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.
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.
Grantee: Dale Nimmo
Institution: Charles Sturt University, Australia
Grant amount: $98,700
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: Bush rats (Rattus fuscipes) and others
Conservation status: N/A: Multiple focal species
Disciplines: Climate science, physiology, animal behavior, mammalogy
Research location: Australia
Project summary
This project will investigate how prescribed burning affects the welfare of wild animals, and whether an animal’s welfare state before exposure to fire helps determine survival and harm suffered. The research team will study bush rats (Rattus fuscipes) in forest blocks scheduled for prescribed burns and in control sites, sampling individuals before fire, shortly after fire, and during early recovery, combining behavioral, body-condition, injury, and non-invasive physiological measures to infer changes in affective state and welfare. Lightweight telemetry will enable tracking of survival and severe harm through the burn window and post-fire period, while fire-severity mapping, refuge measurements, and camera traps will help identify the mechanisms involved. The goal is to generate practical evidence for welfare-centered prescribed fire: burns planned and implemented in ways that retain refuges, maintain escape options, and reduce avoidable suffering.
Why we funded this project
By combining welfare indicators with telemetry, fire-exposure metrics, refuge measurements, and predator activity, the project helps move wild animal welfare beyond descriptive assessment toward identifying the mechanisms and management choices that could reduce suffering.
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.
Grantee: Samantha Levell
Institution: New College of Florida, United States
Grant amount: $26,200
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus), sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna), and others
Conservation status: N/A: Multiple focal species
Disciplines: Ichthyology, physiology, animal behavior
Research location: 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.
Why we funded this project
Most previous work on estuarine fishes has focused on survival and physiological tolerance rather than the animals’ lived experiences or affective states. By integrating non-invasive physiological and behavioral indicators, this project will help validate a practical framework for assessing fish welfare under ecologically realistic conditions.
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.
Grantee: Miriam Soledad Vazquez
Institution: Universidad Nacional del Sur, Argentina
Grant amount: $9,600
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: Patagonian thrush (Turdus falcklandii), Rufous-bellied thrush (T. rufiventris)
Conservation status: N/A: Multiple focal species
Disciplines: Ornithology, animal behavior, physiology
Research location: Argentina
Project summary
This project will evaluate whether behavioral, acoustic, and physiological indicators consistently reflect welfare-relevant experiences in two urban thrush species that have recently expanded their ranges into Argentine cities. 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.
Why we funded this project
The study provides a proof of concept for integrating behavioral observations, passive acoustic monitoring, and physiological measures within a multidimensional welfare assessment framework applied under natural conditions. It also addresses whether commonly proposed welfare indicators remain informative across different species and environmental contexts, including urban environments shaped by human disturbance and novel biotic interactions.