PhD fellowship/scholarship Behavior and welfare of year-round grazing cattle: Seasonal variation in social- and foraging behavior

Research area and project description:
The research area is animal behaviour and welfare. The aim of the PhD project is to investigate how environmental and management factors affect behaviour and welfare of year‑round grazing cattle in a temperate climate. 

Large grazers like cattle and horses play an important role in maintaining and increasing biodiversity in nature areas, and especially year-round grazing is an effective tool. However, managing domestic animals in year-round grazing with minimal human care has led to animal welfare concerns. The aim of this PhD project is to investigate seasonal variation in behaviour and welfare of year‑round grazing cattle in nature areas. It will examine how group composition (homogeneous vs. reproducing herds), area size, vegetation types and forage availability, and possibly supplementary feeding, influence diurnal patterns, social interactions, foraging behaviour, and indicators of positive animal welfare. 

The PhD project will include 10 to 12 established year-round grazing cattle groups in Denmark. The PhD candidate will conduct behavioural observations across seasons over two years. Social and foraging behaviour will primarily be recorded using direct observations in the field. This includes locating and following the cattle group, as well as occasional close proximity to the animals. An ethogram including play, social and foraging behaviour will be developed based on literature, pilot-tested and refined prior to data collection. Selected animals will carry GPS units to document movement and area use of the cattle group. Vegetation types and forage availability, as well as the animal’s body condition, will be assessed. The project is observational, meaning that management decisions remain with the livestock owners. 

The PhD project will clarify seasonal and diurnal variations in behaviour, identify welfare risks and opportunities, and identify conditions that give the animals opportunities to experience predominantly positive mental states, and to develop competences and resilience, and thus to obtain positive animal welfare. 

The PhD project is part of a larger cross-disciplinary project aiming to propose principles for an integrated nature management with year‑round grazing that incorporates considerations for both animal welfare and biodiversity.

• Project description. For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences:
Applicants must have a relevant master’s degree in animal science, agrobiology, biology or related fields. 

Experience in applying ethological methods is an advantage. 

A driving license is a prerequisite.

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus Universitet, Blichers Allé 20, Postboks 50, 8830 Tjele, Denmark. 

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information regarding the PhD position are invited to contact: 

• Professor Margit Bak Jensen, MargitBak.Jensen@anivet.au.dk (main supervisor)
• Professor Janne Winther Christensen, jwc@anivet.au.dk (co-supervisor)

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide. If answers cannot be found there, please contact:

• admission.gradschool.tech@au.dk 

How to apply:
Please follow this link to submit your application. Application deadline is 16 August 2026 23:59 CEST. Preferred starting date is 15 October 2026.

Please note: 

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.