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.
Validating body posture as a novel marker of well-being in animals
Grantee: Nicola Koyama
Institution: Liverpool John Moores University
Project summary
A few studies on nonhuman primates have found that a hunched posture is a response to social separation and physical inflammation, but research linking whole body posture and physiological measures of welfare is lacking. This project will combine established measures of affective valence (nasal temperature) and arousal (iris-pupil ratio) to validate body posture as a new measure of affective valence. Two months of video data will be collected and used for thermal imaging, behavioral, and postural analysis from groups of wild Barbary macaques, along with pilot data for comparison from non-human primate zoo animals. Ultimately, the project aims to share a new validated measure and conceptual framework that can be applied to a range of wild mammals.
Effect of an invasive competitor on the welfare of a threatened fish in a soft-release program
Grantee: Rafael Freire
Institutions: Charles Sturt University
Project summary
Invasive fish are common in most freshwater systems, yet their impact on the welfare of resident fish is often ignored. Invasive fish species compete and displace small-bodied native fish in several ways, including by preventing access to refuge sites, preferred foods, breeding grounds, and other important resources. This project will assess the welfare of native fish placed in sites with and without invasive competitors. Welfare will be measured using a novel population-level judgement bias test, differences in telomere attrition, and typical physical correlates of welfare in fish. In addition to revealing the impact of invasive fish on small-bodied fish welfare, this work will also promote greater consideration of the impact of animal translocation and release activities on wild animal welfare.
Improving the welfare of wild and captive animals with integrated in-situ and ex-situ behavioural monitoring
Grantee: Sarah Richdon
Institution: 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.
Paying to play? Social time allocation, emotional contagion, and social attention as assays of welfare in wild animals
Grantee: Patrick Tkaczynski
Institution: Liverpool John Moores University
Project summary
Play and grooming have a number of facets that could be potential indicators of positive welfare in group-living vertebrates, but analysis of such behaviors are yet to be put into a formal framework for monitoring wild animal populations. This pilot project will focus on six different wild Barbary macaque groups of variable sizes and facing varying degrees of human exposure, which is typically associated with poor health outcomes in wild animals. It will use play and grooming behavior to quantify social time allocation, emotional contagion/synchronization, and social attention as potential assays of positive welfare. Once validated, these assays can be applied to examine how positive welfare varies across different gradients, such as climate change or variation in predator pressure.
Mapping welfare for conservation management
Grantee: Lisa Olivier
Institution: Game Rangers International
Project summary
This project will monitor behavioral and physiological parameters in African elephants over one year to map their perception of their environment. The aim is to test this approach’s potential as a leading indicator that is easy to measure, responds quickly to ecosystem changes, and highlights potential detrimental impacts. These measures will be aggregated to define a scale representing the animals’ perceptions of threat that can be estimated for a given time and place. The researchers will then project this data onto maps to identify areas of high and low welfare. The project will help conservation practitioners create management plans to protect wild animals by providing a head start in assessing changes in their surroundings.
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.
Introducing a novel tool to compare stress levels in captive and wild Macaca fascicularis
Grantee: Vets4welfare
Institution: Vets4welfare Foundation
Project summary
This project will compare cortisol concentrations in the hair of Indonesian monkeys from three groups: one in the wild, one that has been kept in captivity for the entertainment industry, and one in the process of rehabilitation following rescue from the entertainment industry. The aim of the project is to compare stress responses under wild, poor-welfare captive, and high-welfare captive environments. The hair cortisol data will be compared with veterinary and forensic records and other welfare-relevant observations (e.g. of infections or injuries) where possible. The researchers also intend to determine whether mistreatment in captivity leaves a signal in hair cortisol that could be detected after the fact and used to identify monkeys who have been illegally trafficked.