Meet our grantees
Wild Animal Initiative funds academic research on high-priority questions in wild animal welfare.
The goal of our grants program is to fund research that deepens scientific knowledge of the welfare of wild animals in order to better understand how to improve the welfare of as many wild animals as possible, regardless of what causes the threats to their well-being.
We showcase our grantees and their projects here and will be adding more in the coming weeks and months.
Improving the welfare of wild and captive animals with integrated in-situ and ex-situ behavioural monitoring
Grantee: Sarah Richdon
Institutions: Bristol Zoological Society
Project summary
This project will investigate the welfare impacts of translocating captive-bred white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) into an existing wild population. Both resident and introduced individuals will be fitted with transponders and marked for behavioral monitoring. To evaluate welfare, the researchers will observe social interactions (e.g. aggressive interactions), behavioral diversity, and the animals’ use of their habitat. For example, emigration of native individuals from the focal habitat may be indicative of intraspecific competition intensified by the translocation. Body condition will also be scored as a metric of health and resource access.
Grantee: Sarah Richdon
Institutions: Bristol Zoological Society, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $30,000
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: White clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes)
Conservation status: Endangered
Disciplines: Animal welfare science, marine biology
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
This project will investigate the welfare impacts of translocating captive-bred white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) into an existing wild population. Both resident and introduced individuals will be fitted with transponders and marked for behavioral monitoring. To evaluate welfare, the researchers will observe social interactions (e.g. aggressive interactions), behavioral diversity, and the animals’ use of their habitat. For example, emigration of native individuals from the focal habitat may be indicative of intraspecific competition intensified by the translocation. Body condition will also be scored as a metric of health and resource access.
Why we funded this project
We are excited to fund a project focused on the welfare of invertebrates, in this case an aquatic crustacean. The monitoring methods and some findings of this project may also be applicable to other aquatic taxa. Translocation is already a commonly used 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.
Paying to play? Social time allocation, emotional contagion, and social attention as assays of welfare in wild animals
Grantee: Patrick Tkaczynski
Institution: Liverpool John Moores University
Project summary
Play and grooming have a number of facets that could be potential indicators of positive welfare in group-living vertebrates, but analysis of such behaviors are yet to be put into a formal framework for monitoring wild animal populations. This pilot project will focus on six different wild Barbary macaque groups of variable sizes and facing varying degrees of human exposure, which is typically associated with poor health outcomes in wild animals. It will use play and grooming behavior to quantify social time allocation, emotional contagion/synchronization, and social attention as potential assays of positive welfare. Once validated, these assays can be applied to examine how positive welfare varies across different gradients, such as climate change or variation in predator pressure.
Grantee: Patrick Tkaczynski
Institution: Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $29,323
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus)
Conservation status: Endangered
Disciplines: Animal welfare science, animal behavior
Research location: Morocco, United Kingdom
Project summary
For group-living vertebrates, play and grooming have a number of facets that could be potential indicators of positive welfare, but analysis of such behaviors are yet to be put into a formal framework for monitoring wild animal populations. The Middle Atlas region of Morocco hosts one of the largest populations of wild Barbary macaques, an endangered primate species. These animals face a number of environmental challenges that may disrupt positive social experiences, including anthropogenic disturbance, threats from natural and introduced predators, and an extreme climate. Focusing on six different macaque groups with variable group sizes and facing varying degrees of human exposure, this pilot project will use play and grooming behavior to quantify social time allocation, emotional contagion/synchronization, and social attention as potential assays of positive welfare. As human exposure is typically associated with poor health outcomes in wild animals, this pilot project will focus on this specific environmental challenge to help validate our assays, which can later be applied to examine how positive welfare varies across different gradients, such as climate change or variation in predator pressure.
Why we funded this project
Most animal welfare research is focused on minimizing suffering, but it’s also vital to maximize positive experiences. The links between positive welfare and evolutionary fitness are also less obvious than for negative welfare, where factors like poor health seem to be associated with both poor welfare and low evolutionary fitness. Because more research focuses on fitness than welfare, the unclear relationship between fitness and positive welfare has contributed to the neglectedness of indicators of positive welfare. This project was one of the few we received that addressed the theme of positive welfare, and we hope that this pilot in primates will provide information to support similar studies in other social species.
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Mapping welfare for conservation management
Grantee: Lisa Olivier
Institution: Game Rangers International
Project summary
This project will monitor behavioral and physiological parameters in African elephants over one year to map their perception of their environment. The aim is to test this approach’s potential as a leading indicator that is easy to measure, responds quickly to ecosystem changes, and highlights potential detrimental impacts. These measures will be aggregated to define a scale representing the animals’ perceptions of threat that can be estimated for a given time and place. The researchers will then project this data onto maps to identify areas of high and low welfare. The project will help conservation practitioners create management plans to protect wild animals by providing a head start in assessing changes in their surroundings.
Grantee: Lisa Olivier
Institutions: Game Rangers International, Zambia
Grant amount: $29,791
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: African elephant (Loxodonta)
Conservation status: Endangered
Disciplines: Animal behavior, animal welfare science, wildlife management
Research location: Zambia
Project summary
To effectively steward wild animal welfare, leading indicators are needed that predict the future rather than summarizing the past. These must be easy to measure, respond quickly to ecosystem changes and highlight potential detrimental impacts that need addressing, including anthropogenic activities. This project aims to test the approach of mapping wild animals’ perception of their environment by monitoring an array of behavioral and physiological parameters in African elephants over a year as they navigate the landscape. These measures will be aggregated to define a scale representing the animals’ perceptions of threat that can be estimated for a given time and place. The researchers will then project these data onto maps to identify areas of high and low welfare, where animals may be feeling alternatively secure or fearful. The researchers intend for the project to help conservation practitioners create better management plans to protect wild animal populations by providing a head start in assessing changes in their surroundings.
Why we funded this project
We are excited by this project’s analysis of a long-term longitudinal dataset because of the importance of understanding how wild animals’ welfare varies with demographic factors such as age and sex, as these groups often face different challenges and have different ecological and behavioral requirements, and negative welfare impacts that fall on young individuals may also have ripple effects throughout their lives. We also appreciate this project’s holistic approach. The long-term monitoring means it is possible to consider not only the usual downstream welfare indicators based on health and behavior, but also upstream factors that might influence them, such as social interactions and exposure to predators.
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Pre- and Post-release Welfare Indicators for Recovery Programs
Grantee: Laney Hayward Nute
Institution: University of Mississippi
Project summary
Captive-raised animals translocated to the wild often suffer high mortality. This project seeks to identify a set of pre- and post-release indicators of welfare to target released Attwater’s prairie chickens for management interventions. Pre-release, the coping styles of birds will be identified during routine cage transfers and handling. Following release, the fine-scale movements of released birds will be traced using customized data loggers. Investigating the association of pre- and post-release behaviors with body condition, daily environment changes, and survival, will identify which birds from future releases will need special attention to aid their survival. The researchers hypothesize that individuals with a more proactive personality will disperse further post-release and suffer higher mortality rates compared to more reactive individuals.
Grantee: Laney Hayward Nute
Institution: University of Mississippi, United States
Grant amount: $30,000
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: Attwater's Prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri)
Conservation status: Endangered
Disciplines: Wildlife rehabilitation, animal behavior, ornithology
Research location: United States
Project summary
Captive-raised animals translocated to the wild often suffer high mortality; for example, Attwater’s prairie chickens have had a survival rate of only 17-18% post-release in recent years. The focus of many translocation programs is on investing resources to produce more individuals rather than to improve the welfare of released animals. This project seeks to reduce the stress and suffering of released Attwater's prairie chicken by identifying a set of pre- and post-release indicators of welfare to target individuals for management interventions. Pre-release, the coping styles of individual birds will be identified during routine cage transfers and handling. Following release, the fine-scale movements of released birds will be traced using customized data loggers. By investigating the association of pre- and post-release behaviors with the body condition, daily environment changes, and ultimate survival of these individuals, it will be possible to identify which birds from future releases will need special attention to aid their survival. The researchers hypothesize that individuals with a more proactive (“bold”) personality will disperse further post-release and suffer higher mortality rates compared to more reactive individuals.
Why we funded this project
Understanding of associations between coping style/personality and welfare outcomes/challenges could be used to predict at-risk individuals in need of interventions such as supplemental feeding, translocation, or medical treatment. For wildlife rehabilitation or “headstarting” programs, coping style associations could also be used to inform rearing protocols to promote resilient styles that result in improved individual welfare in the wild.
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Introducing a novel tool to compare stress levels in captive and wild Macaca fascicularis
Grantee: Vets4welfare
Institution: Vets4welfare Foundation
Project summary
This project will compare cortisol concentrations in the hair of Indonesian monkeys from three groups: one in the wild, one that has been kept in captivity for the entertainment industry, and one in the process of rehabilitation following rescue from the entertainment industry. The aim of the project is to compare stress responses under wild, poor-welfare captive, and high-welfare captive environments. The hair cortisol data will be compared with veterinary and forensic records and other welfare-relevant observations (e.g. of infections or injuries) where possible. The researchers also intend to determine whether mistreatment in captivity leaves a signal in hair cortisol that could be detected after the fact and used to identify monkeys who have been illegally trafficked.
Grantee: Vets4welfare
Institution: Vets4welfare Foundation, Netherlands
Grant amount: $20,000
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: Crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis)
Conservation status: Endangered
Disciplines: Physiology, wildlife rehabilitation, human-wildlife conflict
Research location: Indonesia, Netherlands
Project summary
This project will compare cortisol concentrations in the hair of Indonesian monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) from three groups: a group whose members have spent their whole lives in the wild, a group that has been kept in captivity for the entertainment industry, and a group that are in the process of rehabilitation following rescue from the entertainment industry. Hair measurements can reflect welfare over a long period, as they integrate cortisol as they slowly grow. The concentration of cortisol in a segment of a hair is thought to reflect the activity of the animal’s physiological stress response at the time that segment was produced. On that premise, the project aims to compare the stress response of M. fascicularis under wild, poor-welfare captive (entertainment), and high-welfare captive (rehabilitation) environments. The hair cortisol data will be compared with veterinary and forensic records and other welfare-relevant observations (e.g., of infections or injuries) where possible. The researchers also intend to determine whether mistreatment in captivity leaves a signal in hair cortisol that could be detected after the fact and used to identify monkeys that have been illegally trafficked.
Why we funded this project
Although this project focuses narrowly on anthropogenic harms in a particular threatened species, we funded it because their approach is interesting and very similar to one we have been interested in applying to study the welfare of stocked fish (i.e., fish raised in a hatchery and then released into the wild) using biological aging methods, another category of putative welfare indicators that integrate stress over time. Between these two funded studies, we are interested to see 1) how welfare indicators for wild and captive environments of varying quality compare and 2) whether hair cortisol from individuals whose environment changed is consistent (at the corresponding points in time) with that of individuals who were only exposed to one environment or the other. We anticipate that the relationship for the latter question is more complex than described, but investigating it will help us learn more about the validity of hair cortisol measurements and the importance of prior experiences in shaping animals’ stress responses.
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