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 continuously update this page as new projects are added.
Does DNA methylation reflect environmental and social adversity?
Grantee: Daniel T. Blumstein
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Project summary
This project will investigate the welfare effects of early cumulative adversity in free-living yellow-bellied marmots. It will look for associations between the adversity index and behaviors that indicate general wariness (flight initiation distance, time allocated to vigilance while foraging, the propensity to emit alarm calls while foraging); biomarkers that indicate physiological stress (fecal glucocorticoid levels, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios); and two measures of aging (telomere length and DNA methylation). By quantifying these behavioral indices of wariness and the suite of biomarkers that culminate in telomeres and epigenetic state in pups throughout their first year and in older animals throughout their lives, the project will determine whether adverse environmental experiences have immediate and lasting effects on welfare.
Grantees: Daniel T. Blumstein, Emily Renkey
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles, US
Grant amount: $219,900
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventer)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Population ecology, genetics/genomics, ecological modeling, physiology
Research locations: United States
Project summary
In humans, early cumulative adversity has demonstrable consequences for health, welfare, and longevity. The welfare consequences of early adversity in wild animals is less well understood, possibly reflecting insufficient measures for assessment. Using a recently validated approach to quantifying cumulative adversity in free-living yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer), this project will investigate the welfare effects of early cumulative adversity. It will look for associations between the adversity index and key behaviors that indicate general wariness (flight initiation distance, time allocated to vigilance while foraging, and the propensity to emit alarm calls while foraging), biomarkers that indicate physiological stress (fecal glucocorticoid levels, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios), and ultimately, two measures of aging (telomere length and DNA methylation). By quantifying these behavioral indices of wariness and the suite of biomarkers that culminate in telomeres and epigenetic state in pups throughout their first year and in older animals throughout their lives, the project will determine whether adverse environmental experiences have immediate and lasting effects on welfare.
Why we funded this project
This project will add welfare to the research portfolio of a long-running study system of a free-living mammal. It will contribute to understanding the validity of biological aging as a welfare indicator by pairing it with other indicators and a comprehensive dataset of the animals’ adverse early-life experiences.
Stranding: a blessing or a curse? Testing assumptions of fish welfare during habitat fragmentation
Grantee: Laura R. Stein
Institution: University of Oklahoma
Project summary
Fragmentation of freshwater habitats due to drought and heatwaves poses significant risks to aquatic organisms, particularly small fish, who are often overlooked in animal welfare studies. While fragmentation is generally considered detrimental to fish welfare — leading to stress, reduced social interactions, and increased mortality — there is also potential for positive welfare effects, such as reduced predation pressure or temperature-induced metabolic benefits. This project will use threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as a model system to: 1) validate tests of fish welfare for use in the field (indicators include metabolic scope, cortisol release rate, attention bias, and behavioral expression), and 2) test the hypothesis that fish stranded in fragmented areas experience different welfare outcomes compared to those in connected river regions.
Grantees: Laura R. Stein, Justine Rionach McCarthy
Institution: University of Oklahoma, US
Grant amount: $136,365
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior, ichthyology
Research locations: United States
Project summary
Fragmentation of freshwater habitats due to drought and heatwaves poses significant risks to aquatic organisms, particularly small fish, who are often overlooked in animal welfare studies. While fragmentation is generally considered detrimental to fish welfare — leading to stress, reduced social interactions, and increased mortality — there is also potential for positive welfare effects, such as reduced predation pressure or temperature-induced metabolic benefits. This project will use threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as a model system to: 1) validate tests of fish welfare for use in the field (indicators include metabolic scope, cortisol release rate, attention bias, and behavioral expression), and 2) test the hypothesis that fish stranded in fragmented areas experience different welfare outcomes compared to those in connected river regions.
Why we funded this project
This project will integrate multiple welfare indicators to evaluate behavioral and physiological responses, contributing to a deeper understanding of how environmental fragmentation impacts individual fish welfare, and developing non-invasive field methods for use on small fish species. This project also supports a Wild Animal Initiative fellow, PhD candidate Rionach McCarthy, who has a strong interest in welfare.
Validating welfare indicators in an arachnid and their relationship to leg loss, a common defense strategy
Grantee: Ignacio Escalante
Institution: University of Illinois, Chicago
Project summary
This project will explore the welfare implications of leg loss, or “autotomy” — a common defensive strategy among animals. The project aims to validate welfare indicators within an understudied group of invertebrates, the Opiliones (Arachnida) in southwestern Costa Rica. Field and lab experiments will be used to test three potential behavioral welfare indicators: 1) movement patterns (approach vs. retreat), 2) speed, and 3) exploratory leg-tapping behaviors (count of leg taps) in response to positively and negatively valanced stimuli. These behaviors will be assessed when individuals are alone, in conspecific aggregations, and in barren versus complex housing. All experiments will include individuals with all legs and those with missing legs to assess how leg condition impacts welfare.
Grantee: Ignacio Escalante
Institution: University of Illinois, Chicago, US
Grant amount: $29,946
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Several species of the arachnid order Opiliones in the genus Prionostemma (family Sclerosomatidae)
Conservation status: Not evaluated
Disciplines: Animal behavior, sentience
Research locations: Costa Rica, United States
Project summary
This project will explore the welfare implications of leg loss, or “autotomy” — a common defensive strategy among animals. The project aims to validate welfare indicators within an understudied group of invertebrates, the Opiliones (Arachnida) in southwestern Costa Rica. Field and lab experiments will be used to test three potential behavioral welfare indicators: 1) movement patterns (approach vs. retreat), 2) speed, and 3) exploratory leg-tapping behaviors (count of leg taps) in response to positively and negatively valanced stimuli. These behaviors will be assessed when individuals are alone, in conspecific aggregations, and in barren versus complex housing. All experiments will include individuals with all legs and those with missing legs to assess how leg condition impacts welfare.
Why we funded this project
If validated, these behaviours will provide a novel set of welfare indicators in an arachnid, a group whose welfare has historically been neglected. The researchers’ previous work also shows that autotomy is very common in this taxon, so this project has the potential to help researchers understand the welfare of a very large number of individuals.
Remote welfare assessment in wildlife using stand-off Raman spectroscopy
Grantees: Jose Gonzalez-Rodriguez and Teresa Romero
Institution: University of Lincoln
Project summary
This project aims to develop a stand-off Raman spectroscopy system as a non-invasive tool to assess hormonal levels in wild animals, which can be integrated into welfare assessments. The project also aims to validate under standardized and natural conditions how biomarkers of long-term stress relate to a range of stressors that may affect wild animal welfare. They will use a combination of socio-positive (e.g., play, grooming) and negative (e.g., aggression, screaming) behaviors, indices of social integration, behavioral indicators of anxiety (i.e., self-directed behaviors), and resting behavior, as well as physical indicators of welfare (body condition, instances of injury).
Grantees: Jose Gonzalez-Rodriguez and Teresa Romero
Institution: University of Lincoln, UK
Grant amount: $55,519
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior
Research locations: United Kingdom, United States
Project summary
To enhance the welfare of wild animals, it is crucial to continuously monitor biomarkers and other metrics that can indicate changes in their welfare. However, this presents the challenge of obtaining repeated measurements from individuals, which often involves capture, restraint, and/or handling — procedures that can have significant negative welfare impacts on free-living wild animals. This project aims to develop a stand-off Raman spectroscopy system as a non-invasive tool to assess hormonal levels in wild animals, which can be integrated into welfare assessments. The project also aims to validate under standardized and natural conditions how biomarkers of long-term stress relate to a range of stressors that may affect wild animal welfare. They will use a combination of socio-positive (e.g., play, grooming) and negative (e.g., aggression, screaming) behaviors, indices of social integration, behavioral indicators of anxiety (i.e., self-directed behaviors), and resting behavior, as well as physical indicators of welfare (body condition, instances of injury).
Why we funded this project
This project builds on a previous WAI-funded project, which validated the use of Raman spectroscopy as an efficient way of testing hormones in hair. It will test whether this method can be used to measure hair cortisol levels from a distance, potentially helping to make the use of this indicator more scalable for long-term monitoring in the field, and reducing the need for distressing or invasive methods for welfare assessment.
Assessing the Impact of Ectoparasites on Nestling Welfare: Validating Behavioral and Physiological Indicators in Darwin’s Finches
Grantee: Sabine Tebbich
Institution: University of Vienna
Project summary
Nestling finches are particularly vulnerable to blood-sucking ectoparasites because they lack the ability to preen, dust-bathe, or escape infested nests. Invasive parasites are especially detrimental to bird welfare because naïve hosts lack behavioral adaptations such as nest sanitation or preening, and hosts often suffer from exceptionally high parasite loads. This project aims to integrate behavioral (breathing rate and sleep duration) and physiological (haematocrit, baseline corticosterone, oxidative stress and telomere length) indicators to assess the welfare impact of the bloodsucking larvae of the avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi) on nestlings of Galápagos finches.
Grantee: Sabine Tebbich
Institution: University of Vienna, Austria
Grant amount: $42,000
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Green warbler-finches (Certhidae olivacea) and small ground finches (Geospiza fuliginosa)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior, ornithology, infectious disease
Research locations: Austria, United States, Ecuador
Project summary
Nestling finches are particularly vulnerable to blood-sucking ectoparasites because they lack the ability to preen, dust-bathe, or escape infested nests. Invasive parasites are especially detrimental to bird welfare because naïve hosts lack behavioral adaptations such as nest sanitation or preening, and hosts often suffer from exceptionally high parasite loads. This project aims to integrate behavioral (breathing rate and sleep duration) and physiological (haematocrit, baseline corticosterone, oxidative stress and telomere length) indicators to assess the welfare impact of the bloodsucking larvae of the avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi) on nestlings of Galápagos finches.
Why we funded this project
We appreciate the diversity of welfare indicators this project will bring to bear on an important threat to the welfare of juveniles (an especially abundant and neglected life stage) in this species. By examining correlations between these putative welfare indicators, the project will contribute to understanding their validity, both individually and as a combined index, with potential transferability to other species and research questions.
Comparing the welfare of stocked triploid vs native diploid rainbow trout in California
Grantee: Andrew Sharo
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Project summary
Rainbow trout are commonly stocked for recreational fishing throughout the world, but because of their negative impacts on the environment, many state agencies now stock triploid rainbow trout, which are sterile. However, triploid rainbow trout are known to be more sensitive to water temperature and dissolved oxygen, which may impact their welfare in wild environments. This project will use a combination of physiological and behavioral indicators to compare the welfare of diploid and triploid rainbow trout. We will assess the welfare of rainbow trout in ponds across the Los Angeles metropolitan region using qualitative behavioral assessment, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio, body condition, injury/disease presence, and the expression of stressor-related genes, either non-invasively or through sampling fish caught by recreational anglers.
Grantee: Andrew Sharo
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles, US
Grant amount: $30,000
Grant type: Seed grant
Focal species: Rainbow/steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Ichthyology, genetics/genomics, physiology, animal behavior
Research locations: United States
Project summary
Rainbow trout are commonly stocked for recreational fishing throughout the world, but because of their negative impacts on the environment, many state agencies now stock triploid rainbow trout, which are sterile. However, triploid rainbow trout are known to be more sensitive to water temperature and dissolved oxygen, which may impact their welfare in wild environments. This project will use a combination of physiological and behavioral indicators to compare the welfare of diploid and triploid rainbow trout. We will assess the welfare of rainbow trout in ponds across the Los Angeles metropolitan region using qualitative behavioral assessment, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio, body condition, injury/disease presence, and the expression of stressor-related genes, either non-invasively or through sampling fish caught by recreational anglers.
Does diet mediate effects of sublethal parasitic infections on host welfare?
Grantee: Amanda Koltz
Institution: University of Texas at Austin
Project summary
This project will test how infection by parasitic worms (helminths) influences host welfare in white-footed deer mice by evaluating the relationship between parasite burden and host body condition, microbiome, and stress physiology, as well as behaviors associated with anxiety (negative welfare) and exploration (positive welfare). The researchers will experimentally manipulate parasite burden by intervening to apply anti-parasitic medication (Ivermectin) as a treatment for some mice who were already infected with helminths.
Grantee: Amanda Koltz
Institutions: University of Texas at Austin, United States
Grant amount: $167,237
Grant type: Challenge grant
Focal species: White-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and their helminth parasites
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Infectious disease, animal welfare science, animal behavior, physiology, community ecology
Research location: United States
Project summary
Parasite-mediated changes in host traits can have far-reaching ecological effects. Even sublethal infections affect hosts by increasing energetic costs and altering behavior, immunity, and physiology. Yet while many studies have investigated parasite effects on specific host traits, our understanding of how parasites influence overall individual welfare is limited, especially for wild animals. For example, parasites can drive changes in host diet and habitat use that reduce parasite exposure but not necessarily improve other metrics of host welfare. A holistic approach that captures different types of individual-level responses to parasitism is needed to advance our overall understanding of sublethal infections on host welfare. We propose to investigate how parasite burden is associated with individual-level host welfare using white-footed deer mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and their helminth parasites as a model system. Specifically, by experimentally removing gastrointestinal helminth parasites from P. leucopus, we will test how variation in parasite burden influences individual host body condition, diet and nutrition, microbiome, stress physiology, anxiety-like behavior, and exploratory behavior in forested ecosystems. P. leucopus has become the dominant small mammal species over the last 40 years in the northern Great Lakes region. It experiences sublethal infection by a range of helminth parasites and is a reservoir for several zoonotic pathogens, making its host-parasite dynamics highly relevant to the health of humans and other wildlife. By examining how infection levels relate to the diet, body functions, and behavior of P. leucopus, this study will advance our understanding of how non-lethal parasitic infections affect the welfare of an extremely widespread wild animal species.
Why we funded this project
We are excited to fund a study on wild mice, a highly numerous and neglected group, and especially one with such a welfare-friendly experimental approach — curing parasitic infections rather than causing them. The project also uses a holistic suite of physiological and behavioral indicators that should allow the researchers to disentangle overall welfare from narrow, mechanistic impacts of infection on the health and nutrition domains.
Integrating behavioral competency and post-release support for reintroduced wildlife: a shift in paradigm for rehabilitation and beyond
Grantee: Karli Rice Chudeau
Institution: 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
Institution: 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.
Photos
Are populations that are well-adapted to their environment less stressed than those that are not?
Grantee: Ryan S. Mohammed
Institution: 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.