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.
Welfare monitoring 2.0: steroid profiling in wildlife hair
Grantee: Lynn Vanhaecke
Institutions: Ghent University and Institute for Research and Innovation in Health
Project summary
Hair hormone measurement is becoming a widely-used tool to measure welfare in wild mammals because it can differentiate acute adaptive stress responses from chronic maladaptive ones (distress). This project aims to address knowledge gaps that remain about steroid incorporation into hair. Researchers will identify which steroid hormones increase in concentration in response to chronic stress, and explore how to address the potential for overestimated glucocorticoid levels.
Grantee: Lynn Vanhaecke
Institutions: Ghent University, Germany, and Institute for Research and Innovation in Health, Portugal
Project start date: October 2024
Grant amount: $49,325
Grant type: Small grants
Focal species: Mammals
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Animal welfare science, physiology
Research locations: Germany and Portugal
Project summary
Hair hormone measurement is becoming a widely-used tool to measure welfare in wild mammals because it can differentiate acute adaptive stress responses from chronic maladaptive ones (distress). This project aims to address knowledge gaps that remain about steroid incorporation into hair. Researchers will identify which steroid hormones increase in concentration in response to chronic stress, and explore how to address the potential for overestimated glucocorticoid levels.
Why we funded this project
Wildlife management decisions affecting animal welfare increasingly rely on hormone measurements. Robustness and validation are therefore urgent priorities, both for the credibility of welfare assessments and for the animals affected.