mardi 24 septembre 2013

Post-doctoral position: mother-young relationship and sexual behavior in captive deer

A one-year postdoctoral position is available from 01/03/2014 in the laboratory of Behavioral & Reproductive Physiology, UMR 7247 INRA/CNRS/University of Tours, France (http://www7.tours.inra.fr/physiologie_reproduction_comportements; F. Lévy, M. Keller, R. Nowak). This position will be renewable for another year.
The postdoc will also work in close association with the Réserve de la Haute Touche of the French national museum of natural history (MNHN) (Y. Locatelli, http://haute-touche.mnhn.fr/) and the mammal vocal communication and cognition research group (D. Reby, http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/cmvcr/Home.html, Brighton, UK).
The project, funded by the région Centre, is dedicated to mother-young and sexual relationships in the context of biological conservation of various species of deer. Hormonal correlates of sexual and maternal behavior will also be investigated.
The candidate will have a strong background in animal behavior and endocrinology and great experience in behavior of wild animal, the use of software for behavioural observations, blood sampling and hormonal assays. Additional experience in the field of bioacoustics will be considered as an advantage. Importantly, the post-doctoral associate should show high motivation and autonomy (scientists will not always be present on site to conduct the project on a daily basis). The project will necessitate early and late working hours, including weekends. Further assistance will be provided by animal caregivers and research students, and the candidate will have to communicate in French with these people.
The daily work of the postdoctoral associate will take place at the réserve de la Haute Touche (located 70km and 1h20 by car from Tours). The salary will be in accordance with INRA salary scale for engineers (IR2 INRA). The Haute Touche reserve is equipped with all the facilities to conduct animal research and perform behavioral analysis. The complimentary equipments (hormonal assay, video devices etc...) will be available at the laboratory for behavioral and reproductive laboratory in Nouzilly. The candidate will also spend some time in the group of David Reby (School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK) to work on the vocal communication part of the project. A reasonable level in English is therefore required.
Interested candidates should contact M. Keller: mkeller@tours.inra.fr and F. Lévy: levy@tours.inra.fr for further informations and send their CV in addition with 2 letters of recommendation.