February 12, 2024

One of Wild Animal Initiative’s core activities is our Grants Program, through which we distribute funding to researchers around the world who are working on projects relevant to wild animal welfare. In our most recent round of Seed Grants (awards up to $30,000 each), we called for projects on either of two themes: near-term welfare interventions or wild fish welfare.

Here are the seven projects we’ve funded in this round:

Temporal measurement of cortisol concentration in fish tissue and water in the presence of a controlled stress stimulant

Ryan S. Mohammed, Auburn University, United States
$30,374

In this project, wild-caught guppies (Poecilia reticulata) will be exposed to an apparent threat of predation by transferring water from a tank containing a common predator (pike cichlid, Crenicichla) into their tank. The amount of water transferred from the predators’ tank will be varied, to simulate a range of predator densities. Then researchers will measure cortisol levels both in the tissue of guppies and in their water. Comparing cortisol levels of the tissue versus the water will ideally help to develop a protocol for inferring the cortisol levels of fish based on non-invasive water measurements. The researchers hypothesize that the strength of the guppies’ physiological stress response (cortisol) will vary with apparent predation risk, and they intend to eventually build on this pilot study by using the developed non-invasive protocol to compare guppies from populations the are adapted to varying intensities of predation.

Why we funded this project
By developing a protocol for inferring the cortisol levels of fish based on non-invasive water measurements, the results of this project will ideally allow future researchers seeking to use cortisol as a metric of physiological stress to avoid killing fish in order to measure the chemical in their tissues. In terms of broader wild animal welfare theory, we also appreciate the project’s focus on the likely ubiquitous indirect effects of predator-induced fear. This project is intended as a pilot for a larger project that would investigate the impact of evolutionary adaptation to avoid predation on the stress response to the presence of predators.

Beyond Rehabilitation: Enhancing Wildlife Reintroduction Success through Post-Release Support and Advanced Datalogging

Karli Rice Chudeau, University of California, Davis, and the Marine Mammal Center, United States
$30,000

In many cases, the process of releasing a rehabilitated or translocated animal can be traumatic for them and removes their agency, potentially weakening their ability to thrive in the wild. In this project, researchers will investigate post-release support and monitoring to improve outcomes for rehabilitated juvenile northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). Post-release support will include familiar cognitive enrichment to help released animals adjust gradually and buffer their affective state. Through post-release monitoring, researchers will consider metrics such as behavioral diversity, energy expenditure (distance traveled), and body condition. They’ll compare the rehabilitated animals’ specific behavioral profiles (e.g., foraging behavior) with those recorded from healthy wild individuals. These metrics will help researchers evaluate the effectiveness of post-release enrichment as an intervention for improving welfare outcomes. Cognitive bias tests for affective state carried out during rehabilitation and prior to release will also be considered as potential predictors of post-release welfare.

Why we funded this project
We envision a world in which people take responsibility for improving wild animals’ lives and have the knowledge they need to do so effectively, and rehabilitation is a part of that vision. But there has been relatively little research on post-release outcomes for rehabilitated animals. Understanding those outcomes and identifying strategies to improve them could have significant welfare implications, especially for the treatment of juvenile animals, whose life trajectories could be powerfully affected by the rehabilitation and release process. We appreciate that this project combines post-release monitoring with both a specific intervention and pre-release tests of affective state that would not be possible in a wild context. Although the focal species is not particularly numerous, we expect the findings to be relevant to other pinnipeds, and likely other taxa in a rehabilitation context.

Developing integrative welfare assessments for wild fish of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park

Isaac Schuman, Oregon State University, United States
$30,000

The research team will monitor the welfare of three species of fish in the Colorado River: flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis), humpback chub (Gila cypha), and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), using a battery of metrics such as body condition, gut microbiome, parasite load, and cortisol in skin mucus. They will attempt to validate these as welfare indicators by testing whether there are correlations between them within individual fish, and whether they follow consistent patterns across the three focal species. Finally, they will use long-term population monitoring data to investigate potential correlations between these individual-based welfare indicators and environmental and demographic characteristics of individual study sites, such as food availability and age structure.

Why we funded this project
We appreciate the variety of potential welfare indicators that this study will measure, and that there will be an explicit attempt to test the validity of the indicators for these particular species. It is exciting to see such a comprehensive analysis of wild fish welfare. We are also interested in the project’s comparison of individual welfare indicators with population-level demographic parameters, because a deeper understanding of those relationships could help with identifying welfare threats from more readily available population data, and with predicting indirect impacts of welfare interventions.

Investigating and reducing the impact of translocations on wild animal welfare in white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes)

Sarah Richdon, Bristol Zoological Society, United Kingdom
$30,000

In this project, researchers will investigate the welfare effects of translocating captive-bred white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) into an existing wild population. The research team will fit resident and introduced crayfish with transponders to monitor their behavior and observe their social interactions (e.g., aggression), behavioral diversity, and use of their habitat. For example, emigration of native individuals from the focal habitat may be indicative of intraspecific competition intensified by the translocation. The team will also score body condition as a way to assess health and access to resources.

Why we funded this project
We are excited to fund a project on the welfare of invertebrates — in this case, an aquatic crustacean. The project’s monitoring methods and some of the results could also be applicable to other aquatic taxa. Translocation is already a common intervention in conservation, yet its welfare implications are poorly understood. By learning about these, translocation strategies could potentially be improved, and we might gain insights that could be applied to other welfare-motivated interventions.

The impact of winter food provisioning on the welfare of wild urban hedgehogs

Julia Nowack, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom
Grant: $29,977

This project will investigate the welfare impacts of supplemental feeding during winter on European hedgehogs, using a combination of behavioral and physiological indicators. Although natural food is often lacking during the winter, hedgehogs and other species have adapted to this by hibernating through the winter. Previous research, however, has suggested that hibernation may be interrupted when anthropogenic food sources are available. To better understand the net impact of supplemental feeding on welfare, the project will use biologgers to automatically collect data on winter activity and hibernation, as well as the animals’ use of specially designed feeding stations equipped with miniature thermal imaging devices which will be used to non-invasively measure eye temperature as an indicator of physiological stress. Welfare assessment will also be supplemented by data on ectoparasite load, body mass, fecal glucocorticoid concentrations, latency to approach a feeding station, and survival rate for adults and juveniles.

Why we funded this project
Food provisioning is a potentially important near-term intervention that is already practiced in some contexts, but usually without data on or a primary interest in its wild animal welfare impacts. We appreciate that this project will use a non-invasive approach with multiple physiological and behavioral indicators to evaluate welfare impacts of supplemental feeding on wild European hedgehogs, including juveniles. The results could have implications for the management of other hibernators with access to supplementary feeding, such as dormice, bears, or chipmunks.

How does human-induced environmental change impair welfare of cichlid fish?

Joachim Fromme, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
$29,960

This research team will investigate the welfare of a common fish species in Africa’s Lake Tanganyika: the princess cichlid (Neolamprologus pulcher). The eight cichlid populations to be studied are exposed to varying levels of human activity, as they cover a range of distances from human developments and shipping routes. The researchers will monitor behaviors indicative of stress or aggression, and measure body condition and the brain tissue expression of five genes involved in stress physiology. These welfare indicators will be compared with specific environmental characteristics, including boat noise, water visibility (sedimentary and algal load), human fishing intensity, temperature stress, and structural complexity of the local environment.

Why we funded this project
This project focuses on a group of species — cichlid fish in African lakes — whose fundamental biology and ecology have been well-studied. From that foundation, these researchers can advance to more neglected welfare questions, as well as potentially engage a ready audience of cichlid researchers. An especially interesting component of this project is its investigation of brain gene expression to potentially better understand how stress physiology relates to an animal’s subjective experience.

To feed or not to feed wild birds?

Marion Chatelain, University of Innsbruck, Austria
Grant: $29,943

In challenging times (such as deep winter) and places (such as inner cities), bird feeding provides sustenance that might be hard for them to find otherwise. But by aggregating birds in one location, bird feeding might also have negative consequences such as attracting predators, facilitating the exchange of pathogens, or increasing intraspecific conflict. 

This project will consider two common bird species: great tits (Parus major), who use feeders intensively, and black redstarts (Phoenicurus ochruros), who typically do not use feeders. By monitoring the use of nestboxes separately targeting these two species, across private gardens that do or do not provide feeders, the goal of the project is to evaluate social stress and competition for nesting sites caused by bird feeding. Fecal samples from nestlings will also be analyzed to understand impacts on stress physiology, growth rate, and ectoparasite load. 

Why we funded this project
With the widespread popularity of bird feeding and the density of private gardens in cities, identifying the pros and cons of bird feeding could be crucial for understanding and ultimately improving the welfare of urban birds. We especially appreciate that this project will consider both target and non-target bird species, and that it focuses on the welfare of juveniles.