Developing, testing and validating indicators of wild insect welfare

Grantee: Carl Soulsbury

Institution: University of Lincoln, United Kingdom

Grant amount: $92,148

Grant type: Challenge grants

Focal species: Carrion beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) and others

Conservation status: Least concern

Disciplines: Entomology, physiology, animal behavior, cognition

Research location: United Kingdom

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Project summary

This project aims to develop and validate practical indicators of welfare in wild insects. Working with three common model species — Dubia cockroaches (Blaptica dubia), two-spotted crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus), and carrion beetles — it will measure a suite of behavioral and physiological stress responses including oxidative stress markers, fat reserves via NMR, and movement patterns tracked using AI-assisted video analysis. These measures will be validated against cognitive bias testing to identify which indicators reliably reflect negative welfare, and the most field-accessible measures will be applied to wild carrion beetle populations, testing whether lab-derived welfare indicators hold up under natural conditions. The goal is a generalizable welfare assessment toolkit that researchers can use across insect taxa in both captive and wild settings.

Why we funded this project

This project provides the first systematic, cross-taxa proof of concept for measuring welfare in wild insects, moving beyond the captive-only focus that has dominated invertebrate welfare research to date. Invertebrates make up the vast majority of animal life on Earth, yet almost nothing is known about their welfare in the wild, so the knowledge generated by this project has the potential to facilitate large-scale impact. Funding this project also deepens our work with an existing grantee.

Find Carl’s other project, studying red foxes and Eurasian hedgehogs, here.

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Developing & refining behavioral assays for the measurement of ‘sentient welfare’ in gastropod molluscs

Grantee: Elizabeth Paul

Institution: University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Grant amount: $49,476

Grant type: Discovery grants

Focal species: Great pond snail (Lymnaea stagnalis), common garden snail (Cornu aspersum)

Conservation status: Least concern

Disciplines: Sentience, animal behavior, malacology

Research location: United Kingdom

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Project summary

The welfare of cephalopod mollusks is a topic of rapidly increasing scientific and public interest. But to date, their close relatives, the gastropod mollusks, have been almost completely neglected in welfare research, as well as in public and legislative concern. This project will develop and refine key assays for the behavioral measurement of welfare in two gastropod species: the great pond snail (Lymnaea stagnalis) and the common garden snail (Cornu aspersum). The researchers will focus on the capacities of snails to experience consequences within two hypothesized domains of affective function — the first relating to a Punishment Avoidance System (PAS; associated with an animal’s responses to threats and punishments) and the second to a Reward Acquisition System (RAS; associated with an animal’s responses to opportunities and rewards).

Why we funded this project

Extensive scientific attention has been paid to the pollutants and other anthropogenic challenges facing gastropod mollusks, but from the point of view of broader environmental damage and effects on vertebrate populations. This project extends that interest to the welfare of gastropod animals themselves. The research team hopes that this project will lead to a larger research program on molluscan welfare.

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Assessing anthropogenic fear in a wild decapod crustacean

Grantee: Mark Briffa

Institution: University of Plymouth, United Kingdom

Grant amount: $49,656

Grant type: Discovery grants

Focal species: Common European hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus), St. Pirin’s hermit crab (Clibanarius erythropus) 

Conservation status: Not evaluated

Disciplines: Animal behavior, climate science

Research location: United Kingdom

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Project summary

This project will investigate whether urban coastal environments alter fear-related behavioral and physiological responses in wild hermit crabs, using two species that differ in their history of exposure to urbanization. Researchers will compare crabs of both species collected from urban and rural shorelines and measure indicators that may be linked to affective state, including startle responses, shell investigation behavior, and resting metabolic rate under field conditions. By repeatedly measuring behavior within individuals, they will also test whether urban disturbance influences behavioral predictability, which may provide additional insight into fear and stress-related processes.

Why we funded this project

This project applies concepts and analytical approaches from animal personality research to the assessment of welfare-related states in free-living animals. It also addresses a priority taxonomic gap in the field: Crustaceans are abundant yet remain largely neglected in wild animal welfare research, despite growing evidence for their behavioral complexity and sentience-related capacities.

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Harnessing machine learning for the non-invasive assessment of wild fish welfare

Grantee: Thomas Pike

Institution: University of Lincoln, UK

Grant amount: $81,927

Grant type: Challenge grants

Focal species: Fish

Conservation status: Least concern

Disciplines: Animal behavior, cognition, climate science, ichthyology

Research locations: United Kingdom

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Project summary

Wild fish are facing unprecedented challenges from climate-change-induced alterations to natural environments and anthropogenic stressors. Yet assessing their welfare is extremely challenging. To address this, this project aims to develop an open-source aquatic camera system capable of automatically and non-invasively quantifying a suite of behavioural and cognitive welfare indicators. Behavioural indicators include the degree of physical closeness between individuals within a group, the spatial arrangement of subgroups, movement behaviour, and agonistic interactions. The project will examine variation in these indicators along an urban–rural gradient to a range of putative stressors, before validating them using “challenge” tests involving ecologically relevant experimental interventions (e.g., acoustic disturbances such as boat noise). The overarching objective is to develop an open-source toolkit that integrates commercially available hardware with custom-designed software, allowing the methods to be readily used by others to easily, cheaply, and repeatedly assess the welfare of wild fish. 

Why we funded this project

This project will provide proof of concept for a novel approach to monitoring fish welfare at scale that is designed to be widely generalisable and translatable across species, habitats, and contexts. This project will improve current strategies for assessing the welfare of wild fish, most notably by avoiding the need for capture, handling, or restraint, and by being entirely non-invasive and non-disruptive. 

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Remote welfare assessment in wildlife using stand-off Raman spectroscopy

Grantees: Jose Gonzalez-Rodriguez and Teresa Romero

Institution: University of Lincoln, UK

Grant amount: $55,519

Grant type: Discovery grants

Focal species: Tufted capuchin monkeys (Sapajus apella)

Conservation status: Least concern

Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior

Research locations: United Kingdom, United States

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Project summary

To enhance the welfare of wild animals, it is crucial to continuously monitor biomarkers and other metrics that can indicate changes in their welfare. However, this presents the challenge of obtaining repeated measurements from individuals, which often involves capture, restraint, and/or handling — procedures that can have significant negative welfare impacts on free-living wild animals. This project aims to develop a stand-off Raman spectroscopy system as a non-invasive tool to assess hormonal levels in wild animals, which can be integrated into welfare assessments. The project also aims to validate under standardized and natural conditions how biomarkers of long-term stress relate to a range of stressors that may affect wild animal welfare. They will use a combination of socio-positive (e.g., play, grooming) and negative (e.g., aggression, screaming) behaviors, indices of social integration, behavioral indicators of anxiety (i.e., self-directed behaviors), and resting behavior, as well as physical indicators of welfare (body condition, instances of injury). 

Why we funded this project

This project builds on a previous WAI-funded project, which validated the use of Raman spectroscopy as an efficient way of testing hormones in hair. It will test whether this method can be used to measure hair cortisol levels from a distance, potentially helping to make the use of this indicator more scalable for long-term monitoring in the field, and reducing the need for distressing or invasive methods for welfare assessment. 

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Validating body posture as a novel marker of well-being in animals

Grantee: Nicola Koyama

Institution: Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom

Grant amount: $9,995

Grant type: Seed grants

Focal species: Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus)

Conservation status: Endangered

Disciplines: Primatology, animal behavior, physiology

Research locations: United Kingdom, Morocco

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Project summary

A few studies on non-human 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. 

Why we funded this project

This project will validate an indicator for assessing welfare that could be relevant across primates, and provide proof of concept for its application in the field.

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An Evaluation of Effective Disturbance Mitigation Measures for European Badgers (Meles meles) Occupying Setts During Forestry Operations

Grantee: Stephen McAuliffe

Institution: University of Brighton and Forest Research, United Kingdom

Grant amount: $10,137

Grant type: Seed grants

Focal species: European badger (Meles meles)

Conservation status: Least concern

Disciplines: Animal behavior, physiology, mammalogy, human-wildlife conflicet

Research locations: United Kingdom

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Project summary

In order to avoid possible disturbance to European badgers (Meles meles), forestry guidance in England states that activities using heavy machinery should be prohibited within 20 meters of active badger setts. However, this commonly adopted mitigation measure has never been scientifically assessed. As a result, it relies on the untested assumption that noise and vibrations do not disturb badgers if a buffer zone of 20 meters is maintained between forestry operations and setts. This research aims to validate that the approved noise and vibration mitigation buffer distances intended to prevent disturbance from anthropogenic activities are effective. Observations of badger behavior will be made in woodland habitats, and fecal cortisol metabolites will be collected for analysis. If changes in behavior and increases in cortisol levels are not found following exposure to forestry noise and vibration greater than 20 meters away, robust evidence will be provided to validate that badger welfare is not being adversely impacted by legally sanctioned forestry activities.

Why we funded this project

This project will help us understand the welfare impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on a common mammal, and could lead to a very near-term intervention to mitigate them if the project results in a recommendation to increase buffer distances. We hope it will set a precedent for testing and improving animal welfare protection methods routinely advised and adopted by many land-based sectors such as forestry, utilities providers, construction and agriculture. 

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The impact of winter food provisioning on the welfare of wild urban hedgehogs

Grantee: Julia Nowack

Institution: Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Grant amount: $29,977

Grant type: Seed grant

Focal species: Western European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

Conservation status: Least concern

Disciplines: Physiology, population ecology, animal behavior

Research locations: United Kingdom

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Project summary

This project will investigate the welfare impacts of supplemental feeding during winter on European hedgehogs. Hedgehogs and other species have adapted to the lack of natural food during the winter by hibernating. Previous research, however, has suggested that hibernation may be interrupted when anthropogenic food sources are available. This project will use biologgers to collect data on winter activity and hibernation, as well as the animals’ use of specially designed feeding stations equipped with miniature thermal imaging devices, which will be used to non-invasively measure eye temperature as an indicator of physiological stress. Welfare assessment will also be supplemented by data on ectoparasite load, body mass, fecal glucocorticoid concentrations, latency to approach a feeding station, and survival rate for adults and juveniles.

Why we funded this project

Food provisioning is a potentially important near-term intervention that is already practiced in some contexts, but usually without data on or a primary interest in its wild animal welfare impacts. We appreciate that this project will use a non-invasive approach with multiple physiological and behavioral indicators to evaluate welfare impacts of supplemental feeding on wild European hedgehogs, including juveniles. The results could have implications for the management of other hibernators with access to supplementary feeding, such as dormice, bears, or chipmunks.

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Field tests of bee welfare

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

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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.

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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), 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

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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.

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