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Ph-D position in Behavioural Ecology of
House Sparrows - Univ. Sheffield, UK


The PhD student will work in a team on our house sparrow population on
Lundy Island -  on "personality and fitness consequences".

Requirements:
We are a seeking motivated and independent team player to join our house
sparrow research group. The fieldwork on Lundy Island will conducted
for 4 months per year, requiring a committed and collaborative
individual. Ideally, you have previous research experience,
fieldwork experience, and are interested in birds and behavioural
ecology. Experience in handling birds and/or a ringing licence are
an advantage. The graduate position is for 3 years, with a flexible
starting date before January 2011. The supervisors are Prof. Terry
Burke, Dr. Julia Schroeder (Sheffield University) and Dr. Shinichi
Nakagawa (Otago University, NZ).  For any questions and to apply,
contact julia.schroeder@sheffield.ac.uk.

This is a re-advertisement and if you applied before you do not need to
apply again.

Project description:
In behavioural and evolutionary biology, there has been a recent
explosive interest in the phenomenon known as behavioural syndromes
(i.e., animal personality or consistent behavioural differences between
individuals across diverse contexts). A realisation of the ubiquity
of behavioural syndromes in the wild has shaken the traditional view
of animal behaviour in which behavioural phenotypes are expected to be
infinitely flexible so as to be adaptive in any given context. Despite
much interest in animal personality research, very little is yet known
about how different personalities can affect the fitness of animals.
We will use a long-term monitored population of house sparrows on Lundy
Island to investigate the link between fitness and personality in the
wild. There are five personality traits recognised: activity, boldness,
exploration, aggressiveness and sociability. We will particularly focus on
the first three personality traits. Our previous studies have demonstrated
that two behavioural traits, parental care and fidelity (quantified
by extra-pair mating), are repeatable within individuals, meaning, for
example, that some individuals express consistently high parental care
or that others are successful at gaining extra-pair paternity through
their lifetime. Obviously these two traits have significant fitness
consequences. A critical feature of this study is that al individuals
are monitored through time and DNA profiling will be used to confirm
the pedigree. Consequently, it will be possible to attach precise
fitness measures to alternative behaviours. The project will therefore
be among the first to investigate intricate interactions among these
fitness-related behavioural traits (parental care and mate fidelity)
and personality traits (e.g., activity, boldness and exploration).