Interested in doing your BSc / MSc Thesis or internship at the Behavioural Ecology group?
BSc / MSc Thesis
If you have a passion for studying wild animals in their natural environment, please have a look at the various research topics within our group, contact our staff directly or browse here through a selection of our thesis topics.
Check below for all the fieldwork opportunities within our group.
Project 1: Eco-acoustics for nature-positive food production
We are currently looking for BSc or MSc students who would like to learn about ecoacoustics and the relevance of bio-indicators to facilitate nature-positive food production, and is willing to join us during our fieldwork in Brazil. If you are interested and want to know more, please click here.
Project 2: Linking Social Competence & Cognition in a Cooperatively Breeding Fish
Social competence is the ability to accurately perceive and respond appropriately to social situations. In the cooperatively breeding cichlid (Neolamprologus pulcher), research has shown that early-life rearing conditions can impact social competence later in life, though it remains unclear what mechanisms induce these changes. We predict that cognition may facilitate these changes in social competence, as cognition is crucial to the perception and recollection of information that then dictates how individuals behaviorally respond to their environment.
For this project, you will examine the link between social competence and cognition in cichlids. Over the last few months, we have reared cichlids in differing social conditions to create groups of high and low social competence individuals. Using these fish, you can design and conduct experiments to determine if there are cognitive and behavioral differences between the two groups. This is a lab-based MSc project to be conducted at Carus animal facilities starting in fall 2022. If you are interested, please contact Elizabeth Phillips (elizabeth.phillips@wur.nl) for more details.
Project 3: Parental care behaviour and reproductive strategies in birds
MSc thesis projects are available for the breeding season (spring- early summer) at our field site near Guadix, Spain. Field studies focus on the reproductive behaviour of diverse bird species, including black wheatears, European bee-eaters, red-billed choughs and magpies. Project topics include various aspects of parental care behaviour, investment strategies, and natal and breeding dispersal strategies... other topics are welcome in consultation!
Requirements: The fieldwork best suits those that can work well both independently and in a team. Patience and flexibility are essential! Possession of a valid driving license is advantageous.
If you are interested, please contact Gretchen Wagner (gretchen.wagner@wur.nl) for more information.
Project 4: Functional Diversity of Birds in the Neotropical Region
BSc and/or MSc thesis
In this project, we will use citizen science data (and potential fieldwork) to investigate aspects of the functional diversity of birds in the Neotropics. The scope of the project will be defined together with the student, there is a wide range to explore from all taxon to singular taxa like hummingbirds or parrots. The Ornithology Research journal is running a special issue on the topic and here you can read the description for more info: "Habitat loss and disturbance are important ecological filters for the biodiversity decline in natural habitats, particularly in Tropical Forests. Although decrease of species number and change in bird composition are well documented, other aspects are less investigated, such as the loss of ecological traits. In fact, bird communities in disturbed habitats are not only different from those of natural habitats in number and composition of species but also in lower functional diversity, which has implications for the maintenance of ecosystems. As birds play important roles such as pollination, seed dispersal, and control of insect populations, their decline should have particular importance for ecosystem functioning." https://www.springer.com/journal/43388/updates/23139890
If you are interested and want to know more, please contact Filipe Cunha or Lysanne Snijders.
Project 5: Investigating Referential Alarm calls (fieldwork in Brazil)
MSc students. The fieldwork takes place between December and April in Florestal/Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil. In this project, you will investigate if the Lined Seedeater has referential alarm calls. In the fieldwork, you will use several predator models, present them to breeding pairs in the wild, and record their alarm call. Then you will use acoustic software and statistical software to analyse the alarm calls and answer the question regarding the referential alarm calls in this species.
If you are interested and want to know more, please contact Filipe Cunha.
Project 6: The Cinderella-effect: Do stepparents have a negative effect on individuals?
[comparative study]
In humans, the prevalence of abuse and violence among step-parents and their step-children is higher than that among that of biological parents and their children. In group-living birds, where individuals stay with their parents for a number of years, individuals can end up living in a group with a stepparent if the biological parent left or died. Using a comparative meta-analytic approach, this MSc project will assess whether parent turnover has a negative effect on the condition and group membership of young individuals.
Requirements: Broad conceptual thinking; affiliation with statistical analyses, or willingness to learn, is preferred
If you are interested, please contact Sjouke Kingma (sjouke.kingma@wur.nl) for more information.
Project 7: Cooperation, dispersal, and climate adaptation in Australian fairy-wrens
MSc thesis projects are available to study purple-crowned fairy-wrens in the Kimberley, Australia. Project topics can include cooperative breeding, dispersal, parental care, brood parasitism, and climate change, but are not limited to these, and we are open to discussing other topics. Projects can be based on existing data from this long-term project and/or new data collected in the field.
Fieldwork can take place during the late dry season (Oct-Nov), or during the wet season, when the birds are actively breeding (Jan-Apr), or during the early dry season (May-June). The field site is located at a remote sanctuary an 8-hour drive from Broome, Western Australia. The cost of accommodation (mostly camping in tents) at the field site, and local travel expenses (from Broome) will be covered by the project. Requirements: The fieldwork best suits students who are able to work independently in the field, are comfortable with living in a remote location, and who have good interpersonal skills. Being flexible and willing to work long days in hot conditions is a must. Full colour-vision is also essential for identifying birds (who are individually recognisable by a unique set of coloured leg bands). Previous experience living in similar conditions is advantageous.
If you are interested, please contact Niki Teunissen (niki.teunissen@wur.nl) for more information.
Project 8: Do predators make prey smarter?
Predation affects the evolution of life history, morphology and behaviour of prey. Surprisingly, the link between predation and these traits has not been tested experimentally. To fill this knowledge gap, we created six lines of artificially selected guppies. Three lines were selected for survival under predation by exposing them to a brief period of adult predation, while the other three are control lines. These artificial lines allow us to study how different traits evolve due to predation pressure. Currently, we are mostly focused on how predation affects different cognitive traits.
This thesis is strongly lab-based (in Carus), and will teach you a variety of skills needed to work in a fish lab. Additionally, this thesis will also give you the opportunity to come up and test your own ideas for behavioural assays.
If you are interested, please contact Hannah De Waele (hannah.de.waele@wur.nl) for more details.
Project 9: Cat personality and anticipatory behaviour
For a current project into cat personality and anticipatory behaviour we are looking for students to help at various aspects of this project. Your role can be assisting with behaviour tests, setting up your own (side) projects within the bigger framework and/or doing video/data analysis. Behaviour tests will include tests on coping strategies, impulsive behaviour, learning behaviour and anticipatory behaviour of the cats housed in CARUS, to see if any of these can be linked to each other.
Contact Bonne Beerda (bonne.beerda@wur.nl) for more details on the project.
Project 10: Animal cognition: dogs' understanding of human knowledge
Dogs are outstandingly skillful in understanding humans. They understand simple gestures even when they are not/minimally socialized, something great apes or wolves can only do after excessive training. Dogs have also shown to understand our attentive states (what and when do we see something) and perspectives. According to some, dogs therefore likely possess a 'theory of mind' (ToM). Theory of mind is the understanding that others have goals, desires and knowledge different than your own. Understanding that others may see different things (understanding of perspective) is the first step in this. But it is of yet unclear if dogs also understand that seeing something leads to specific knowledge. To test dogs' understanding of human knowledge we are looking for motivated students to collect data using an already existing protocol, or students who can come up with new innovative ways of testing the understanding of human knowledge in dogs. Combining this with a study into the dogs' personalities or the owners' parenting styles for instance would also be possible.
Contact Bonne Beerda (bonne.beerda@wur.nl) or Jori Noordenbos (jori.noordenbos@wur.nl) for more details on the project.
Field projects
Your thesis can both be done in the Netherlands or abroad!
With the more relaxed new international travel policy, we specifically look for MSc students for our running larger international field projects in
- Brasil for Aug/Sep 2022 (Lined Seedeaters; Filipe Cunha),
- Brasil for Nov/Dec/Jan 2022-2023 (Ecoacoustics project; Filipe Cunha),
- Trinidad for Mar/April 2023 (Guppies, Lysanne Snijders),
- Egypt (Waterbirds; Marc Naguib),
- Tenerife (Parrot cognition, Marc Naguib),
- Spain for spring/early summer 2023 (Black wheatears; contact Gretchen Wagner),
- Australia 2023 (purple-crowned fairy-wrens; contact Niki Teunissen).
We are also specifically looking for BSc and MSc students for our various field projects in Wageningen:
- students interested in working on social behaviour with Magpies (contact Miriam Kuspiel),
- students interested in working on cognition and cooperative breeding in cichlids (contact Elizabeth Phillips).
