The Section for Marine Mammal Research, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, is looking for four talented students to complete Master Thesis projects on harbour seals in the semi-enclosed fjord system Limfjorden.

As part of a larger project on the ecology of harbour seals in Limfjorden, we offer four Master thesis projects:

Estimation of timing and extent of pupping and moulting seasons in harbour seals in Limfjorden using a fixed wing drone.
Assessment of diet of seals in Limfjorden
Underwater calling behaviour of harbour seals
Effects of anthropogenic noise on wild seals

The first project entails monitoring of the major seal haulouts in Limfjorden in the summer (late May to early September) using a fixed wing drone and subsequent analysis of haul-out attendance and pup presence.

The second project involves collection of seal scats on the major haulouts and subsequent analysis of hard parts of prey and potentially DNA-analysis of prey items.

The third project relies on conducting underwater recordings of calling males around the haul out sites in the mating season (late May to early August), by deploying automated data recorders and possibly couple this with drone observations.

The fourth project will focus on data collected from sound and 3D motion recording tags on harbour and grey seals. The project will focus on identifying anthropogenic noise in the sound recordings and relate that to the behaviour of the seals. Participation in future seal tagging is also possible.

All four projects will last a year, starting March – April 2017 and include long periods of field work around the fjord and analysis work at our institute in Roskilde, Denmark. We will provide academic tuition, training and introduction to field work, food and accommodation during field work and office space and support at our institute during the project.

The candidates will need to work highly independently in the field and should be able to drive a car and a boat. A BA degree in ecology or biology with good knowledge of statistics is desirable.

Submit your application with a CV to Anders Galatius at agj@bios.au.dk by February 15th 2017.

For more information, please contact:

Senior scientist Jonas Teilmann; jte@bios.au.dk

Senior scientist Jakob Tougaard; jat@bios.au.dk

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