Job announcement
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Department of Animal Sciences, Wageningen University, The Netherlands

Application deadline: 15.12. 2011
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PhD position in Behavioural Ecology, Wageningen, the Netherlands

We offer a PhD Position (1.0 FTE) to undertake research on personality and social networks in great tits within the newly established Behavioural Ecology chair group at the Animal Science Department of Wageningen University, the Netherlands (vacancy number ASG-DW-ETH-0001; the application deadline is 15.12.2011). This position is available within the framework of NWO funded project and will be conducted in close cooperation with the Animal Ecology Department of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW).

Project details
The aim of the project is to unravel the effects of personality on connectivity and its behavioural and fitness consequences in a social network. Within this project we will measure spatial movements of birds using modern automated tracking techniques in order to determine social network characteristics and their fitness consequences, complemented by playback experiments as short term challenges to a network and by experimental testing of the fitness effects of long-term changes in a network. We will track movements and encounters of a large number of personality-typed great tits (Parus major) during the breeding season. All data collection and experiments will be conducted using a well described colour-ringed population of personality-typed great tits at Westerheide, near Arnhem, the Netherlands. The project is embedded in larger projects on the causes and consequences of animal personality, as well as in broader cooperative projects on movement ecology and wildlife animal tracking.

We ask
- Candidates must have an MSc or equivalent degree in a behavioural ecology or related fields (e.g. Animal Behaviour, Animal Ecology), be enthusiastic about field work, have strong experimental and analytical skills, have good organizational and (written and spoken) communication skills, and a proven ability to collaborate with others, willingness to conduct to organize and extensive ornithological field work, willingness to travel internationally, to attend conferences and visit other institutes, a driver licence and a licence to carry out experiments with vertebrates (i.e. article 9 of the WoD) is a plus

We offer
Employment basis: temporary for specified period; duration of the contract: 1.5 + 2.5 years, maximum hours per week: 38. Additional conditions of employment: To begin with, a PhD appointment for a period of 18 months. Continuation of the appointment with another 30 months will be based on performance evaluation. Gross salary per month € 2042 in the first year rising to € 2612 per month in the fourth year, based on a full time appointment. Participation in the training program of the Graduate School ‘Production Ecology & Resource conservation, see www.pe-rc.nl. An excellent opportunity to develop an international scientific network.

The organization
The successful candidate will join the stimulating and international research environment of Wageningen University. The work will be conducted under supervision of Prof. dr Marc Naguib and in close cooperation with the Department of Animal Ecology of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW). For further information, please contact Marc Naguib (marc.naguib@wur.nl; +31 (0)317 483856). Links: http://www.wur.nl/uk;
http://www.zod.wur.nl/UK; http://www.nioo.knaw.nl/en/node/1061
The application deadline is 15.12.2011