In a world of increasing anthropogenic influence, understanding how rare and specialised\u00a0species adapt to human-modified landscapes is essential for conservation. Primates face\u00a0many threats including direct pressure from hunting, human-wildlife conflict and loss of\u00a0habitat. Increasingly, the new field of conservation physiology is recognising that such\u00a0threats can also have indirect role through their effect on metabolic markers and\u00a0processes. Oxidative stress (OS) is one such potent factor. It has been shown to increase\u00a0in some animals under anthropogenic pressure and can lower fitness by affecting the\u00a0number and quality of offspring produced. Very few studies of OS have been conducted\u00a0on primates and none have examined it under conditions of habitat disturbance. Its\u00a0impact on the health and fitness of such slow-reproducing mammals, while potentially\u00a0important, is unknown. This study will assess the effect of human disturbance on the OS-physiology of an endangered, endemic primate: the Zanzibar red colobus (Piliocolobus\u00a0kirkii). By comparing OS levels of individuals from groups that are at and beyond the\u00a0forest boundary (disturbed habitat) with groups in more remote parts of the forest\u00a0(undisturbed habitat), we will assess the physiological costs of living in an ecologically\u00a0novel habitat with high levels of anthropogenic disturbance. This work will provide novel\u00a0insights to indirect threats to primate populations mediated through physiology. The\u00a0student will be based at Bangor University and will undertake extensive fieldwork in\u00a0Zanzibar (primarily at and near Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park). They will study\u00a0multiple groups of colobus and collect behavioural and ecological data, as well as urine\u00a0samples (to measure OS). They will gain first-hand experience in conservation practice\u00a0through our partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society \u2013 Tanzania Program.\u00a0Laboratory training and analyses of oxidative stress markers will be carried out in\u00a0collaboration with the University of Exeter.<\/p>\n
Applicants should hold a minimum of a UK Honours Degree at 2:1 level or equivalent in\u00a0subjects such as Zoology, Animal Behaviour, Biology, Biological\/Evolutionary\u00a0Anthropology or Conservation science.<\/p>\n
For further details please contact Dr Alexander Georgiev (Email:\u00a0a.georgiev@bangor.ac.uk<\/a>; Website: www.alexandergeorgiev.co.uk<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a world of increasing anthropogenic influence, understanding how rare and specialised\u00a0species adapt to human-modified landscapes is essential for conservation. Primates face\u00a0many threats including direct pressure from hunting, human-wildlife conflict and loss of\u00a0habitat. Increasingly, the new field of conservation physiology is recognising that such\u00a0threats can also have indirect role through their effect on metabolic markers… Read More »Living with human disturbance: conservation physiology of a wild African primate<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":5810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[51],"tags":[13,44],"class_list":["post-5809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-51","tag-bangor","tag-case"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/files\/2017\/10\/Alex-Georgiev-Image-400x400px.jpg?fit=400%2C400","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kFzn-1vH","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/363"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5809"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5811,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5809\/revisions\/5811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/envision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}