TierpflegerIn
TiermanagerIn/PflegerIn am Goffin Lab Goldegg 1
Dienstzeit: 20 Wochenstunden
Dienstort: Goffin Lab Goldegg, Goldegg 7, 3110 Neidling
Dienstantritt: Mai 2019 (ein Dienstantritt Juni wäre ggf. auch möglich)
Arbeitsbereich: Fütterung und Pflege (gelegentliche Medikament Gabe) der 16 bis 20 Goffini Kakadus am Goffin Lab; Installation von Beschäftigungsmaterial für die Tiere; kleine Instandhaltungsarbeiten in der Volierenanlage; Reinigung des Innenberreiches der Voliere.
Entlohnung: Entlohnung als Technische Fachkraft nach den Richtlinien der Personalabteilung der Veterinärmedizinischen Universität Wien: 1030,80 Euro Grundgehalt (14x).
Voraussetzungen:
- Persönliche Erfahrung in der Pflege von Tieren (Berufs- oder persönliche Erfahrung mit exotischen Tieren, am besten Papageien von Vorteil).
- Genauigkeit.
- Respekt vor und Freude am täglichen Umgang mit hochintelligenten Tieren
- Grundkenntnisse in Englisch (unser wissenschaftliches Team am Goffin Lab ist meistens international)
- Eine positive Arbeitseinstellung
- Gute Teamarbeit und Kommunikationsfähigkeit
Bei Interesse schicken sie bitte ihre Bewerbungsunterlagen bis zum 1. April 2019 an alice.auersperg(at)vetmeduni.ac.at.
Two PhD Positions
We are hereby advertising two fully funded (WWTF -Wiener Wissenschafts und Technologie Fund) interdisciplinary PhD positions at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna in collaboration with the University of Birmingham.
Project Title: The innovation problem: factors influencing innovative problem solving and tool use in human infants and cockatoos (CS 18-023)
Project Locations: Goffin Lab of the Messerli Research Institute for Human Animal Interactions, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham (both PhD students will test at both locations)
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/psychology/index.aspx 3
Academic Supervisors:
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Alice Auersperg (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna)
Dr. Sarah Beck (University of Birmingham)
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Sabine Tebbich (University of Vienna)
Project Description: Behavioural innovations allow humans and animals to solve novel challenges and to create new opportunities. Tool innovations are particularly useful for amplifying access to environmental resources and have had an important role in human technical evolution.
While children are proficient tool users from the age of two, they show a surprising inability to innovate new tools until they are eight years old. The reasons for this phenomenon are poorly understood, yet greatly important for our understanding of human cognitive architecture in the technical domain. Tool innovation is not restricted to humans but is also found in other taxa: recent research on children was motivated by studies on birds.
Goffin's cockatoos are outstanding tool innovators that lack obvious inherited predispositions for using objects as instruments. Studying the capacity for tool innovation in a species distantly related to us will expand our knowledge on its mechanisms and origins. The proposed project will combine knowledge from developmental psychology and animal cognition to investigate the mechanisms and ontogenetic development of tool innovation in humans and Goffins.
We will investigate motivational systems (exploration strategies, play) as well as cognitive means for innovative tool modification/manufacture and combinations of more than one tool. We will test specific hypothesis drawing on known similarities and differences.
Deadline and project start: Please send your application before the first of April 2019. We will employ successful candidates from May 2019 for three years (a later starting date can be considered if not otherwise possible)
Requirements:
- A Masters degree
- A Master’s thesis with a topic related to Animal Cognition/Animal Behaviour or Developmental Psychology
- Experience in testing animals and or children
- Confident working with young children and with excellent people skills’.
- Comfortable with direct contact with parrots
- Advanced statistical knowledge
- Excellent English skills (additional German skills are highly appreciated)
- Good teamworking and communication skills
How to apply: Please send a motivation letter as well as an elaborate curriculum vitae to these email addresses:
Alice Auersperg alice.auersperg(at)vetmeduni.ac.at
Sarah Beck s.r.beck(at)bham.ac.uk
Sabine Tebbich sabine.tebbich(at)univie.ac.at
Grade: B1 (pre-doc)
Level of employment: 30 hours
Length of employment: 3 years (fixed term)
Research Area: Comparative Cognition