Do Ravens Modify
Their Signals According to Their Audience's Comprehension?
We are looking for a motivated student for a master
project at the Humboldt Research Group “Comparative Gestural Signalling” at
the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany
When people are not fully understood, they persist
with attempts to communicate, in order to better convey their meaning. We want
to investigate whether captive ravens (Corvus Corax) would use analogous
communicative strategies in signaling, and whether they could distinguish
different degrees of misunderstanding.
Terms of appointment and qualifications:
- The project should start in March 2015 and will last for 4-5 months
- Experience in behavioural biology would be beneficial
- Because of the rather remote location of our institute, a private car would be recommended
We seek a highly motivated person with organizational
skills, able and willing to work independently. You will learn to interact with
eight hand-raised ravens, to set up the observation schedule, film the
behaviour and experiments, design and develop a coding scheme and analyze the
behavioural interactions.
We offer the opportunity to work at one of the leading
institutes for bird research in Germany and Europe and to learn methods in comparative
research and behavioural biology.
Applications
should include a CV, a letter of motivation and contact details of one referee.
Application
deadline: 31.12.2014
For further information please contact:
Miriam Sima (Primary contact)
Group Leader:
Dr. Simone Pika : spika@orn.mpg.de