What is fitness? Evolution and wild animal welfare

Resources
Written By Mal Graham

November 25, 2019

“Evolution shouldn’t be interfered with,” say some opponents of wild animal welfare projects.

Wild Animal Initiative Executive Director Mal Graham (then known as Michelle) explores this idea in a talk they gave at this year’s Effective Altruism Global San Francisco.

First, they explain what exactly fitness means in the context of evolution. Then they illustrates how it can help us answer the core questions in wild animal welfare: Which animals feel pain? What are their lives like in the wild? What interventions will reliably improve their lives?

Finally, they tackle common misconceptions about the relationship between evolution, welfare, and welfare interventions.

If you stick around to the end, you’ll hear Mal’s takes on some fascinating audience questions, including the state of welfare biology, the relevance of r/K selection theory, and whether the prefrontal cortex increases or decreases our capacity to suffer.

Mal Graham

Mal is Strategy Director at Wild Animal Initiative. Mal completed their PhD in Engineering Mechanics at Virginia Tech, with research on the movement behaviors of jumping and gliding snakes. They studied physics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. Mal has also worked with animals in shelter, veterinary, farm, and zoo environments. They are located in Philadelphia.

mal.graham@wildanimalinitiative.org

Previous

Correcting a model on the balance of suffering in nature
Next

Age-specific survivorship frames the expected value of wild animal welfare