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.
It takes guts to grow in the city: the role of the gut microbiome in the welfare of juvenile urban birds
Grantee: Pablo Capilla-Lasheras
Institution: University of Glasgow
Project summary
Approximately 30 million blue tits hatch every year in UK cities, but around 63% die as juveniles. One reason for this may be that juvenile birds in urban habitats tend to have low-quality diets, causing stunted growth and increased early-life mortality. Research suggests that gut microbiome composition may contain indicators of an animal’s welfare, but this has received little attention in a wild animal context. This project will combine telomere attrition, begging behavior, and other health metrics with a study of juvenile birds’ gut microbiomes to investigate how to improve the welfare of juvenile blue tits in urban areas. It will also test the potential for gut microbiome enrichment to improve the life experience of juvenile birds in urban habitats.
Grantee: Pablo Capilla-Lasheras
Institution: University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $59,052
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, population ecology, animal welfare science, ornithology, animal behavior
Research location: United Kingdom
Publications
Reid, R., et al. (2024). The impact of urbanization on health depends on the health metric, life stage and level of urbanization: a global meta-analysis on avian species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 291(2027). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.0617
Project summary
Amongst the novel stressors that wildlife face in cities, shifts in diet are prevalent and have negative consequences for welfare, particularly in juveniles. Research clearly shows that juvenile birds in urban habitats have low-quality diets, causing stunted growth and increased early-life mortality. For example, in the UK alone, approximately 30 million blue tits hatch every year in cities, but around 63% of them die as juveniles. This project will study juvenile blue tits and investigate how to improve their welfare in urban areas using an integrative approach that will combine metrics of animal welfare with the study of gut microbiomes. Human and captive animal studies suggest that the gut microbiome composition may contain indicators of an animal’s welfare, but this has received little attention in a wild animal context. This study will combine a physiological welfare indicator (telomere attrition), a behavioral welfare indicator (begging behavior), and other health metrics with a study of juvenile birds’ gut microbiomes to link poor-quality urban diets, gut microbiome composition, and welfare. The project will also test a potential near-term dietary intervention (gut microbiome enrichment) to improve the life experience of juvenile birds growing in urban habitats.
Why we funded this project
Welfare is shaped by, and in turn influences, numerous aspects of an animal’s phenotype. Individual welfare indicators offer only limited insights, but combining indicators across multiple domains is thought to be extremely important for triangulating affective state, or “true” welfare. Because the gut microbiome represents a partially distinct domain, understanding how it relates to welfare could therefore strengthen all of our other indicators when they are used in combination. We were especially interested in this project due to the inclusion of an intervention experiment that could be implemented in the near future. Finally, this project will support an early-career researcher with an interest in wild animal welfare.
Photos
Does population density influence the welfare of wild newts?
Grantee: Luiza Figueiredo Passos
Institution: Liverpool John Moores University
Project summary
This project will explore how the welfare of the widespread great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) is influenced by population density. It will test the hypothesis that optimal conditions for population sustainability could be suboptimal at the individual level, and consequently negative for welfare. The researchers will study the welfare of newts in populations with varying densities throughout England. Welfare will be assessed using the Five Domains Model by collecting measures of health, behavior, and nutrition. Environmental parameters will also be collected to assess the relationship between habitat quality and welfare.
Grantee: Luiza Figueiredo Passos
Institution: Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom
Grant amount: $158,060
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: Great crested newt (Triturus cristatus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior, herpetology
Research location: United Kingdom
Project summary
The project seeks to determine how the welfare of the widespread species of great crested newts, Triturus cristatus, is influenced by population density in order to help determine how management practices can foster the welfare of individuals. Based on previous studies that have shown that population size and density correlate negatively with body condition and adult survivorship, this study will test the hypothesis that optimal conditions for population sustainability (i.e., conditions that result in higher juvenile survival) could be suboptimal at the individual level, and consequently negative for welfare. The project will study the welfare of newts in populations with varying densities at different locations in England. Welfare will be assessed using the Five Domains model of animal welfare by collecting measures of health (presence of injuries or diseases, corticosterone level, and telomere attrition), behavior (expression of abnormal behavior, flight response, behavioral restriction), and nutrition (body condition, food availability). Environmental parameters (water quality, shelter availability, predator pressure, proximity to anthropogenic threats) will also be collected to assess the relationship between habitat quality and welfare.
Why we funded this project
We funded this project because it will assess density-dependent welfare using a diverse battery of indicators. It is especially exciting to see them applied to a highly abundant amphibian, as the overwhelming majority of wild animal welfare projects have focused on mammals or birds. The proposing team is also very well qualified and has previously been funded by Wild Animal Initiative, which makes them well-suited to take on an analytically challenging project to disentangle influences of population density on newt welfare.
Find Luiza’s other project, studying house sparrows, here.
