   Monthly data report
o   Training and supervision of field assistants
o   Training of students and postdocs
o   Support for students and postdocs
o   Management of transmitters
o   Management of field and laboratory supplies

Primary duties station manager / secondary duties research manager
·         Technical support research station:
o   Water system incl. sewage system
o   Solar system
o   Gas bottles replacement
o   House and furniture
o   Running of the respirometry laboratory
o   Management of the captive colony
o   Management of the research station car
o   Management of bank account and cash box
o   Management of research station supplies

Compensation:
·         Free accommodation.
  • A monthly compensation of R 4 700, which is sufficient to pay all costs of living.
  • For travel costs, R12 000 per year can be refunded, but proof (receipts) must be presented for this. This refund is only payable after October 2019 and will not be paid if the person leaves earlier than agreed.
  • You will become an honorary researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in the group of Prof. N. Pillay.
  • Scientific co-authorship will be possible if the manager contributes to the success of projects by not only collecting the majority of data, but also by data analysis and writing of the manuscript.
Responsibilities:
·         The manager has to cover the costs to get to the station, including travel costs and visa fees. For this, a refund can be paid (see above).
  • The manager needs to arrange for a health insurance covering him / her during the stay. A copy must be sent to C. Schradin before travelling to the stations.
Place and project: Succulent Karoo Research Station (SKRS) in the Goegap Nature Reserve near Springbok in the Northern Cape of South Africa. The research projects are on the socio-ecology of small mammals, studying ecological and physiological reasons of social behaviour, behavioural flexibility, cognition, and physiological adaptation.
Period: The new manager is expected to start in August or September 2018 and to stay at least until the end of November 2019, the end of the breeding season 2019. The agreement might be extended for a total period of up to 3 years.
How to apply? Please send a CV, a letter of motivation and the names and contact information of at least two scientists available for reference. The letter of motivation should state why you think you are the perfect candidate for this, and when you could start.
Application deadline: 17th of June 2018.

Further information under www.stripedmouse.com
Dr. Carsten Schradin, Director of the Succulent Karoo Research Station, a registered South African non-profit organization supporting research in organismic biology.


vendredi 18 mai 2018

2 academic posts in Psychology at the University of Exeter

Lecturers/Senior Lecturers/Associate Professors/Professors in Psychology (Education & Research)
Applications are invited from outstanding scholars in Psychology to extend our education and research profiles.

Animal Behaviour is an area of excellence in the department, extending and linking across various areas of Psychology research, education and impact. For further information please see the advert and job specifications, and our departmental website.

lecturer/senior lecturer in behavioural ecology - Liverpool John Moores University

Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Ecology

The School of Natural Sciences and Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University seeks to appoint a Lecturer or Senior Lecturer in Behavioural Ecology to contribute to our successful undergraduate programmes in Animal Behaviour, Biology, Wildlife Conservation and Zoology. We would particularly welcome applications from persons whose research has an applied focus in aspects such as companion/ domestic animal behaviour, animal welfare, and/or conservation. 

We have a strong profile in animal behaviour, with many staff working on behavioural biology: https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/research/centres-and-institutes/evolutionary-and-behavioural-biology-research-group

The deadline for applications is 20th June and more details can be found here: https://jobs.ljmu.ac.uk/vacancy/lecturer-or-senior-lecturer-in-behavioural-ecology-351035.html

jeudi 17 mai 2018

Poste d'ATER, année 2018-2019, Univ. Saint-Etienne

Poste d'ATER, année 2018-2019
Equipe de Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle (ENES/Neuro-PSI CNRS UMR9197)
Profil Recherche :
L'ATER devra s'intégrer dans un des axes de recherche de l'ENES (voir http://neuro-psi.cnrs.fr/spip.php?article247). La·le candidat·e devra avoir soutenu sa thèse dans le domaine de l'éthologie (préférentiellement les communications acoustiques). Une attention particulière sera portée aux publications et à la motivation des candidat·es.

Enseignements :
L'ATER prendra en charge des enseignements de biologie, dans différents domaines (éthologie, physiologie animale, biologie cellulaire...), pour un total de 192 heures (ATER "temps plein") réparties sur l'année 2018-2019.

Si vous êtes intéressé·e, merci d'envoyer un bref CV (2 pages max) à Nicolas Mathevon mathevon@univ-st-etienn

Stage postdoctoral à Québec. Modélisation des caribou boréal: comportement et démographie.

Boreal    caribou    is    a    cultural    keystone    species    for    Indigenous    peoples    and    an    indicator    of    broad-scale    changes    in    ecosystem    dynamics.    Despite    their    ecological    and    cultural    value,    boreal    caribou    are    imperiled    across    much    of    their    range,     and     are     listed     as     threatened     on     Schedule     1     of     Canada’s     Species     At     Risk     Act     (SARA).     Accordingly     they     are    subject     to     a     comprehensive     national     recovery     strategy     and     action     plan     (Environment     Canada     2017,     2012).     The    mechanisms     behind     variation     in    the    population     trajectories    of     boreal     caribou    are    critical     to     understand.     Many    studies     suggest     a     high-level     of     adaptation     to     local     or     range-wide     ecological     and     climatic     conditions     as     well     as    individual     variation     in     behaviour     including     the     responses     to     human     and     natural     disturbance,     and     ultimately survivorship     and    population     dynamics.     Such     findings     have     relevance     to     our     understanding     of     intraspecific    behavioural    plasticity,    the    species’    inherent    potential    to    adapt    to    rapidly    changing    environments    and    our    ability    to    forecast    population    trajectories.    However,    there    has    been    no    work    to    systematically    quantify    this    variability    within    and    among    herds    across    Canada.   
To     address     this     knowledge     gap,     we    seek     to    quantify     intraspecific     variability     in     the     habitat     ecology     and    demographic     outcomes     for     populations     of     boreal     caribou     that     are     representative     of     the     range     of     variability     in    ecological,    climatic    and    human    factors,    the    range    of    observed    behaviours    being    considered    as    analogues    for    future    adaptive     strategies.    Our    goal    is     to    build    agent-based    models    to     explore    the     response     of     individual     caribou     to    landscape     change,     including     future     changes     in     vegetation     communities,     human     and     natural     disturbance,     and    climate.     Reproductive     and     survival     outcomes     from     simulated     caribou     will     allow     us     to     explore     the     population    implications    of    environmental    change    and    to    evaluate    management    actions    designed    to    increase    the    likelihood    of    persistence    of    these    caribou    across    the    boreal    range.   
Our    collaborative    team    is    offering    a    postdoctoral    research    opportunity    with    the    following    objectives:
1.  Quantify     the     variation     in     habitat     selection     among     individual     caribou     and     relate     it     to     individual     survival,    including    the    spatial    representation    of    predation    and    disease.
2.  Adapt     an     existing     mechanistic     energetics     model     to     calculate     the     reproductive    consequences     of     caribou    demonstrating    the    range    of    identified    distribution    strategies    along    a    disturbance    gradient.
3.  Develop     or    adapt,     and     apply,     Agent-Based    Models    (ABM)    to     investigate     the     seasonal     movements     and    distribution    strategies    of    caribou    considering    internal    state,    motion    and    navigation    capacities.
4.  Relate    the    resulting    movement    to    factors    such    as    vegetation    change,    predation    risk,    and    climate   
5.  Apply    the    ABM    to    contemporary    landscapes    and    to    future    landscapes    under    climate-driven    changes    in    natural    disturbances    (e.g.    fire),    emergent    or    altered    distribution    of    plant    communities,    and    changes    in    the    nature    and    intensity    of    the    human    footprint.
The    project    will    start    in    September    2018,    and    is    planned    to    end    in    July    or    August    2019    (11-12    months),    with    the    possibility    of    a    1-year    extension.    The    postdoctoral    fellow    could    be    based    either    at    U.    Laval    (Québec    city,    under    the     supervision     of     Steve     Cumming),    at     UQAR    (Rimouski,     under     the     supervision     of     Martin-Hugues     St-Laurent),     at    UNBC    (Prince    George,    under    the    supervision    of    Chris    Johnson),    at    ECCC    (Ottawa,    under    the    supervision    of    Cheryl Ann    Johnson)    or    at    NRCan    (Victoria,    under    the    supervision    of    Eliot    McIntire).    The    candidate    will    interact    with    the    other    members    of    research    team    and    will    be    invited    to    travel    between    the    different    research    centers.
Requirements:   
-  Highly    motivated    and    determined    to    complete    a    project    and    to    publish    the    findings.
-  Track-record    publishing    in    peer-reviewed    journals.
-  Interest    in    spatial    ecology    and    experience    analysing    location    data.
-  Advanced    understanding    of    statistical    and    spatial    analyses    (R,    SAS,    STATA).
-  Ability    and    willingness    to    work    productively    in    a    team    environment.
-  Ability    to    speak    French    is    an    asset,    but    is    not    essential.
How     to     apply:    If     interested,     please    send     a     CV     with     contact     information     (phone,     email     address)     of     at     least     2    references    and    a    cover    letter    before    Friday    June    15th,    2018    to    one    of    the    following    researchers:
Martin-Hugues    St-Laurent,    Université    du    Québec    à    Rimouski    (martin-hugues_st-laurent@uqar.ca)    (website)
Chris    J.    Johnson,    University    of    Northern    British    Columbia    (johnsoch@unbc.ca)    (website)
Steve    Cumming,    Université    Laval    (steve.cumming@sbf.ulaval.ca)    (website)
Eliot    McIntire,    Natural    Resources    Canada    (eliot.mcintire@canada.ca)    (website)
Cheryl    Ann    Johnson,    Environment    and    Climate    Change    Canada    (cheryl-ann.johnson@canada.ca)    (website)