Project description
Studying behavioural adaptations of scavengers
The ecological relationships among scavengers, predators, and their prey have a significant impact on their behaviour and population dynamics. However, the role of scavenging has been undervalued in food-web ecology. The EU-funded FFP-BSS project will investigate the behavioural adaptations of ravens, a facultative and kleptoparasitic scavenger, in relation to wolves, a predator, in Yellowstone National Park. With the recolonisation of wolves, there has been an increase in carrion availability. The project will test and assess whether the recolonisation of a top predator affects facultative scavengers at the population level. It will examine the behavioural adaptations of ravens, identify their foraging and scrounging strategies to exploit wolf kills, and generate a dataset by GPS-tracking the movements of ravens.
Objective
The ecological relationships between scavengers, predators and their prey can substantially influence their behaviour and population dynamics. Still, the impact of scavenging has been largely underestimated in food-web ecology. In this project I want to investigate the behavioural adaptations of a facultative and kleptoparasitic scavenger in relation to a predator. I aim to study one of the Northern hemisphere’s most widespread predator-scavenger system: wolves and ravens. In many areas wolves recolonize and increase the time period over which carrion is available and abundant overall. By using existing data on a large spatial scale, I will test and quantify for the first time, whether the recolonization of a top predator affects facultative scavengers like ravens at a population level; if this is the case, I will quantify these effects. Besides this, the main focus of this proposal is to identify which foraging and scrounging strategies ravens follow to locate and exploit wolf kills. I will create a unique dataset by GPS-tracking ravens in the Yellowstone National Park, in the same area where also wolves are intensively monitored and GPS-tracked. I will describe this predator-scavenger system and study the behavioural adaptations of ravens in relation to the wolves’ movements and predation. The collaboration with the Yellowstone wolf project - a natural ecosystem with minimal human impact - and the use of the latest tracking technology, the supervision by leading experts in animal movement analysis and my expertise on ravens lead to a synergic project, bigger than the sum of its parts, and will advance this field of research. Appropriate training, supervision and new collaborations will allow a significant improvement in my career perspective and enable me to become an independent researcher.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence computer vision motion analysis
- natural sciences biological sciences biological behavioural sciences ethology biological interactions
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2017
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
80539 MUNCHEN
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.