18 month postdoc - Behaviour, Biomechanics, Welfare - Donkeys

 See informatin here : https://www.cityu.edu.hk/hro/en/job/current/research.asp?ref=ur-cr367

PhD Opportunity: Influence of social bonds on stress, health, nutrition & culture

 

PhD Opportunity, fully funded by the BBSRC South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership

Corvid connections: how do social bonds influence stress, health, nutrition and cultural knowledge? 

 

Supervisors:  

Alex Thornton, Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus,  

Andrew King, Biosciences, Swansea

Camille Bonnead, CEC, University of Exeter 

Ines Fuertbauer, Biosciences, Swansea 

 

We are looking for a highly motivated, talented student with broad interests in animal behaviour, cognition and health. The project will be based at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in beautiful Cornwall with additional work in Swansea. 

 

Full details of how to apply are here: 

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/funding/award/?id=4282

If you have any questions about the project, please write to alex.thornton@exeter.ac.uk

 Project Description 

Like humans, many animals form stable social relationships between specific individuals. These relationships can be extremely beneficial: in humans and other primates individuals with strong relationships tend to be healthier and less anxious. However, there has been little research on other animals and it is not clear how the benefits of social relationships trade off against costs. For instance, spending time with social partners could improve immune function but also increase exposure to infections. Similarly, if you spend most of your time with particular partners you risk missing out on opportunities to learn valuable information from others. To understand these trade-offs and shed light on how and why social relationships evolve, this interdisciplinary project will study jackdaws living in their natural environments where they are subject to competition, predation and disease. Using a combination of state-of the art field experiments, non-invasive stress assays and physiological measures you will examine how variation in the strength of social relationships influences individual stress levels, health and the acquisition of food and knowledge.   

Entry requirements 

Applicants should have obtained, or be about to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class UK Honours degree, or the equivalent qualifications gained outside the UK, in an appropriate area of science.

In addition, due to the strong mathematical component of the taught course in the first year and the quantitative emphasis in our projects, a minimum of a grade B in A-level Maths or an equivalent qualification or experience is required.

Eligibility 

To be eligible for a fully-funded studentship, you must meet both the academic and residence criteria. 

A fully-funded four year SWBio DTP studentship will cover 

•    a stipend* at the standard Research Council UK rate; currently £15,609 per annum for 2021-22
•    research and training costs
•    tuition fees (at the standard Research Councils UK rate)
•    additional funds to support fieldwork, conferences and a 3-month internship

Behavior & Welfare Research Program Coordinator

 

Johns Hopkins University Research Animal Resources is seeking a Research Program Coordinator  who supports the behavioral management program of the department under the direct supervision of the Director of Behavioral Management, Dr. Lydia Hopper. Directly participates in animal welfare assessments, training via positive reinforcement techniques, and the administration of behavioral and cognitive research with nonhuman primates and other laboratory animal species.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities:

• Collects observational data of nonhuman primates using standardized ethograms via focal follows and group scan methods.
• Conducts behavioral and cognitive tests with nonhuman primates.
• Implements and evaluates environmental enrichment, social housing, and positive reinforcement training strategies with nonhuman primates and other laboratory animal species.
• Maintains detailed working knowledge of all assigned protocols.
• Maintains accurate and complete documentation of data collection, providing regular reports of study progress to the Director of Behavioral Management and other faculty and staff as required.
• Maintains research equipment and initiates the process for equipment repair when needed.
• Demonstrates professional communication and interpersonal skills.
• Informs faculty and staff in a timely and professional manner when problems arise with research plans or deadlines to determine solutions.
• Manages multiple projects simultaneously.
• Participates in the development and implementation of lab goals and objectives.
• Uses various software applications to assemble, manipulate and/or format data and/or reports, and manage billing/accounting.
• Assists with the dissemination of research findings via written reports, peer-reviewed articles, and scientific presentations.
• Maintains regulatory documents according to internal SOPs.
• Provides miscellaneous administrative support as required.

The full job description and application information can be found here: https://jobs.jhu.edu/job/Baltimore-Research-Program-Coordinator-MD-21205/801433100/ 

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Offre de stage 2 mois - Animateur pédagogique

 

PhD Studentship Opportunity: Investment decisions in grey squirrels

 

PhD Studentship fully funded by NERC GW4+ DTP  

Investment decisions in grey squirrels: the role of future discounting and executive control 

Supervisors 

Lisa Leaver, University of Exeter, Psychology 

Tim Fawcett, University of Exeter, Psychology 

Andy Higginson, University of Exeter, Psychology 

Sean Rands, University of Bristol, Biological Sciences 

We are looking for a PhD candidate with experience of working with animals in the lab or field, and an interest in animal cognition, foraging theory and decision-making. The project will be carried out on the University of Exeter’s Streatham Campus, Exeter, Devon. 

Project details 

Investment behaviour necessarily entails planning for the future. It can take many forms across species, and requires some degree of executive control: investors need to inhibit immediate use of an asset to store it away for a future which is, inevitably, uncertain. Investment decisions provide a window into an animal’s expectations about the future and can be expected to vary with life-history parameters.  

Grey squirrels are an ideal model species for studying investment because they are natural and prolific investors, storing nuts during times of plenty to provide a reliable source of food when it is scarce. Squirrels not only decide whether to cache or eat a food item, but caching itself involves a series of predation and pilferage risk trade-offs, which co-vary with food value. As such, investment decisions directly reflect future discounting and ought to be tightly linked to executive control. 

Aims and Methods 

This PhD project will investigate the role of future discounting and executive control in investment decisions made by wild grey squirrels, as part of a long-term field study of squirrels living on the University of Exeter campus. There are two key aims:  

develop reliable assays of executive control in squirrels and record their investment decisions and outcomes in terms of successful food recovery, as a real-life measure of the costs and benefits of delaying gratification; 

generate and test predictions of caching behaviour from integrative models that consider both optimal foraging (from the behavioural ecology tradition) and the cognitive mechanisms of discounting and executive control (from experimental/cognitive psychology). 

By devising field experiments to verify abstract laboratory tests of executive control, the student will generate reliable measures of executive control in free-living squirrels and measure the outcomes of their natural investment decisions. The student will construct mathematical models of adaptive investment behaviour based on executive control and future discounting, to generate predictions that he/she will test by collecting experimental data on wild squirrels in the field. There are multiple directions the work could take and we are particularly interested to hear from students who want to play an active role in designing the project. 

How to apply 

Full details can be found at: 

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/funding/award/?id=4264

For eligible successful applicants, the studentships comprises: 

• A stipend for 3.5 years (currently £15,609 p.a. for 2021/22) in line with UK Research and Innovation rates 
• Payment of university tuition fees; 
• A research budget of £11,000 for an international conference, lab, field and research expenses; 
• A training budget of £3,250 for specialist training courses and expenses 

Eligibility 

NERC GW4+ DTP studentships are open to UK and Irish nationals who, if successful in their applications, will receive a full studentship including payment of university tuition fees at the home fees rate. 

A limited number of full studentships are also available to international students which are defined as EU (excluding Irish nationals), EEA, Swiss and all other non-UK nationals.  For further details please see the NERC GW4+ website. 

Those not meeting the nationality and residency requirements to be treated as a ‘home’ student may apply for a limited number of full studentships for international students. Although international students are usually charged a higher tuition fee rate than ‘home’ students, those international students offered a NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Partnership full studentship starting in 2022 will only be charged the ‘home’ tuition fee rate (which will be covered by the studentship). 

International applicants need to be aware that you will have to cover the cost of your student visa, healthcare surcharge and other costs of moving to the UK to do a PhD. More information on this is available from the universities you are applying to (contact details are provided in the project description that you are interested in. 

The conditions for eligibility of home fees status are complex and you will need to seek advice if you have moved to or from the UK (or Republic of Ireland) within the past 3 years or have applied for settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. 

  

The closing date for applications is 1600 hours GMT Friday 10 January 2022. Interviews will be held between 28 February and 4 March 2022.  For more information about the NERC GW4+ DPT please visit https://nercgw4plus.ac.uk 

If you have any general enquiries about the application process please email pgrenquiries@exeter.ac.uk.   

Project-specific queries should be directed to the lead supervisor Lisa Leaver l.a.leaver@exeter.ac.uk .

PhD studentship for STUDENTS WORLDWIDE: parental care diversity in vertebrates

 

NERC DTP PhD project - Ecological drivers and conservation implications of parental care diversity in vertebrates - a phylogenetic comparative study on the evolution of parental care diversity

Lead Supervisor: Dr Isabella Capellini (Queen's University Belfast) 

Co-Supervisor: Dr Greta Bocedi & Dr Lesley Lancaster (University of Aberdeen), Dr Domhnall Jennings (Queen's University Belfast)

There are astonishing differences in whether, how, and how long for, animals care for their offspring. In most species, such as many marine fishes, parents abandon their fertilized eggs to their own destiny, which is mostly being eaten by predators. Conversely, parents of other species provide protection and resources to their offspring. While parental care increases offspring survival, it also comes at considerable costs for the parents because resources and time are limited. Once evolved, not only does care affect the fitness of parents and offspring, but it also alters life history strategies, is related to sexual selection and mating system, leads to cooperation and conflict within the family, and promotes the evolution of sociality. Yet, we know very little about when care evolves and its knock-on effects on species reproduction, population dynamics and extinction risk. 

 

Following our successful approach focusing on diversity in parental care [1,2], this project combines state-of-the-art phylogenetic comparative approaches, datasets of parental care behaviours for hundreds of vertebrate species, and cutting-edge evolutionary modelling, to: 

(i)         Investigate which ecological conditions promote the evolution of care diversity;

(ii)        Unravel how reproductive traits co-evolve with different care forms;

(iii)        Evaluate how care diversity influences population trends and extinction risk. 

 

The student will have the opportunity to shape the project by deciding the extent of theoretical modelling vs empirical analyses; selecting the model groups; expanding or reducing the components as best suited to their interests.

 

The student will be trained on data collection, data management, numeracy, statistical analyses, specifically:

i.          Assemble accurate datasets on parental care diversity, ecological and reproductive traits, population trends and extinction risk for hundreds of species, using published data;

ii.          Test theoretical predictions with phylogenetic comparative approaches in R and BayesTraits;

iii.         Derive quantitative predictions with evolutionary modelling to guide the empirical analyses. 

 

Full project description: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/projects/ecological-drivers-and-conservation-implications-of-parental-care-diversity-in-vertebrates/

Essential skills: the ideal candidate will hold a first-class degree in biology, ecology, zoology or related discipline; have very strong quantitative skills, outstanding organisational skills, excellent attention to detail, knowledge of phylogenetic methods.

 

Desirable skills: a Masters degree in a relevant discipline, previous research experience with phylogenetic comparative methods and/or mathematical modelling, evolutionary biology and/or theoretical ecological modelling. 

Deadline for application: 18th of January 2021. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to contact Dr Capellini (I.CapelliniATqub.ac.uk) to discuss their application and/or to find out more about the project.

To apply: https://www.quadrat.ac.uk/how-to-apply/