PhD Opportunity, fully funded by the Wild Animal Initiative and the University of Exeter
Ecological and Welfare Implications of Social Connections in Wild Corvids
Supervisors:
Professor Alex Thornton, University of Exeter
Professor Mike Mendl, University of Bristol
We are looking for a highly motivated, talented student with broad interests in animal behaviour, cognition and welfare. The project will be based at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in beautiful Cornwall.
Full details, including how to apply, are here:
https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/funding/award/?id=4791
If you have any questions about the project, please write to alex.thornton@exeter.ac.uk
Project Description
The social environment has major effects on health, wellbeing and longevity in humans and is increasingly seen as a vital determinant of welfare in farm and zoo animals. However, despite growing human impacts on the natural environment, we have little understanding of how the structure of wild animal societies and individuals' positions within them affect their responses to, and ability to cope with, environmental change. Addressing this gap in our knowledge is vital to understand and mitigate negative responses to human disturbance, maximise the efficacy of interventions designed to reduce these impacts and advance our fundamental understanding of social evolution, behavioural plasticity and animal emotion and welfare.
The Cornish Jackdaw Project, a long-term field study of hundreds of RFID-tagged wild jackdaws run by Professor Alex Thornton, provides ideal opportunities to characterise social connections and their consequences under dynamic natural conditions. Using behavioural observations and automated RFID loggers, this PhD project will characterise and experimentally manipulate social associations at different levels of social organisation, from dyadic bonds to intraspecific and community networks. Simultaneously, we will use a range of techniques to infer welfare states employing behavioural, physiological and affective indicators. These will include measures of risk sensitivity and competitive success, thermal imaging to characterise stress states, indicators of sleep disturbance and automated RFID-based versions of laboratory cognitive bias tasks to assess emotional states. Together, this work will reveal the ecological and welfare implications of social connections across different scales and contexts.
Entry requirements
Applicants for this studentship must 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 or technology (e.g. biology, psychology). A Master’s degree in a related area is desirable.
Applicants must have strong analytical skills, experience of relevant research and interests in animal behaviour, cognition and welfare. Experience in field research is highly desirable. A bird ringing license and driving license would be an advantage.