Background: How does climate change affect the health and survival in very long-lived mammals like elephants? Is the social environment helpful in tackling climate adversity? The proposed Masters project will explore these questions this using a multigenerational dataset on the demography and health records of thousands of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), as part of the Myanmar Timber Elephant Project’s (MTEP). The Myanmar Timber Elephant Project is a multi-disciplinary and international research group, investigating the evolution, ecology and behaviour of a semi-captive population of timber elephants in Myanmar (https://elephant-project.science/).
Specifically, the masters project will examine if health and survival in elephants are affected by adverse bioclimatic (droughts, heat waves, vegetation) conditions and if this effect is mediated by the social environment (kinship and old females).
Internship and supervision:
This project will be based at the University of Turku, Finland, within the Myanmar Timber Elephant Project led by Prof Virpi Lummaa. For this project, you will be supervised by Dr. Hansraj Gautam and Prof. Virpi Lummaa.
Preferable starting date: January 2025 but the dates are flexible.
Note: there is no financial help provided from our research group but you can apply for Erasmus grants and mobility grants (please check the modalities with your university) and we will support your applications.
Requirements:
We are looking for a motivated Master’s student who is interested in ecology, social behaviour and evolutionary biology and has a curiosity to learn more about the determinants of health and survival in long-lived animals. This project would require knowledge of statistical analyses and previous experience with R software. The project also requires using AI tools processing textual descriptions of regular health check-ups of elephants to obtain health indices – the student will learn this during the internship.
Please send your CV and a cover letter (1 page max) that includes a summary of about your academic background, interests and motivation for this project.
Last date: November 23rd 2024. Interviews will be held the following weeks.
Contact: Dr Hansraj Gautam (hansraj.gautam@utu.fi), Department of biology, University of Turku (Finland).
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