School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University (Australia)
https://www.deakin.edu.au/
Project presentation (February 2025 – July 2025)
I am seeking a student or volunteer to contribute to a project which focuses on coordination of parental behaviours at the nest in the Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus), an Australian burrow-nesting passerine bird. The student will assist with processing data collected during 2 field seasons (2023-2024 and 2024-2025) as part of my PhD project on the breeding ecology and the parental behaviours of the Spotted Pardalote. The position is based in Geelong, one hour from Melbourne.
Biparental care has been commonly studied as a ‘tug-of-war’ between the female and male (sexual conflict), where each pair member tries to optimize its own fitness by taking advantage of the other. Coordination of the parental activities at the nest (nest visits, incubation bouts, chick feeding) has been theorised as a means to solve this sexual conflict.
Your project will use data collected during my PhD study which aims to investigate a different viewpoint of biparental care: one that considers the links between cooperation, coordination and communication within pairs in the Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus). During two field seasons (2023-2024 and 2024-2025), I gathered data on parental coordination at the nest using video and audio recordings.
However, the methods used to study these behaviours generate large amounts of video data and require significant processing time. New methods are rapidly emerging in the field of ecology to facilitate data processing, many of which are based on machine learning. Therefore, the selected candidate will be trained to use machine learning based tools and integrate these tools into an efficient workflow.
The data was collected in Brisbane Ranges National Park, Victoria, Australia. The position does not involve fieldwork. The University is in Geelong, Victoria.
Requirements to participate
– Positive communication and teamwork skills
– Interest in ornithology and/or in behavioural ecology
– Hard work and high motivation
– BSc, Honours or MSc degree in related fields
– Interest in programming
– Ability to code in R and/or Python
– Commitment of at least 3 months to the project, candidate willing to commit for longer periods will be favoured
Compensations
The position in unpaid. However, I offer free shared accommodation and an allowance for groceries (meals) for the volunteer (pending funding).
References
On the research project:
Borrel, C. Beyond sexual conflict: drivers of breeding success in the Spotted Pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus). Ecological Society of Australia Blog https://www.ecolsoc.org.au/blog/beyond-sexual-conflict/
On the general project theoretical background:
Griffith, S. C. (2019) Cooperation and Coordination in Socially Monogamous Birds: Moving Away From a Focus on Sexual Conflict. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution [Online], 7. Available from: . (to read!)
On automated nest video processing:
Chan, A.H.H., Liu, J., Burke, T., Pearse, W.D. and Schroeder, J. (2024), Comparison of manual, machine learning, and hybrid methods for video annotation to extract parental care data. J Avian Biol, 2024: e03167. https://doi.org/10.1111/jav.03167
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