Un postdoc tremendamente tentador trabajando en comportamiento de aves en Arizona y California ~ Bioblogia.net

12 de mayo de 2019

Un postdoc tremendamente tentador trabajando en comportamiento de aves en Arizona y California



Comparative Behavioral Ecology Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 
Institute for Social, Behavioral and Economic Research, University of California Santa Barbara

Location: Tempe, Arizona (year 1), northern California (year 2) Contract duration: 1 year with the 
possibility for a 1 year extension depending on performance
Salary: starts at $50,000 (depending on experience; 100% time)
Start date: July-August 2019

The Grackle Project is recruiting a Postdoctoral Scholar to support long- term research on how 
behavioral flexibility relates to invasion success.
Under the direction of the PI, Dr. Corina Logan, and the field site manager, Dr. Kelsey McCune, the postdoc will help manage a great-tailed grackle behavior field site. The successful candidate will conduct comparative cognition tests in aviaries and in the wild, trap grackles to color-band as much of the population as possible, conduct focal follows in the wild to document foraging innovations, track nestling success to measure the fitness of tested birds, co-supervise a research technician and student assistants, coordinate with project collaborators, and contribute to publications that will be published in 100% open access journals at ethical publishers. As biologists, we know the importance of diversity and we encourage applications from individuals belonging to groups that are traditionally under-represented in the sciences. See the grackle website for more information:  www.CorinaLogan.com.

Duties
• Contribute to the design, implementation, analysis, and reporting of behavioral experiments in 
accordance with the project’s research goals while making the best use of open research practices.
• During the non-breeding season, conduct behavioral experiments on grackles in aviaries and in the 
wild, follow detailed data collection protocols, and back up data daily. Supervise, train, and 
communicate effectively with a research technician and students who will assist the research. Carry
out animal husbandry activities including feeding, cleaning, and health checks to ensure the birds 
have unlimited and constant access to water and are fed the appropriate food during testing and 
non-testing times. Identify aviary issues as they arise and work with the Animal Care Team to 
resolve them.
• During  the breeding  season,  fewer experiments  will  be conducted  and more  time  will be  
spent collecting behavioral data on wild grackles using focal follow protocols to understand 
whether they have a dominance hierarchy, obtain their social network, and document which foraging 
innovations are
used by which birds.
• Trap grackles in the wild and process them (i.e., band, collect blood and feathers, and biometric 
measurements) to individually mark birds for study in the wild and in aviaries and to gather data 
that we will relate with their behavioral performance. Release most grackles and bring some 
temporarily
into aviaries for behavioral tests. Must be able to conduct this work at irregular hours (e.g., at 
dawn) to maximize trapping success.
•  Communicate research progress effectively with project collaborators for review purposes.
•  Disseminate research findings internationally via publications, conferences, and seminars.
• Promote awareness of research activities in comparative cognition and evolutionary biology among 
groups that are traditionally underrepresented in science.

Essential Qualifications
• PhD in animal behavior, comparative cognition, or related field.
• Demonstrate the potential to be a strong role model for groups that are traditionally 
underrepresented in the sciences.
• Expertise in conducting comparative cognition experiments in aviaries on wild-caught birds.
• Must have extracted at least 100 birds to be able to immediately become a subpermittee on the bird banding license.
• Excellent written communication skills as evidenced by peer-reviewed publications in animal 
behavior.
• Knowledge of, and experience applying, open research practices (e.g., publishing datasets and 
code, posting preprints, preregistering experiments, conducting peer reviews that are published, 
advocacy).
• Demonstrated ability to work outside for long hours in extreme weather (e.g., >105F summer, cold 
winter) and walk sometimes extensively to follow the birds.
• Effective communicator, including proven ability to work cooperatively in a team while also being 
able to take initiative and work independently, and communicate with the public.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail, including proven ability to carry out 
detailed field protocols.

Preferred Qualifications
• Experience conducting puzzle box experiments on wild birds.
• Experience conducting touch screen comparative cognition tests on wild-caught birds.
• Experience trapping birds with bownets and walk-in traps.

To apply: email your cover letter, CV, and contact information for at least three references by 31 
May 2019 to Dr. Corina Logan (corina_logan@eva.mpg.de). In your cover letter, please provide 
evidence for how you meet the essential and preferred qualifications.

This post is funded by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and hired through the 
University of California, Santa Barbara. Field accommodation is not provided. Corina is a signatory 
of Research Assessment (http://www.ascb.org/dora/) and will assess quality directly rather than using 
metrics.


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