February 28, 2022

When framed in a way that inclusively values all animals regardless of rarity or geographic location, wild animal welfare can be a novel but accessible way for people to engage with nature.

In a 2016 TED talk, environmental science writer Emma Marris proposed a broad definition of nature that applies “anywhere where life thrives; anywhere where there are multiple species together.” This could include the wide-open savannas of sub-Saharan Africa, a classic example of a landscape often considered the epitome of nature, but it would also include an abandoned urban lot in a North American city where various plants and invertebrates have taken up residence. The idyllic, sweeping panoramas associated with national parks might be considered more beautiful, but for many people, they are also much more difficult to visit and interact with. Because most people reside in cities, the overgrown lots and city parks close to their homes are simply more accessible, more practical places where they can interact with nature.

Marris has noticed that when children, in particular, are able to get close to nature and touch it, forming observations and questions about it from an early age, they can generate a lifelong interest that eventually leads them to pursue a related career as adults. Our scientists at Wild Animal Initiative have confirmed such a connection in their own lives, remembering childhood experiences with common animals like squirrels and foxes that later inspired them to pursue careers supporting those animals’ welfare.

When Wild Animal Initiative was asked to reflect on diversity and inclusion among humans in a proposal for a session at an upcoming conference, we drew inspiration from Marris’s inclusive definition of nature. This is the statement we submitted: 

“Care for the welfare of wild animals is a value shared widely by people around the world. Due to its focus on individual animals, wild animal welfare research attaches great value to basic observational/natural history research documenting animals’ lives and preferences. Support for this kind of work makes wild animal welfare research accessible to a comparatively diverse set of practitioners, including those with limited access to expensive instrumentation and computational methods, or even to green space. At least in the West, people of color have historically faced exclusion from areas of ‘pristine’ wilderness and high biodiversity, the very areas which have been considered most important in the priorities of mainstream ecological research, contributing to the lack of racial diversity in the ecological research community. From a wild animal welfare perspective, knowledge of urban pigeons in a concrete jungle is at least as important as knowledge of a rare and inaccessible bird species.”

When we realize that nature exists all around us, we also realize that the wild animals in closer proximity to us deserve just as much support for their wellbeing as those farther away. Making the study of wild animals more accessible with this inclusive view is not a final solution — we are still aiming to improve our field so it will no longer systemically exclude researchers of color from studying the remote, pristine areas of wilderness — but it is at least one step toward the equity we seek.

As wild animal welfare research continues to develop, the research field’s stability and success rely on the diversity of its practitioners. A wider range of perspectives will more effectively carry us to the knowledge we need to create a more hospitable world for all who inhabit it. The field seems to be making progress toward the human inclusivity we envision, with some evidence shown in the diversity of scientists who submitted applications to our recent call for proposals. Our hope is that increasingly diverse future wild animal welfare researchers are already rising up, who are able to connect with nature right where they are.