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.
Field tests of bee welfare
Grantee: Vivek Nityanada
Institution: Newcastle University
Project summary
The goal of this project is to develop a cognitive judgment bias test for wild bees and pilot its use in the field. The project will investigate how bee cognitive biases and reward responses vary with factors expected to cause high or low welfare, such as light and vehicular pollution. The researchers will also develop a “lick-o-meter” for assessing welfare based on individual variation in the bees’ consumption of a sugar-water reward, with the expectation that bees in low-welfare environments will display less enthusiasm for consuming the sugar-water.
Grantee: Vivek Nityananda
Institutions: Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $194,317
Grant type: Challenge grant
Focal species: Buff tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Animal welfare science, entomology, animal behavior
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
Studying affective states in animals has been a key component towards assessing their welfare. Most studies that have used this approach have focused on vertebrates. Yet, the rapid decline in insect numbers calls out for novel methods to monitor their welfare and measuring their affective states would be an important approach. A few recent papers have indicated the presence of affective states in insects, especially bees. These papers have used judgement bias tests in laboratory settings. Recent findings using an active choice test in our lab have also shown robust evidence of affective states in bees due to changed expectations of rewards. However, there is no research looking at these states in the wild. To address this gap, this project seeks to develop and validate new tests for bee affective states in the wild and use these to assess the welfare of bees in the field.
This project will assess whether environments predicted to induce poor welfare and negative valence for bees– such as ones with poor nutrition or light pollution- induce changes in predicted markers of poor welfare. We will use performances in judgement bias tests and reduced responses to rewards in the wild as behavioral markers of welfare. We will also measure the role of neuromodulators (dopamine, serotonin) by measuring the differences in their expression, and of genes involved in their synthesis pathways, in the brains of wild bees in different environments. Measuring changes in these three different markers across different low-welfare environments will help validate them as measure of bee welfare and develop novel markers for wild bee welfare. They will thus providing vital tools for further biological and environmental research in a variety of pollinators.
Why we funded this project
We are generally excited to support this project because it focuses on a wild insect. Insects are extremely abundant and their welfare is typically neglected. Validating a cognitive judgment bias test that can be implemented in the field for a wild insect would be a powerful step forward.
Parasites in the city: How is the impact of parasites on wild animal welfare affected by urbanization?
Grantee: Amanda Trask
Institutions: Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
Project summary
This project will evaluate the extent to which parasitism and urbanization impact wild animal welfare, both independently and synergistically, using physiological data on the internal and external parasite loads of deceased gray squirrels, as well as their body condition, immune function, and stress response. The researchers will also collect behavioral welfare indicators from other squirrels using camera traps. This data will be collected along a gradient of urbanization levels and analyzed in the context of the squirrels’ sex and age, to compare population-level welfare across sites varying in degree of urbanization and average parasite metrics and predict how future increases in urbanization might impact wildlife welfare.
Grantee: Amanda Trask
Institutions: Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Zoological Society of London (ZSL), United Kingdom
Grant amount: $199,941
Grant type: Challenge grant
Focal species: Eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Infectious disease, population ecology
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
Parasitism is likely a key determiner of wild animal welfare, while rapidly increasing urbanisation presents novel challenges and welfare threats, yet the extent that parasitism and urbanisation impact wild animal welfare, both independently and synergistically, remains a major knowledge gap. An individual’s parasite infection status, and the associated welfare impacts, is dependent on parasite exposure risk and susceptibility. Urbanisation may alter exposure risk, for example through changes to population density and resource distribution, and susceptibility, for example through altered host immune function from exposure to urban stressors. Urbanisation may also compound impacts of parasitism, if chronically stressed individuals are less able to cope with further welfare challenges, resulting in synergistic negative welfare effects. Furthermore, welfare impacts of parasites and urbanisation may vary across sex- and life-stage classes, for example due to hormonal influences and changes in immune function with chronic exposure to urban pollution.
We will address this knowledge gap, using grey squirrels from UK sites across an urbanisation gradient. We will use detailed individual-level data on parasite loads and physical and physiological welfare indicators, collected from dead squirrels killed as part of non-native species management, to determine welfare impacts across sites varying in degree of urbanisation, and across sexes and life stages. Then, we will use behavioural indicators from camera trap data to determine associations between population-level welfare, parasite prevalence and degree of urbanisation. Finally, we will estimate ‘welfare expectancy’ of individuals from different populations using sex- and life-stage specific welfare scores. We will expand on current theory and develop a modelling tool to incorporate demographic and environmental stochasticity in welfare states into population models, to aid prediction of how increasing urbanisation may impact wildlife welfare in the future. This study will provide vital knowledge to aid understanding and prediction of the experience and future responses of wild animals to parasites in the context of increasing urbanization, facilitating design and integration of welfare-friendly urban environments for wildlife.
Why we funded this project
Gray squirrels are abundant, they live in close proximity to humans, and they could benefit from welfare interventions such as wildlife fertility control in the near future. Gray squirrels are not native in the UK, where this study will be conducted, and the welfare of non-native species is generally understudied or undervalued compared with native species of conservation interest. This project provides a special opportunity to take advantage of data from squirrels who are being killed as part of a government program, and to access valuable metrics that are hard to measure non-invasively, thereby creating from their deaths an opportunity to gain valuable insights that could ultimately help other squirrels. In addition to their good range of welfare indicators, we appreciate that this project will consider sex- and age-specific variation in welfare impacts and attempt to estimate “welfare expectancy” at a population level.
Are we making urban wildlife sick?
Grantee: Carl Soulsbury
Institution: University of Lincoln
Project summary
The goal of this project is to test whether differences in welfare among individual red foxes and individual European hedgehogs are explained by specific environmental stressors arising from urbanization (e.g., increased human population density, noise pollution, or reduced habitat heterogeneity). Notably, on a population level, foxes appear to have fared well alongside humans, while hedgehogs have struggled to cope with urbanization. The study will confirm whether this contrast is also seen at the level of individual welfare, and offers a unique opportunity to identify common environmental stressors that may be impacting the health and welfare of urban wildlife more generally. To assess welfare, the project will perform cognitive judgment bias and novel object tests and combine them with non-invasive indicators of physiological stress (fecal glucocorticoids and eye/ear temperature) and health (pathogen load).
Grantee: Carl Soulsbury
Institutions: University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $148,741.43
Grant type: Challenge grant
Focal species: Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Animal welfare science, animal behavior, physiology
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
Urbanisation causes profound changes to biodiversity. For many species living in urban areas, there is evidence that urban living leads to greater disease prevalence. It is unclear, however, (a) what factors drive this higher disease prevalence and (b) whether this leads to poorer wild animal welfare. We propose a study to compare two urban-dwelling species, red foxes and Eurasian hedgehogs, where we will characterize pathogen prevalence, load, and diversity across an urban-rural gradient. This study will be carried out at two scales: firstly, we will link pathogen loads, faecal glucocortoicoids and habitat at the landscape level, allowing us to broadly understand if urbanisation is associated with increased pathogen loads. We will then carry out a second, more detailed data collection where we will combine pathogen data with measures of stress (infra-red thermography, faecal glucocorticoids) and behavioural measures of affective valence (novel object and judgement bias tests). Here, we will link together pathogen loads and different measures of welfare at the individual level. Ultimately, our aim is to test, within each species, whether population differences in health and welfare are explained by environmental stressors arising from urbanisation (e.g., increased human population density and reduced habitat heterogeneity).
Why we funded this project
We appreciate that this project considers specific characteristics of urban environments, as opposed to simply comparing urban environments with rural ones. This way, it has more potential to inform near-term interventions. Plus, the project design humanely allows for animals’ voluntary participation. In addition to using an effective suite of welfare indicators to investigate the impact of different parasite loads on welfare, the combination of cognitive bias testing with non-invasive physiological stress metrics will provide information on the validity of those metrics, which are being used concurrently in other projects.
Developing an automated cognitive bias task for wild squirrels
Grantees: Vikki Neville, Lisa Leaver
Institutions: University of Bristol, University of Exeter
Project summary
The goal of this project is to develop a cognitive judgment bias test for use in wild gray squirrels that capitalizes on their innate behavior, avoiding the need for the extensive type of training that is usually part of cognitive judgment bias tests in captive settings. By making use of the widely available Raspberry Pi platform, the test should be relatively easy for other researchers to replicate and adapt for use in other species. To validate the test itself, the research team will also assess how measurement of cognitive judgment bias varies with factors assumed to affect the valence of animals participating in the test, such as distance from cover and levels of food provisioning in the environment, as well as how the test results correlate with other potential non-invasive behavioral and physiological indicators of welfare, such as the distance at which a squirrel flees from approaching humans, hair cortisol concentration, and real-time fluctuations in eye temperature in response to stimuli during the the test.
Grantees: Vikki Neville and Lisa Leaver
Institutions: University of Bristol, University of Exeter, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $157,049
Grant type: Challenge grant
Focal species: Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Animal welfare science, physiology, animal behavior
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
The development of the cognitive judgment bias (CJB) task for non-human animals revolutionised the field of animal welfare. The CJB task: (a) is thought to measure both relatively better and relatively poorer welfare across the full spectrum of possible welfare states, (b) is non-invasive, and (c) has been validated using a meta-analytic approach. Moreover, the theoretical basis of the predictions for the CJB task should be applicable across taxa and, accordingly, it has been used successfully in many species. However, to date, its use has largely been in captive species and there are a dearth of examples in wild animals. A key barrier to implementation is that it is difficult to train animals to associate stimuli with particular outcomes: the time needed to do so makes these studies unsuccessful or infeasible in non-captive populations of animals. We propose that this could be overcome by capitalising on the natural behaviour of a species to reduce training time and by using equipment that allows automation of stimulus presentation and data collection.
The main aim of our proposed project is to develop a CJB task for use in wild animals, in particular wild squirrels. Our key objectives are to develop a task for collecting CJB data from grey squirrels which: (1) capitalises on their innate behaviour, obviating the need for extensive training, and (2) makes use of Raspberry Pi equipment so that the task can be easily implemented by other researchers and straightforwardly adapted for use across species to measure welfare and validate novel potential measures of welfare.
To assess that our task works as anticipated, secondary objectives will be to: (1) assess how CJB varies with task manipulations designed to alter affective valence (the distance of the equipment from cover, and levels of food provisioning in the environment), and (2) assess how CJB correlates with other potential non-invasive indicators of welfare (e.g. flight distance in response to humans, QBA scores, retrapability, social status, hair cortisol concentration, and fluctuations in eye temperature following positive and negative stimuli on the judgement bias test measured using infrared thermal cameras).
Why we funded this project
As noted above, cognitive bias tests are generally considered to be exceptionally robust welfare indicators, while gray squirrels are an abundant species and a prime target for near-term interventions. Therefore, we are excited to support the development of a cognitive judgment bias test for use on free-living gray squirrels, which will also help to assess the validity of simpler indicators, such as eye temperature and flight initiation distance.
Validating the use of cognitive bias to assess affective valence in wild bird populations.
Grantee: Oliver Burman
Institution: University of Lincoln
Project summary
The goal of this project is to develop and validate a cognitive bias test for assessing the welfare of woodland birds that does not require any training stage, and instead takes advantage of innate attraction and aversion to stimuli that resemble preferred or noxious prey (with a range of likeness accuracy, based on the principle of imperfect Batesian mimicry). Continuing the theme of exploiting natural variation, the project will use spatial variation in numerous components of habitat preferability that can be assumed to directionally affect welfare — such as food abundance and shelter — as natural experiments to validate their cognitive bias tests.
Grantees: Oliver Burman
Institutions: University of Lincoln, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $193,684.17
Grant type: Challenge grant
Focal species: Free-living wild birds, including (but not limited to): blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), great tits (Parus major), wrens (Troglodytes troglodytes), coal tits (Poecile ater), European robins (Erithacus rubecula), chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs), greenfinches (Chloris chloris), starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), blackbirds (Turdus merula) and Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius).
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Animal welfare science, ornithology, animal behavior
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
Cognitive bias is a robust and validated measure of affective valence effective in a wide variety of animal species. However, this valuable approach has been primarily focused on the welfare assessment of captive animals and has not yet been demonstrated in wild free-living animal populations. This goal is crucial for addressing urgent contemporary issues such as the impact of anthropogenic and climatic change on wild animal welfare and to tackle key conservation challenges. In the first attempt to apply a cognitive judgement bias task in a free-living wild animal population, we found that wild birds struggled to complete the necessary training (discrimination) stage of the cognitive bias task. In the proposed project, our aim is therefore to validate two novel cognitive approaches to assessing affective valence in wild animals that do not require training, in conjunction with established behavioural and physiological indicators of welfare. Firstly, we will investigate a modified cognitive judgement bias task based on the innate avoidance of naturally occurring aversive prey, using the principle of imperfect Batesian mimicry. Secondly, we will modify and validate a cognitive attention bias task that relies on a spontaneous response to a potential threat. Both tasks will be assessed in populations of wild birds using natural variation in affective valence. Our anticipated outcomes are the development of an effective, validated measure of affective valence applicable to wild birds without the need for capture/restraint that can be translated across species; an invaluable tool in the assessment of wild animal welfare in response to a wide variety of environmental challenges.
Why we funded this project
This project’s results are intended to be generalizable to numerous woodland bird species (e.g., tits, wrens, starlings). We also appreciate its creatively humane approach to validation, using innate preferences and natural variation in affective valence, rather than training and experimental manipulation. Plus, the project considers both presumably positive (e.g., food, shelter) and presumably negative (e.g., predator abundance) welfare factors, which further strengthens the validation.
Measuring health and frailty in wild insects
Grantee: Jelle Boonekamp
Institutions: University of Glasgow
Project summary
The aim of this project is to develop a non-invasive frailty index that measures the health of individual insects in their natural habitat and can be applied across species. Using traits applicable to many different insect species, it will develop an insect frailty index, validating it against mortality and fitness data in an insect population by testing whether frail individuals have increased mortality risk and reduced fitness. The project will use data from a long-term field study of a natural population of crickets, which recorded adult crickets from their emergence to death using a network of 140 video cameras. Fitness was measured by genotyping and counting the number of surviving genetic descendants in the following year.
Grantee: Jelle Boonekamp
Institutions: University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $63,536
Grant type: Ad hoc
Focal species: Field cricket (Gryllinae)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, entomology
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
From an evolutionary perspective, health and well-being is best expressed in terms of fitness variation, the logic being that animals who are optimally adapted to their local environment should be healthy. Hence, health and fitness are intimately entwined on a conceptual level. Morphological, behavioral, and physiological traits that are predictive of fitness could provide potential biomarkers of health, and such approaches have been developed for many different wild vertebrate species. However, due to their small size and mobility, it has proven exceedingly challenging to follow individual insects longitudinally in the wild, let alone their descendants, to measure individual performance and fitness. Consequently, there is a paucity of literature on wild insect health and well-being.
The aim of this project is to address this knowledge gap by developing a non-invasive frailty index that measures the health of individual insects in their natural habitat and that can be applied across species. Analogizing to frailty indices used in human patients, this project will develop an insect frailty index using relevant traits applicable to many different insect species. In humans, the frailty index is highly predictive of morbidity and remaining life expectancy. Similarly, this project seeks to validate the insect frailty index against mortality and fitness data in an insect population by testing whether “frail” individuals have increased mortality risk and reduced fitness.
This project is made possible by the work that we have done to establish a long-term field study of a natural population of crickets (WildCrickets.org). Using a network of 140 video cameras, all the adults in the population are longitudinally monitored from their emergence in early spring to their natural death in late summer. All their movements, reproductive behaviors, fights, and predation events are recorded, and fitness is measured by genotyping and counting the number of surviving genetic descendants in the next year.
Why we funded this project
Willingness to investigate the welfare of insects is somewhat rare, as are creative ways to assess their welfare. This project both proposed a potentially usable metric, and has access to an unusually useful resource through the WildCrickets.org project. While any particular approach to assessing welfare in insects is unlikely to work, we are hoping to seed enough approaches and strategies that others take up the call, eventually drawing in enough different approaches to produce usable strategies for assessing insect welfare in the wild. Finally, because many of the project resources were already acquired through other sources, we were to fund exclusively the welfare-focused aspects of the project.
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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.
How do human activities impair the welfare of highly social fish?
Grantee: Joachim Frommen
Institutions: Manchester Metropolitan University
Project summary
This project will investigate the welfare of a common fish species in Lake Tanganyika, the princess cichlid, as they are exposed to varying levels of human activity. Across eight populations representing a range of distances to human settlements and shipping routes, the researchers will monitor behaviors indicative of stress or aggression and measure body condition and the brain tissue expression of five genes involved in stress physiology (glucocorticoid response pathway; crf, cyp11b, gr1, gr2, mr). These welfare indicators will be compared with environmental characteristics including boat noise, water visibility (sedimentary and algal load), human fishing intensity, temperature stress, and structural complexity of the local environment.
Grantee: Joachim Frommen
Institutions: Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $28,960
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: The princess of Zambia (Neolamprologus pulcher)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Ichthyology, physiology, genetics/genomics
Research location: United Kingdom, Zambia
Project summary
This project will investigate the welfare of a common fish species in Lake Tanganyika, the princess cichlid (Neolamprologus pulcher), as they are exposed to varying levels of human activity. Across eight populations representing a range of distances to human settlements and shipping routes, the researchers will monitor behaviors indicative of stress or aggression, and measure body condition and the brain tissue expression of five genes involved in stress physiology (glucocorticoid response pathway; crf, cyp11b, gr1, gr2, mr). These welfare indicators will be compared with specific environmental characteristics, including boat noise, water visibility (sedimentary and algal load), human fishing intensity, temperature stress, and structural complexity of the local environment.
Why we funded this project
By focusing on an established model system (cichlids), this project is able to benefit from background knowledge of the species’ ecology and behavior and proceed to more neglected welfare questions, as well as potentially engaging a ready audience of cichlid researchers. An especially interesting component of this project is its investigation of brain gene expression to potentially better understand how stress physiology relates to an animal’s subjective experience.
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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Predicting density dependence of welfare of wild animal populations based on resource access linked to habitat availability and usage
Grantee: Ross MacLeod
Institutions: Liverpool John Moores University
Project summary
This project seeks to adapt a habitat and population model to incorporate welfare and apply it to the study of an abundant and widespread avian species, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). The researchers propose to utilize a variety of welfare metrics to validate model assumptions, which will then allow them to test assumptions related to the welfare implications of density-dependent population dynamics.
Grantee: Ross MacLeod
Institutions: Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $159,744
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: House sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Ecological modeling, population ecology, animal welfare science
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
This project seeks to adapt a habitat and population model to incorporate welfare and apply it to the study of an abundant and widespread avian species, the house sparrow (Passer domesticus). The researchers propose to utilize a variety of welfare metrics to validate model assumptions, which will then allow them to test assumptions related to the welfare implications of density-dependent population dynamics.
Why we funded this project
We funded this project because it addresses our proposal request very closely and proposes to investigate a key wild animal welfare question using a modeling framework. They are also planning to address their question using an abundant avian species. The project has high potential to inform future work focused on modeling total welfare in a population (i.e., combining both individual welfare and population size), and to create a model that can be replicated in other systems.
Find Ross’ other project, studying wild birds, here.
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