Research Assistants for Primate Studies in Peruvian Amazon

Field Projects International is announcing several Research Assistantship programs for Summer 2016. All of the following training programs will be held at the Los Amigos Biological Station in Southeastern Peru. See below for details about each opportunity.

–WILDLIFE HANDLING PROGRAM–

Start date: June 7, 2016 (minimum commitment: 5 weeks)

Cost: $450/week. Food, lodging, travel from Puerto Maldonado to the field station, training, and field equipment will be covered by your fee.

Application deadline: April 17, 2016

This is a volunteer training program targeting students with an interest in wildlife handling or veterinary science. This program will train students to participate in an annual capture and release program for tamarins, wherein each participant will individually handle upwards of 25 animals of two species of primate while also gaining valuable knowledge on the natural history of 9 other primate species at this site. This program is part of an ongoing long-term tamarin monitoring project begun in 2009.

At the end of this program, students will be able to:

– Identify all materials used in an animal field processing kit
– Collect swabs of secretions and genetic materials from the primates
– Determine sex and appropriate age of individuals by morphological characters for two primate species
– Appropriately handle wild primates under time constraints
– Record TPRs at regular intervals (temperature, pulse and respiration)
– Manipulate a weighing scale to accurately record the body mass of subjects
– Collect biological samples
– Store and process biological samples analyses of endocrinology, parasitology and reproductive physiology

Learn more: https://fieldprojects.org/research/wildlife-handling/

–PRIMATE COMMUNITY DISEASE ECOLOGY–

Start dates: June 10th and July 10th, 2016 (minimum commitment: 4 weeks)

Cost: $450/week. Food, lodging, travel from Puerto Maldonado to the field station, training, and field equipment will be covered by your fee.

Application deadline: April 17, 2016

This training program involves primate disease ecology of 11 primate species, and includes physically demanding fieldwork requiring long days of hiking and data collection, but it is incredibly rewarding.. We are looking for highly motivated field assistants, and previous experience is not required; we provide all training on site.

At the end of the program, research assistants will be able to:

– Track primates by movement and vocalizations, as well as radio telemetry
– Work off trail systems, and conduct full-day follows
– Conduct behavioral observations on known-individuals (scan and focal animal sampling)
– Record data on feeding ecology
– Correctly sex individual primates
– Collect GPS data on species movements to create a large, overarching primate movement database.
– Become proficient in collecting and storing primate fecal samples in field conditions, including participating in downstream applications like endocrinology and parasite analyses.
– Input sample and movement information into databases for further analyses.

Learn more: https://fieldprojects.org/research/community-disease-ecology/

–PRIMATE COMMUNICATION PROGRAM–

Start date: June 10th or July 10th (minimum commitment: 6 weeks)

Application deadline: April 17, 2016

Program fee: $450/week. Food, lodging, travel from Puerto Maldonado to the field station, training, and field equipment will be covered by your fee.

This training program targets those with a strong interest in primatology or wildlife biology. We work with ~5 groups of saddleback and emperor tamarins that are individually identified and habituated to human observers. We study chemical (scent) and vocal signals used to convey information inter- and intra-specifically.
Research assistants who complete this program will be able to:

– Comfortably and safely work while on or off trail systems
– Conduct half and full-day follows of these miniature primates
– Learn to identify primates based on individual identification markers
– Track primates by movement and vocalizations
– Become well-versed in scan and focal animal behavior sampling protocols
– Use radio telemetry systems
– Operate high pitch audio recording systems and use audio analyzing software
– Learn how to collate data collected into a usable database for further analyses
– Record data ad libitum on several unique behaviors such as mating, aggression, competition and grooming
– Identify life-stages of the tamarins, and specific behaviors particular to those time stages

Learn more: https://fieldprojects.org/research/primate-communication/

–SENSORY PERCEPTION PROGRAM–

Start dates: Every Tuesday beginning June 7th until final start date of July 12, 2016

Minimum stay required: 4 weeks

Application deadline: April 17, 2016

Program fee: $450/week. Food, lodging, travel from Puerto Maldonado to the field station, training, and field equipment will be covered by your fee.

This program examines sensory perception in neotropical primates, in part because they have an interesting sex-linked color vision phenomenon. Excluding howler monkeys, male platyrrhines are all dichromatic, meaning they can discern only two wavelengths on the light spectrum. On the other hand, about half of all the females have trichromatic vision. This phenomenon allows us to design experiments in the field that test what senses primates use to select ripe fruit, for example.

Research assistants who complete this program will be able to:

– Record focal behavioral data
– Work with video recording equipment
– Complete basic video edits
– Understand relational databases
– Perform basic behavioral data analyses
– Recognize all 11 species of primate at our field site
– Distinguish species-specific vocalizations
– Gain a general knowledge about rainforest ecology

Learn more: https://fieldprojects.org/research/sensory-experiments/