Opportunity: The Naylor Lab at James Madison University (Department of Biology) is seeking a Master’s student to start in Summer / Fall 2025 to use existing accelerometry and tracking data to investigate movement behavior, energetic costs, and fitness consequences for scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) reintroduced in Chad. This project stems from the efforts of an international coalition led by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, the Government of Chad, and conservation organization Sahara Conservation to restore a viable population of oryx in their former native range.

Project Synopsis: Movement is essential to fitness, as animals must pursue resources and mates, defend territories, and avoid predators and other threats. Animals reintroduced into a novel landscape face particularly extreme movement requirements, including exploring their new environment, rapidly acquiring resources, and identifying valuable foraging patches and breeding sites. These activities carry increased risks and energetic costs that may influence the survival and reproduction of individuals, social groups, and entire populations. The successful candidate will use video observations of oryx under human care, a species-specific ethogram, accelerometry and GPS tracking data, and emerging analytical approaches (e.g., hidden Markov and machine learning models) to classify oryx movement behavior. Activity budgets for reintroduced oryx will be used to estimate individual energetic costs over time. Contemporaneous field monitoring data will be used to investigate potential fitness consequences of behavior regimes over short (e.g., within seasons) and long (e.g., with increasing experience) time periods. These analyses will directly inform the active reintroduction of oryx and other Critically Endangered Sahelo-Saharan antelope at sites across North, Central, and West Africa, and predict how ongoing land cover and projected climate change may affect these species.

JMU Biology Graduate Program: The successful candidate will be based at JMU (Harrisonburg, VA) with a small cohort of Master’s students. During the two-year program, they will embark on a rigorous research training experience through coursework and a mentored thesis project co-advised by Dr. Katherine Mertes (Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC and Front Royal, VA). In exchange for teaching five lab sections over four semesters, the candidate will receive a stipend and tuition waiver throughout their tenure. Summer support is also offered between the first and second year. The Program also provides robust teaching and scientific communication training; learn more at https://www.jmu.edu/biology/graduate/index.shtml.