Research Assistant for biomonitoring project at Tai Chimpanzee Project

[Tai Chimpanzee Project]

Volunteer Research Assistant (RA) for biomonitoring in at the Taï Chimpanzee Project (TCP)

We are looking for a research assistant to place camera traps in the research area of TCP to collect data for a biomonitoring study to identify the biodiversity in the territories of the wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. TCP is a long-term research project conducting research on many aspects of chimpanzee biology and conservation (www.taichimpproject.org).

Responsibilities include:

The research assistant will receive an initial training of one week at the Institute for Cognitive Sciences (ISC) in Lyon, France, by members of TCP on the data collection methods and health and safety protocols. After the initial training, the research assistant will travel to Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. The RA will be responsible to place camera traps on the pathway system, maintain the functioning of the cameras (exchanging batteries and SD cards), and store all the data safely. The RA is locally supervised by the TCP project manager and remotely by a team of experts.

Qualifications include:

The research assistant should have a Master in Biology, Psychology or Anthropology with a strong interest in behavioural ecology / animal behavior. Field experience and knowledge of behavioural data collection will be of advantage.

Living conditions are very basic. Internet connection is not reliably present. Living under remote and tropical conditions, living and working together with the same people whether one likes them or not, requires stress resilience, excellent social skills, and professionality in the work. Working with the chimpanzees is also physically demanding, so excellent physical and psychological conditions are conditional. The research assistant needs to speak English AND French, and needs to be able to work independently after the training in the forest.

Compensation and training:

We offer the initial training of about 1 week (depending on existing knowledge and experience) by experts from the Ape Social Mind Lab at the ISC in Lyon, France. Afterwards we expect a tenure of 12 months in the Taï National Park. The research assistant receives free accommodation and a compensation of 500 € per months for living expenses, insurances, etc. After the successful tenure we reimburse the international flights from Lyon to Abidjan and back as well as visa costs (to a max of 1000 €).

This project a cooperation of the Institute for Cognitive Sciences (CNRS UMR 5229) in Lyon (F), the Helmholtz Institute for One Health in Greifswald (D) and the Evolution of Brain Connectivity Project at the Max Planck Institute EVA in Leipzig (D).

Application:

Please apply by sending a motivation letter, a CV (including your experience with behavioural data collection), and two references to taichimpan...@gmail.com and state “RA CT 2023” in the subject line.

We will start evaluating the applications on June 1, 2023 and continue until the position is filled. Start of the appointment will be September, 2023.