Subject: Patterns of senescence in the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)
Senescence is defined as the general deterioration of the organism (i.e. physiology, morphology, reproduction), and is associated with increasing mortality and decreasing fertility with age. Although senescence has now been widely reported in wild animals, little is known on whether senescence affects all traits, and whether males and females are affected in the same way. Using an extensive longitudinal dataset on semi-captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), the student will investigate the age-related variation in life-history traits and health parameters, and the difference in senescence patterns between traits and sexes.
Internship:
This project will take place at the University of Turku, Finland, within the Myanmar Timber Elephant Project lead by Prof Virpi Lummaa. For this project, you will be supervised by doctoral researcher Héloïse Moullec, Dr Sophie Reichert and Prof Virpi Lummaa. The Myanmar Timber Elephant Project is a multi-disciplinary and international research group, investigating the evolution, ecology and behaviour of a semi-captive population of timber elephants in Myanmar. The Myanmar timber elephants are semi-captive, working during the day in timber camps, but free-roaming at night in the surrounding forests, where they interact and mate with other semi-captives and also wild elephants.
Preferable start, beginning of 2024 but the dates are flexible.
Note: there is no financial help provided from our research group but you can ask for Erasmus grants and mobility grants (see the modalities with your university).
Requirements:
We are looking for a motivated Master’s student who is interested in evolutionary biology, and who is willing to learn more about the senescence of a long-lived mammal. This project would require knowledge of statistical analyses and previous experience with R software, since this project contains a substantial part of analyses on R.
Please, send a CV and a cover letter (1 page max) before the Deadline September 29th 2023. Interviews will be held the following weeks.
Contact: Doctoral researcher Héloïse Moullec, heloise.moullec@utu.fi, Department of biology, University of Turku (FINLAND).