Internship in bat ecology and field monitoring

Eurac Research's Institute for Alpine Environment conducts problem-oriented research on mountain environments, including landscape ecology, global change, biodiversity and ecosystem services. This internship supports field research in chiropteran ecology within the Species Monitoring project, which surveys protected and endangered mammal species in South Tyrol. The intern will monitor forest-dwelling bat species with an emphasis on VHF radio-telemetry, locating radio-tagged bats and documenting roost use, assisting with mist-net capture sessions, carrying out roost and emergence counts, supporting species identification and data management, deploying bat detectors and helping identify echolocation calls, assisting citizen-science activities and supporting dormouse monitoring.

Fieldwork regularly takes place at dusk and at night in alpine terrain. The internship is based at Eurac Research in Bolzano, starts in May 2027 with a flexible start date, lasts about five to six months and can support a master's dissertation using project data.

Bachelor's or master's degree in biology, environmental sciences or a related discipline, as a current student or with the degree obtained no more than 12 months before the internship start; practical experience with VHF telemetry or radio-tracking; knowledge of European mammal fauna and bat species; willingness to do evening, night and steep-terrain fieldwork. Bat bioacoustics, GIS (QGIS, ArcGIS), good English and Italian or German are advantages. Applications include a CV, motivation letter and contacts of references.