PhD Project: parent-offspring conflict in fallow deer

 DEADLINE EXTENDED: new deadline Friday 24th of March

2. Investigating the effect of parent-offspring conflict on social organisation, growth and stress in free-ranging fallow deer fawns

Supervisor: Dr Domhnall Jennings (D.Jennings[AT]qub.ac.uk)

Summary: 

While parents and offspring co-operate to ensure offspring survival, they also disagree on the amounts of resources (food, shelter, protection from predation) that parents should provide. This disparity drives conflict between parental resource allocation versus offspring demands. However, little is known about how the intensity of this conflict varies among individual parents and why; whether and the extent to which offspring differ in their response to this conflict, and the strategies they use to mitigate any negative effects of low parental investment; how this conflict affects offspring growth and survival. 

This project investigates how, at the behavioural level, maternal investment and the conflict over parental investment influences offspring growth and survival in fallow deer. Thus, it focuses directly on individual fitness from the perspective of the parent in terms of prior, and current versus future reproduction, while also focusing on the offspring as it attempts to mitigate any deleterious effects of low or variable parental investment.  

For further information: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/investigating-the-effect-of-parent-offspring-conflict-on-social-organisation-growth-and-stress-in-free-ranging-fallow-deer-fawns/?p155178