Urgente! Dos ofertas de doctorado en comportamiento animal en UK

Deadline for application: Friday 12th of July at 12pm

We are looking for strong candidates for fully funded PhD projects starting 01/10/2024:

1. Sleep ecology in deer: sleep is key to health, cognition and development but how it is integrated in the ecology of wild animals is a mystery. We have recently demonstrated that sleep can be studied in wild animals using cutting-edge biologgers (see Mortlock et al 2024 Proc R Soc B; Mortlock et al 2024 Anim Behav). Students on this project can take choose to address one of the following questions: (i) how do environmental conditions and maternal effects influence sleep development in row deer fawn? (ii) does reproduction suppress sleep and what costs does this entail in red deer? (iii) Does predation risk compromise sleep quantity and quality in red deer and wild boar? This project requires strong statistical skills using R; ideally experience with analysis of biologger data (triaxial accelerometers). 

2. Evolution of diversity in parental care strategies in vertebrates: this project takes a large scale comparative perspective to investigate how different care behaviours evolved with one another and in relation to ecological, environmental and social factors. We have shown how parental care diversity evolves and how it fits within species' life history strategies (Furness et al 2019 Nat Comms; Furness and Capellini 2022 Ecol Lett; Furness et 2022 PLoS Biol; West and Capellini 2016 Nat Comms). The project requires strong statistical skills in R and ideally experience with phylogenetic comparative methods.

3. Investigating the hidden life of a hider species: the behaviour of fallow deer fawns during early life. Like many other ungulates the fallow deer adopts a hider strategy; after birth fawns remain hidden and socially isolated until they are brought by the mother to the female herd. We know little of the behaviour of fawns during this hider phase. Using cutting edge triaxial accelerometery data, you will conduct a detailed investigation of the behaviour of fawns during this early period of life. TThis project requires strong statistical skills using R; ideally experience with analysis of accelerometry data. 

4. Young bucks: investigating the social and reproductive behaviour of male fallow deer during early adulthood. Young male fallow deer are competitively excluded from mating by larger more dominant individuals. During the period between fawnhood and adulthood we expect that these young males should defer reproductive investment in favour of self-maintenance and growth. This project will investigate the social and reproductive behaviour of young males during early adulthood as they prepare to take their place as the dominant males.  The project requires observational skills of animal behaviour and strong motivation to do fieldwork.

These projects are fully funded with scholarship providing stipend and a small research grant, and are open to both UK and international students from any country.

Interested students should contact Isabella Capellini (I.Capellini@qub.ac.uk) for projects 1 or 2 and Domhnall Jennings (D.Jennings@qub.ac.uk) for projects 3 and 4 with the following information:

(i) which project they are interested in and how they would like to develop it; 

(ii) why they want to do a PhD and the chosen project in particular;

(iii) what skills they already have that will help them deliver the project successfully and which skills they will need to develop;

(iv) attach their CV and transcript.

Deadline for application: Friday 12th of July at 12pm

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Dr Isabella Capellini

School of Biological Sciences

Queen’s University Belfast
19 Chlorine Gardens, Belfast
BT9 5DL (UK)

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