项目介绍

2024年10月8日

Function

We offer a 4 year PhD Position (1.0 FTE) to undertake research on the behavioural and ecological determinants of social strategies in great tits in wild great tits within the Behavioural Ecology chair group at Wageningen University in collaboration with the Animal Ecology department of NIOO-KNAW.

As a PhD student, you will contribute to novel insight into the social mechanisms underlying discovery and acquisition of food resources, social bonds and behavioural strategies using the great tit (Parus major) as model species. You will combine direct observations with novel technology, including smart feeders, tracking and automatic song recorders in the unique long-term NIOO-KNAW nestbox population in Westerheide, the Netherlands. The project will also include the opportunity to conduct aviary studies at the unique facilities of NIOO-KNAW. As a PhD candidate, you will play a pivotal role in organizing and conducting the field and aviary research.

Wild animals can use various strategies in taking advantage of social connections to maximize fitness. Making use of social information and social bonds is pivotal for survival and reproduction. Indeed, earlier studies found correlations between social connectivity and novel food patch discovery in various animal species, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. For example, do social companions just happen to discover food together, do naïve individuals follow informed individuals or are naïve individuals actively recruited by informed birds? And does information always result in resource acquisition or are individuals constrained in acting on information through individual traits and environmental conditions?

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• extensive fieldwork;
• effective application of several technological tools;
• big data management;
• experimental design;
• student supervision;
• statistical analyses;
• academic writing.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair Behavioural Ecology, which is led by Prof. Marc Naguib You will be supervised by Prof Kees van Oers,  dr. Lysanne Snijders  and dr. Chris Tyson.

Function Requirements

You have:

• a MSc-degree in Biology with specialization in Animal Behaviour / Behavioural Ecology or equivalent experience;
• strong experimental and analytical skills;
• good organisational skills;
• affinity or experience with the application of novel technology;
• good (written and spoken) communication skills in English;
• proven ability to collaborate with others;
• the ability and willingness to conduct and organize extensive ornithological fieldwork;
• a valid driving licence.

For this position your command of the English language is expected to be at C1 level. Sometimes it is necessary to submit an internationally recognised Certificate of Proficiency in the English Language. More information can be found here.

Contactinformation

For more information about this position, please contact Lysanne Snijders, Assistant Professor, lysanne.snijders@wur.nl.

For more information about the procedure, please contact Noorien Abbas, corporate recruiter, noorien.abbas@wur.nl.