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.

Challenge, Australia, N/A: Multiple focal species, Mammals, Climate science, Physiology, Animal behavior, Mammalogy, 2026, Not published Wild Animal Initiative Challenge, Australia, N/A: Multiple focal species, Mammals, Climate science, Physiology, Animal behavior, Mammalogy, 2026, Not published Wild Animal Initiative

Towards welfare-centered prescribed fire

Grantee: Dale Nimmo

Institution: Charles Sturt University, Australia

Project summary

This project will investigate how prescribed burning affects wild animal welfare, and whether welfare state helps determine survival and harm suffered. The team will study bush rats (Rattus fuscipes) in forest blocks scheduled for prescribed burns and in control sites, combining behavioral, body-condition, injury, and non-invasive physiological measures to infer welfare changes. Lightweight telemetry will enable tracking of survival and severe harm, while fire-severity mapping, refuge measurements, and camera traps will help identify the mechanisms involved. The goal is to generate evidence to help burns be planned and implemented in ways that reduce avoidable suffering.

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Discovery, United States, N/A: Multiple focal species, Fish, Ichthyology, Physiology, Animal behavior, 2026, Not published Wild Animal Initiative Discovery, United States, N/A: Multiple focal species, Fish, Ichthyology, Physiology, Animal behavior, 2026, Not published Wild Animal Initiative

Feeling salty: A welfare framework for estuarine fishes

Grantee: Samantha Levell

Institution: New College of Florida, United States

Project summary

Estuaries are highly dynamic environments in which salinity can change rapidly. This project will study how short-term, ecologically realistic salinity shifts influence welfare in estuarine fishes using non-invasive measures such as waterborne cortisol, metabolic rate, exploration, shoaling behavior, and decision making. The project will focus on two common estuarine species: the sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) and the sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna). By comparing juveniles and adults, the project aims to develop practical tools for assessing fish welfare in the wild and to better understand how environmental variability shapes the experiences of aquatic animals.

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Seed, Argentina, Birds, N/A: Multiple focal species, Ornithology, Animal behavior, Physiology, 2026, Not published Wild Animal Initiative Seed, Argentina, Birds, N/A: Multiple focal species, Ornithology, Animal behavior, Physiology, 2026, Not published Wild Animal Initiative

Validating behavioral, acoustic, and physiological indicators of welfare in urban birds

Grantee: Miriam Soledad Vazquez

Institution: Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina

Project summary

This project will evaluate whether behavioral, acoustic, and physiological indicators consistently reflect welfare-relevant experiences in two urban thrush species. Welfare will be assessed by combining focal behavioral observations (vigilance, aggression, displacement, foraging activity, and tolerance of conspecifics and heterospecifics), passive acoustic monitoring (focal activity rates and calling patterns), and feather glucocorticoid analyses across urban sites that differ in vegetation cover and human disturbance. These indicators will be interpreted together to evaluate whether they show concordant, biologically meaningful responses across urban environments, while recognizing that different indicators may capture different temporal or contextual dimensions of affective state and welfare.

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