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.
Integrating behavioral competency and post-release support for reintroduced wildlife: a shift in paradigm for rehabilitation and beyond
Grantee: Karli Rice Chudeau
Institutions: The Marine Mammal Center, University of California, Davis
Project summary
This project investigates post-release support and monitoring to improve outcomes for rehabilitated juvenile pinnipeds. Post-release support will include familiar cognitive enrichment to help released animals adjust gradually and buffer their affective state. Post-release monitoring will consider metrics such as behavioral diversity, energy expenditure, and body condition, and the animals’ specific behavioral profiles will be compared with those recorded from healthy, wild individuals. These metrics will be used to 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.
Grantee: Karli Rice Chudeau
Institutions: The Marine Mammal Center, University of California, Davis, United States
Grant amount: $30,000
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris), eastern Pacific harbor seal (Phoca vitulina richardii)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Wildlife rehabilitation, animal behavior, animal welfare science
Research location: United States
Project summary
In many cases, the process of releasing a rehabilitated or translocated animal can be traumatic and removes the animal’s agency, potentially weakening their ability to thrive in the wild. This project investigates post-release support and monitoring to improve outcomes for rehabilitated juvenile pinnipeds. Post-release support will include familiar cognitive enrichment to help released animals adjust gradually and buffer their affective state. Post-release monitoring will consider metrics such as behavioral diversity, energy expenditure (distance traveled), and body condition, and the animals’ specific behavioral profiles (e.g. foraging behavior) will be compared with those recorded from healthy, wild individuals. These metrics will be used to 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. Rehabilitation is a part of that. However, 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 may 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.
Integrating nonlethal field and lab assessments of wild fish welfare in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon
Grantee: Isaac Schuman
Institutions: Oregon State University
Project summary
This project will monitor the welfare of three species of fish in the Grand Canyon using a battery of metrics including body condition, gut microbiome, parasite load, and cortisol in skin mucus. The researchers will attempt to validate these as welfare indicators by testing whether they correlate with one another 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.
Grantee: Isaac Schuman
Institutions: Oregon State University, United States
Grant amount: $30,000
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: Flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis), humpback chub (Gila cypha), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, ichthyology, infectious disease
Research location: United States
Project summary
This project will monitor the welfare of three species of fish in the Grand Canyon using a battery of metrics including body condition, gut microbiome, parasite load, and cortisol in skin mucus. The researchers will attempt to validate these as welfare indicators by testing whether they correlate with one another 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 to population-level demographic parameters, as better understanding those relationships could help with both identifying welfare threats from more readily available population data, and with predicting indirect impacts of welfare interventions.
Are populations that are well-adapted to their environment less stressed than those that are not?
Grantee: Ryan S. Mohammed
Institutions: Auburn University
Project summary
In this pilot study, wild-caught guppies will be exposed to an apparent threat of predation as researchers transfer water from a tank containing a common predator (pike cichlid) into their tank. The amount of water transferred from the predators’ tank will be varied to simulate a range of predator densities. Cortisol levels will then be measured in the guppies’ tissue and tank water. These tissue and water cortisol measurements will be compared 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.
Grantee: Ryan S. Mohammed
Institutions: Auburn University, United States
Grant amount: $30,374
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: Guppy (Poecilia reticulata), jumping guabine (Anablepsoides hartii)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, ichthyology
Research location: Trinidad and Tobago, United States
Project summary
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) into their tank. The amount of water transferred from the predators’ tank will be varied to simulate a range of predator densities. Then, cortisol levels will be measured in both the tissue of guppies and the water they are kept in. These tissue and water cortisol measurements will be compared 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
This project will develop a protocol for inferring the cortisol levels of fish based on non-invasive water measurements, which should allow researchers seeking to use cortisol as a metric of physiological stress to avoid needing to kill 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 indirect effects of predator-induced fear, which are likely ubiquitous. This project is also 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.
Street smarts and bold behaviors: How humans and urban environments influence the welfare of wild mesocarnivores
Grantee: Lauren Stanton
Institutions: University of California, Berkeley
Project summary
This project will evaluate the welfare impacts of urban landscapes and human-wildlife conflict scenarios, focusing on environmental contamination and anthropogenic disturbance by assessing how they introduce poor diet and diseases that impact wild animals’ health and behavior, potentially increasing the likelihood of further conflict. It will use motion-activated infrared trail cameras, a novel method, to noninvasively assess and compare the behavior, cognition, and health of urban wildlife in relation to differences in environmental conditions, establishing an individual-based assessment of welfare. The project will also provide a welfare vulnerability assessment in relation to environmental characteristics, which will facilitate modeling and predicting welfare risk according to environmental variables, as well as identifying mitigation opportunities for reducing poor-welfare urban environments.
Grantee: Lauren Stanton
Institutions: University of California, Berkeley, United States
Grant amount: $255,000
Grant type: Fellowship
Focal species: Urban canine
Conservation status: Least concern
Research location: United States
Project summary
This project will evaluate the welfare impacts of both urban landscapes and human-wildlife conflict scenarios, focusing in particular on those of environmental contamination (e.g., pollution, anticoagulant rodenticides) and anthropogenic disturbance by assessing how they introduce poor diet and diseases that impact wild animals’ health and behavior, potentially increasing the likelihood of further conflict in a vicious cycle. The project will use a novel method to noninvasively assess and compare the behavior, cognition, and health of urban wildlife in relation to differences in environmental conditions. The study will use motion-activated infrared trail cameras to observe the behavior and evaluate the health and cognition of urban wildlife. By measuring important facets of each individual’s behavior (e.g., risk-taking), cognition (e.g., problem-solving), and health (e.g., body condition), the project will establish an individual-based assessment of welfare. The project will also provide a welfare vulnerability assessment in relation to environmental characteristics, which will facilitate modeling and predicting welfare risk according to environmental variables, as well as identifying mitigation opportunities for reducing poor-welfare urban environments. In addition to improving understanding of the drivers of welfare in urban wildlife, the project will develop and demonstrate a novel approach that can be further used to understand individual welfare and, in particular, address limitations in the current ability to assess subjective experiences by validating the use of relevant cognitive indicators.
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Identifying species traits underlying conservation translocation failure, to understand risk factors, help redesign procedures, and pre-emptively protect vulnerable wild animals
Grantee: Emma Mellor
Institutions: University of Bristol
Project summary
This project uses survival as a welfare indicator in relation to life history characteristics using a database of animal translocations. Traits significantly relating to successful translocation (as indicated by post-release survival) will be identified as risk or protective factors for a variety of animals. The project aims to enable inferences about welfare risk factors for species beyond the datasets available by integrating a phylogenetic approach to understanding welfare. It could therefore provide insights into susceptibility or life history characteristics that provide greater resilience to welfare harms and thus help characterize and prioritize sources of welfare concern in the wild.
Grantee: Emma Mellor
Institutions: University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $226,987
Grant type: Fellowship
Focal species: Multi-species
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
This project focuses on using survival as an indicator of welfare in relation to life history characteristics using a database of animal translocations. Traits significantly relating to successful translocation (as indicated by post-release survival) would be identified as risk or protective factors for a variety of animals. The project aims to enable inferences about welfare risk factors for species beyond the datasets available by integrating a phylogenetic approach to understanding welfare. Therefore, the project could provide valuable insights into susceptibility or life history characteristics that provide greater resilience to welfare harms and thus help characterize and prioritize sources of welfare concern in the wild. The project could directly inform translocation practices while providing insights into potential welfare interventions supporting multiple animal groups based on their life history traits.
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Evaluating wild animal welfare in landscapes of fear at urban-wildland interfaces
Grantee: Dave Daversa
Institutions: University of California, Los Angeles
Project summary
This project will investigate the lifetime welfare impacts of landscapes of fear, examining how they vary with respect to an animal’s life history strategy and exploring potential indirect, interactive system-level effects. The study will combine multiple lines of evidence of welfare (behavioral, hormonal, and epigenetic). In particular, it will use DNA methylation to understand the aging and health of individual animals, validating its potential to record cumulative stress over an animal’s lifetime. It will assess the components of the landscape leading to a fear response and resultant difference in welfare, and contribute to our understanding of how variation in life history strategies differentially interact with long-term welfare.
Grantee: Dave Daversa
Institutions: University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Grant amount: $253,956
Grant type: Fellowship
Focal species: Western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis)
Conservation status: Least concern
Research location: United States
Project summary
This project will study a recognized but neglected area of animal welfare research, especially important for wild animals. Specifically, the project will investigate different landscapes of fear that wild animals are exposed to and their relative welfare impacts. In addition to elucidating the direct effects of fear on stress and welfare, the project aims to improve scientific understanding of potential indirect knock-on effects that fear can cause by assessing how the lifetime welfare effects of fear vary with respect to the animal’s life history strategy, as well as provide insights into some of the system-level effects.
Further, the project seeks to apply a cutting-edge approach to the study of welfare: cumulative stress across lifespans. This study’s approach (cumulative) and timespan (lifespan) are relatively novel elements for which much greater understanding is needed. The study proposes using DNA methylation to understand the aging and health of individual animals. Additional welfare indicators are always valuable to improve our ability to assess wild animals’ welfare. However, DNA methylation, if its link to welfare can be validated, holds special potential because, like telomeres and a small group of other biomarkers of biological age, it may record cumulative stress over an animal’s lifetime. Because it is DNA-based, it could be built in as a secondary objective to mainstream conservation genetics projects.
The study will combine multiple lines of evidence of welfare (behavioral, hormonal, and epigenetic) to investigate stress and welfare, and in so doing, would address important gaps in the knowledge of welfare in the wild: understanding the impact of fear on physiological stress and its impact on long-term welfare, assessing the components of the landscape leading to a fear response and resultant difference in welfare, and understanding how variation in life history strategies differentially interact with long-term welfare. The potential for indirect, interactive system-level effects is currently one of the most important unknowns impeding wild animal welfare-focused interventions. The project is ambitious but well-considered, and it is clear that Dave and his mentors have carefully designed the methods to achieve the stated objectives.
Find Dave’s other project, studying western toads, here.
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Determination of Fecal Tri-iodothyronine and Cortisol as Physiological Proxies of Animal Welfare
Grantees: Michael Cherry, Joe Hediger
Institutions: Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Project summary
Wild animals are susceptible to the effects of thermal stress imposed by a warming climate, including increased energetic costs to maintain a healthy body temperature, immune system impairment, changes in food availability, and increases in disease transmission. White-tailed deer in southern Texas are on the front lines of this challenge. This project aims to assess the reliability of fecal tri-iodothyronine (T3) and fecal glucocorticoids (FGC) as non-invasive physiological metrics for monitoring their health. The use of T3 as an indicator of wildlife health and welfare is relatively novel, and the researchers will attempt to refine it through controlled experiments, correlating the T3 measurements with a more widely used indicator in FGC. Both physiological indicators will be validated against behavioral observations.
Grantees: Michael Cherry, Joe Hediger
Institutions: Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, United States
Grant amount: $25,860
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal welfare science
Research location: United States
Project summary
Wildlife are susceptible to both direct and indirect effects of thermal stress imposed by a warming climate. Direct effects include increased energetic costs to maintain a healthy body temperature and immune system impairment, while indirect effects include changes in food availability and increases in disease transmission. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in southern Texas are on the front lines of this environmental challenge. This project aims to assess the reliability of fecal tri-iodothyronine (T3) and fecal glucocorticoids (FGC) as non-invasive physiological metrics for monitoring the health of white-tailed deer. The use of T3 as an indicator of wildlife health and welfare is relatively novel, and the researchers will attempt to refine the use of these metrics through controlled experiments, correlating the T3 measurements with a more widely used indicator in FGC. Both physiological indicators will also be validated against behavioral observations of the same deer that are thought to reflect their emotional state.
Why we funded this project
The study findings will help in understanding how wild animals cope with increasing temperatures and the impact of thermal stress on their welfare and health. Notably, previous work has suggested that T3 measurements in ungulates are especially sensitive to thermal stress, and so comparing T3 with other indicators based on different physiological pathways, such as glucocorticoids, could help researchers to diagnose the relative significance of different environmental stressors an animal is facing. The project’s behavioral metrics are also crucial for realizing that potential. A secondary reason for our interest in this project is that it has near-term policy implications, potentially highlighting the value of preserving or promoting specific landscape features for the ecosystem service they offer, in the form of shade, to wild ungulates.
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Novel epigenetic approaches to measure wild animal welfare and stress
Grantee: Dave Daversa
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Project summary
A challenge in wild animal welfare science is developing composite assays that consider the full breadth of factors collectively shaping subjective experiences. This project will demonstrate proof of concept for a DNA methylation (DNAm)-based model of wild animal welfare, characterizing DNAm in western toads. It will test the influence of infection with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) on DNAm and its covariance with demographic factors such as age, sex, and body condition. Captive-reared toads will be sampled to characterize DNAm under controlled conditions, providing a standardized profile of DNAm rates over toad life stages. The researchers will then sample toads from wild populations experiencing starkly different levels of Bd infection, with accelerated biological aging signaling elevated stress and impaired welfare.
Grantee: Dave Daversa
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Grant amount: $30,000
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: Western toad (Anaxyrus boreas)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, herpetology, animal welfare science, population ecology, genetics/genomics
Research location: United States
Project summary
A major challenge in wild animal welfare science lies in developing composite assays that consider the full breadth of factors collectively shaping the subjective experiences of animals. This project will apply epigenetic tools to develop minimally invasive and aggregate measures of wild animal welfare. Specifically, the researchers aim to demonstrate proof of concept for a DNA methylation (DNAm)-based model of wild animal welfare. DNAm joins other measurements such as telomere attrition as a biomarker of biological aging, because DNA becomes methylated as a function of both chronological age (time) and accumulated stress. This project will characterize DNAm in western toads (Anaxyrus boreas) from wild populations in southern California, testing the influence of infection with the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) on DNAm, and its covariance with demographic factors such as age and sex, as well as with body condition, a common metric of physical health in wild animals. Captive-reared toads representing all life stages will be sampled to characterize DNAm under controlled conditions, providing a standardized profile of DNAm rates over toad life stages. The researchers will then sample toads from wild populations experiencing starkly different levels of environmental stress (Bd infection), with accelerated biological aging signaling elevated stress and impaired welfare.
Project objectives
Objective 1: Determine the relationship between DNAm and basic risk factors linked to welfare: chronological age, sex, weight, and infection status.
Objective 2: Determine the effect of environmental stressors on epigenetic age.
Why we funded this project
We funded this project because we are interested in the potential for biological aging biomarkers to be used as very long-term, integrative metrics of animals’ lifetime welfare. DNAm is one such potential biomarker that has received relatively little attention in a welfare context. However, DNAm may potentially be easier to measure than more commonly discussed measures of biological age — or at least, be more familiar for mainstream ecological genetics researchers — because DNA methylation is already of interest for other reasons in biological science. We were particularly enthusiastic about this project because it focuses on a species belonging to a large species complex of amphibians, including both common and threatened species, offering broad transferability and potential impact. Amphibians are also relatively neglected in terms of welfare research. We appreciate that this project aims to establish baseline age-specific differences in biological aging rate in order to then assess age-specific differences attributable to different exposures (i.e., age-specific differences in welfare), which connects to the concept of “welfare expectancy” developed by Wild Animal Initiative researcher Luke Hecht.
Find Dave’s other project, studying western fence lizards, here.
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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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Developing a consensus profile of wild animal welfare: integrating non-invasive monitoring of the gut microbiome with stress physiology and behavior
Grantee: Sam Sonnega
Institution: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Project summary
This project will characterize the gut microbiome of white-footed mice and investigate its relationship with their stress physiology and behavior. Mice will be trapped and fecal samples collected to measure glucocorticoid concentrations and gut microbiome composition. Concurrently, open-field trials will be conducted to assess individual variation in cognitive bias. Perception of predation risk will also be experimentally manipulated by exposing mice to playbacks of predator noises. By correlating the gut microbiome with behavioral and endocrine metrics, a consensus profile of the mice’s welfare will be developed that reflects the complexity of their responses to environmental perturbations, and how those responses can scale up to population and ecosystem level changes via the demographic effects of stress in a “landscape of fear.”
Grantee: Sam Sonnega
Institution: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, United States
Grant amount: $29,130
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: White-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal welfare science, animal behavior
Research location: United States
Publications
Sonnega, S. and Sheriff, M.J. (2024). Harnessing the gut microbiome: a potential biomarker for wild animal welfare. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2024.1474028
Project summary
This project will characterize the gut microbiome of wild white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and investigate its relationship with their stress physiology and behavior, including how it changes in response to ecological pressures. While a growing literature from lab-based studies has demonstrated the link between the gut microbiome and regulation of host physiology and behavior, the generality of these findings in ecological contexts remains largely untested. As part of this project, mice will be trapped during different seasons and fecal samples will be collected from which to measure both glucocorticoid concentrations and gut microbiome composition. Concurrently, open-field trials will be conducted to assess individual variation in cognitive bias towards optimism or pessimism (a well-established behavioral indicator of affective state). The mice’s perception of predation risk will also be experimentally manipulated by exposing free-living mice to playbacks of predator noises. By correlating the gut microbiome with both behavioral and endocrine metrics, a consensus profile of the mice’s welfare will be developed that reflects the complexity of their responses to both predictable and unpredictable environmental perturbations, and how those responses can scale up to population and ecosystem level changes via the demographic effects of stress in a so-called “landscape of fear.”
Why we funded this project
We are interested in the development and validation of the gut microbiome as a welfare indicator. Every additional indicator strengthens the interpretation of others, but understanding the gut microbiome may be especially important because it is part of the causal chain linking what is going on in the animal’s brain to fecal metabolites, which are often analyzed as a non-invasive and time-integrated record of physiological stress. This project also links and builds on other gut microbiome research we have funded (by Melissa Bateson, Pablo Capilla-Lasheras, and Davide Dominoni).
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