Improving the welfare of translocated individuals - European mink as a case study
Grantee: Maria Diez Leon
Institution: University of London, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $28,965
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: European mink (Mustela lutreola)
Conservation status: Critically endangered
Disciplines: Wildlife rehabilitation, animal welfare science
Research location: Spain
Project summary
Conservation breeding programs do not proactively consider or even assess welfare across all stages, nor track the welfare of released individuals. We therefore lack data on how individual welfare state pre-release might affect welfare post-release. This project aims to fill the gap by assessing how levels of two behaviors thought to track positive and negative welfare states — play behaviors and abnormal repetitive behaviors — influence post-release welfare metrics in two on-going reintroduction programs for the European mink, and compare the welfare of released minks to individuals in an established “benchmark” wild population. Fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels will also be measured to validate these behavioral indicators pre- and post-release. By differentially raising mink in conditions known to improve welfare, the researchers will investigate whether captive environments that promote play and decrease abnormal repetitive behaviors improve pre-release and post-release welfare, whether individual welfare state pre-release correlates with post-release welfare outcomes, and how the welfare of captive-born individuals differs from that of wild-born individuals.
Why we funded this project
We are interested in the comparison of long-term welfare outcomes between individuals born and protected in captivity and individuals born in the wild, which can help us understand how welfare issues differ between captive and wild environments and how much early-life experiences influence long-term welfare. The project’s objective of identifying improvements for the early-life care of animals who are to be released into the wild also helps us assess “headstarting,” a practice in which juveniles of a species are reared in captivity before being released at a less dangerous life stage, as a near-term intervention for improving the lifetime welfare of animals who have vulnerable juvenile stages but are relatively long-lived as adults. Finally, the applicant has a background in conservation but has demonstrated a long-term interest in wild animal welfare, such as attending an April 2022 workshop on animal sentience (LSE/Rethink Priorities).
Find Maria’s other project, studying American minks and Eurasian otters, here.
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