Vole breeding colony research and management
Annaliese Beery, Professor
Integrative Biology
Applications for Fall 2024 are closed for this project.
We maintain breeding colonies of meadow voles and prairie voles for social behavior research. This project builds on basic husbandry (covered by staff) to track lineages, wean new litters and determine pup sexes to maintain the long term health and robustness of our breeding program and provide voles for research studies.
Role: Undergraduates will learn to handle voles (feisty!), identify sexes, and keep careful records on vole lineages. Once animal handling is well established, there may be a role for support of behavioral testing.
This student must be available weekly (for about an hour) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays before 2pm, in addition to 2 hours of flexibly timed data management. Attendance at weekly lab meetings (Thursdays at 2pm) is highly encouraged and provides exposure to multiple research projects and additional aspects of the process of scientific research.
Qualifications: Interest in and experience handling small animals is helpful but not required. This position would be ideal for a pre-vet student or other student interested in hands-on work with unusual rodent species.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Kelley Power
Hours: 6-8 hrs