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.
Evaluating ice nests: Effects of a welfare intervention on long-lived insect societies and their guests
Grantee: Christina Kwapich
Institution: University of Central Florida, United States
Project summary
When social organisms are translocated, the destruction of multi-generational nests, loss of familiar territory, and disruption of demography could negatively influence the welfare of society members, future generations, and dependent symbionts. This project will translocate Florida harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex badius) colonies by burying replica nests made from ice. The team will measure risk-averse behaviors in ants across generations, as well as the stability of colony foraging routes, demography, and the re-colonization of symbiont populations. By monitoring ants in freshly transplanted and historically transplanted colonies, the project will provide data on the effects of social disruption on ant societies.
Grantee: Christina Kwapich
Institution: University of Central Florida, United States
Grant amount: $10,000
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: Florida harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex badius) and others
Conservation status: Not evaluated
Disciplines: Entomology, wildlife management
Research location: United States
Project summary
US laws increasingly require that species of interest be removed from land marked for development and translocated to suitable sites. For social organisms, the destruction of multi-generational nests, loss of familiar territory, and disruption of demography could negatively influence the welfare of surviving society members, future generations, and dependent symbionts. This project will translocate a population of Florida harvester ant (Pogonomyrmex badius) colonies by burying replica nests made from ice. The team will measure risk-averse behaviors in ants across generations, as well as the stability of colony foraging routes, demography, and the re-colonization of symbiont populations. By monitoring ants in freshly transplanted and historically transplanted colonies, the project will provide data on the effects of social disruption on long-lived animal societies made up of short-lived members.
Why we funded this project
The “ice nest” technique represents a welfare intervention that could mitigate some of the negative effects of social disruption associated with research or land development. By publishing on the feasibility of the ice nest technique, social insect well-being may be given serious consideration in future environmental mitigation and research protocols.
Assessing behavioral and physiological welfare indicators for the Kashmir loach (Triplophysa kashmirensis)
Grantee: Misba Rehman
Institution: Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, India
Project summary
This project aims to develop and validate non-invasive behavioral and physiological welfare indicators for the Kashmir loach (Triplophysa kashmirensis). The researchers will use underwater cameras to record behaviors like activity, refuge use, foraging, and abnormal swimming patterns. Physiological welfare will be assessed using mucus sampling to measure cortisol concentrations and supplementary indicators including oxidative stress and immune markers. The team will validate indicators by testing their correlation with key water quality parameters. The project aims to establish the first field-based welfare assessment framework for this species and develop a transferable model for wild freshwater fishes inhabiting mountain stream ecosystems.
Grantee: Misba Rehman
Institution: Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, India
Grant amount: $6,500
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: Kashmir Loach (Triplophysa kashmirensis)
Conservation status: Critically endangered
Disciplines: Ichthyology, physiology, animal behavior
Research location: India
Project summary
This project aims to develop and validate non-invasive behavioral and physiological welfare indicators for the Kashmir loach (Triplophysa kashmirensis), a small benthic freshwater fish endemic to Himalayan streams. Fish will be observed under natural stream conditions, with underwater cameras recording behaviors like activity, refuge use, foraging, and abnormal swimming patterns. Physiological welfare will be assessed using mucus sampling to measure cortisol concentrations and supplementary indicators including oxidative stress and immune markers. Indicators will be validated by testing their correlation with key water quality parameters. By integrating behavioral, physiological, and environmental data, the project aims to establish the first field-based welfare assessment framework for this species and develop a transferable model for wild freshwater fishes inhabiting mountain stream ecosystems.
Why we funded this project
This project contributes to wild animal welfare science by developing and validating a field-applicable, non-invasive framework for assessing welfare in free-living freshwater fishes, a group that remains highly understudied in welfare research.
Decoding aquatic mollusk welfare: an investigation of potential physiological and cognitive indicators
Grantee: Laura Webb
Institution: Wageningen University, Netherlnads
Project summary
This project aims to explore physiological and cognitive indicators of welfare in two species of aquatic mollusk: highly mobile cuttlefish (dwarf cuttlefish; Ascarosepion bandense) and sessile (blue) mussels (Mytilus edulis). Valid indicators of mollusk welfare can help us better understand their welfare in changing environmental conditions, such as those associated with climate change. The researchers will explore heart rate variability and respiratory variability as possible physiological indicators, and optimism in a judgment bias test as a cognitive indicator of welfare. Following this, successful metrics can in turn be used to explore the impact of environmental changes on these species' welfare.
Grantee: Laura Webb
Institution: Wageningen University, Netherlands
Grant amount: $10,000
Grant type: Seed grants
Focal species: Bobtail squid (Euprymna berryi), dwarf cuttlefish (Ascarosepion bandense), blue mussel (Mytilus edulis)
Conservation status: Not evaluated
Disciplines: Malacology, cognition, physiology
Research location: Netherlands
Project summary
This project aims to explore physiological and cognitive indicators of welfare in two species of aquatic mollusk: highly mobile cuttlefish (dwarf cuttlefish; Ascarosepion bandense) and sessile (blue) mussels (Mytilus edulis). Valid indicators of mollusk welfare can help us better understand their welfare in changing environmental conditions, such as those associated with climate change. The researchers will explore heart rate variability (mussels) and respiratory variability as possible physiological indicators, and optimism in a judgment bias test as a cognitive indicator of welfare (cuttlefish). Following this, successful metrics can in turn be used to explore the impact of environmental changes on these species' welfare.
Why we funded this project
This project is highly innovative and exploratory in nature, focused on neglected species in welfare research, with sentience accepted for cuttlefish in EU law but not yet for mussels. This work will raise attention to the topic of aquatic mollusk welfare and possible assessment methods in these species.
Does DNA methylation reflect environmental and social adversity?
Grantee: Daniel T. Blumstein
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles
Project summary
This project will investigate the welfare effects of early cumulative adversity in free-living yellow-bellied marmots. It will look for associations between the adversity index and behaviors that indicate general wariness (flight initiation distance, time allocated to vigilance while foraging, the propensity to emit alarm calls while foraging); biomarkers that indicate physiological stress (fecal glucocorticoid levels, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios); and two measures of aging (telomere length and DNA methylation). By quantifying these behavioral indices of wariness and the suite of biomarkers that culminate in telomeres and epigenetic state in pups throughout their first year and in older animals throughout their lives, the project will determine whether adverse environmental experiences have immediate and lasting effects on welfare.
Grantees: Daniel T. Blumstein, Emily Renkey
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles, US
Grant amount: $219,900
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventer)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Population ecology, genetics/genomics, ecological modeling, physiology
Research locations: United States
Project summary
In humans, early cumulative adversity has demonstrable consequences for health, welfare, and longevity. The welfare consequences of early adversity in wild animals is less well understood, possibly reflecting insufficient measures for assessment. Using a recently validated approach to quantifying cumulative adversity in free-living yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer), this project will investigate the welfare effects of early cumulative adversity. It will look for associations between the adversity index and key behaviors that indicate general wariness (flight initiation distance, time allocated to vigilance while foraging, and the propensity to emit alarm calls while foraging), biomarkers that indicate physiological stress (fecal glucocorticoid levels, neutrophil:lymphocyte ratios), and ultimately, two measures of aging (telomere length and DNA methylation). By quantifying these behavioral indices of wariness and the suite of biomarkers that culminate in telomeres and epigenetic state in pups throughout their first year and in older animals throughout their lives, the project will determine whether adverse environmental experiences have immediate and lasting effects on welfare.
Why we funded this project
This project will add welfare to the research portfolio of a long-running study system of a free-living mammal. It will contribute to understanding the validity of biological aging as a welfare indicator by pairing it with other indicators and a comprehensive dataset of the animals’ adverse early-life experiences.
Harnessing machine learning for the non-invasive assessment of wild fish welfare
Grantee: Thomas Pike
Institution: University of Lincoln
Project summary
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 in wild fish. 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 assess 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
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.
Stranding: a blessing or a curse? Testing assumptions of fish welfare during habitat fragmentation
Grantee: Laura R. Stein
Institution: University of Oklahoma
Project summary
Fragmentation of freshwater habitats due to drought and heatwaves poses significant risks to aquatic organisms, particularly small fish, who are often overlooked in animal welfare studies. While fragmentation is generally considered detrimental to fish welfare — leading to stress, reduced social interactions, and increased mortality — there is also potential for positive welfare effects, such as reduced predation pressure or temperature-induced metabolic benefits. This project will use threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as a model system to: 1) validate tests of fish welfare for use in the field (indicators include metabolic scope, cortisol release rate, attention bias, and behavioral expression), and 2) test the hypothesis that fish stranded in fragmented areas experience different welfare outcomes compared to those in connected river regions.
Grantees: Laura R. Stein, Justine Rionach McCarthy
Institution: University of Oklahoma, US
Grant amount: $136,365
Grant type: Challenge grants
Focal species: Threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior, ichthyology
Research locations: United States
Project summary
Fragmentation of freshwater habitats due to drought and heatwaves poses significant risks to aquatic organisms, particularly small fish, who are often overlooked in animal welfare studies. While fragmentation is generally considered detrimental to fish welfare — leading to stress, reduced social interactions, and increased mortality — there is also potential for positive welfare effects, such as reduced predation pressure or temperature-induced metabolic benefits. This project will use threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as a model system to: 1) validate tests of fish welfare for use in the field (indicators include metabolic scope, cortisol release rate, attention bias, and behavioral expression), and 2) test the hypothesis that fish stranded in fragmented areas experience different welfare outcomes compared to those in connected river regions.
Why we funded this project
This project will integrate multiple welfare indicators to evaluate behavioral and physiological responses, contributing to a deeper understanding of how environmental fragmentation impacts individual fish welfare, and developing non-invasive field methods for use on small fish species. This project also supports a Wild Animal Initiative fellow, PhD candidate Rionach McCarthy, who has a strong interest in welfare.
Validating welfare indicators in an arachnid and their relationship to leg loss, a common defense strategy
Grantee: Ignacio Escalante
Institution: University of Illinois, Chicago
Project summary
This project will explore the welfare implications of leg loss, or “autotomy” — a common defensive strategy among animals. The project aims to validate welfare indicators within an understudied group of invertebrates, the Opiliones (Arachnida) in southwestern Costa Rica. Field and lab experiments will be used to test three potential behavioral welfare indicators: 1) movement patterns (approach vs. retreat), 2) speed, and 3) exploratory leg-tapping behaviors (count of leg taps) in response to positively and negatively valanced stimuli. These behaviors will be assessed when individuals are alone, in conspecific aggregations, and in barren versus complex housing. All experiments will include individuals with all legs and those with missing legs to assess how leg condition impacts welfare.
Grantee: Ignacio Escalante
Institution: University of Illinois, Chicago, US
Grant amount: $29,946
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Several species of the arachnid order Opiliones in the genus Prionostemma (family Sclerosomatidae)
Conservation status: Not evaluated
Disciplines: Animal behavior, sentience
Research locations: Costa Rica, United States
Project summary
This project will explore the welfare implications of leg loss, or “autotomy” — a common defensive strategy among animals. The project aims to validate welfare indicators within an understudied group of invertebrates, the Opiliones (Arachnida) in southwestern Costa Rica. Field and lab experiments will be used to test three potential behavioral welfare indicators: 1) movement patterns (approach vs. retreat), 2) speed, and 3) exploratory leg-tapping behaviors (count of leg taps) in response to positively and negatively valanced stimuli. These behaviors will be assessed when individuals are alone, in conspecific aggregations, and in barren versus complex housing. All experiments will include individuals with all legs and those with missing legs to assess how leg condition impacts welfare.
Why we funded this project
If validated, these behaviours will provide a novel set of welfare indicators in an arachnid, a group whose welfare has historically been neglected. The researchers’ previous work also shows that autotomy is very common in this taxon, so this project has the potential to help researchers understand the welfare of a very large number of individuals.
Remote welfare assessment in wildlife using stand-off Raman spectroscopy
Grantees: Jose Gonzalez-Rodriguez and Teresa Romero
Institution: University of Lincoln
Project summary
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).
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
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.
Assessing the Impact of Ectoparasites on Nestling Welfare: Validating Behavioral and Physiological Indicators in Darwin’s Finches
Grantee: Sabine Tebbich
Institution: University of Vienna
Project summary
Nestling finches are particularly vulnerable to blood-sucking ectoparasites because they lack the ability to preen, dust-bathe, or escape infested nests. Invasive parasites are especially detrimental to bird welfare because naïve hosts lack behavioral adaptations such as nest sanitation or preening, and hosts often suffer from exceptionally high parasite loads. This project aims to integrate behavioral (breathing rate and sleep duration) and physiological (haematocrit, baseline corticosterone, oxidative stress and telomere length) indicators to assess the welfare impact of the bloodsucking larvae of the avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi) on nestlings of Galápagos finches.
Grantee: Sabine Tebbich
Institution: University of Vienna, Austria
Grant amount: $42,000
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Green warbler-finches (Certhidae olivacea) and small ground finches (Geospiza fuliginosa)
Conservation status: Least concern
Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior, ornithology, infectious disease
Research locations: Austria, United States, Ecuador
Project summary
Nestling finches are particularly vulnerable to blood-sucking ectoparasites because they lack the ability to preen, dust-bathe, or escape infested nests. Invasive parasites are especially detrimental to bird welfare because naïve hosts lack behavioral adaptations such as nest sanitation or preening, and hosts often suffer from exceptionally high parasite loads. This project aims to integrate behavioral (breathing rate and sleep duration) and physiological (haematocrit, baseline corticosterone, oxidative stress and telomere length) indicators to assess the welfare impact of the bloodsucking larvae of the avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi) on nestlings of Galápagos finches.
Why we funded this project
We appreciate the diversity of welfare indicators this project will bring to bear on an important threat to the welfare of juveniles (an especially abundant and neglected life stage) in this species. By examining correlations between these putative welfare indicators, the project will contribute to understanding their validity, both individually and as a combined index, with potential transferability to other species and research questions.
A quest for a non-lethal method to assess spiders’ welfare in the urban environment
Grantee: Alessandra Costanzo
Institution: University of Milan
Project summary
This pilot project aims to develop welfare indicators for the orb-weaver spider Araneus angulatus, a species commonly found in urban settings. Juveniles will be exposed to urban stressors such as non-lethal mosquito-repellent pesticides, elevated temperatures simulating the Urban Heat Island effect, and changes in food availability. Once they reach adulthood, the effects of these stressors on individuals will be assessed using physiological (biomarkers of oxidative stress, detoxification, neurotoxicity, and energy metabolism) and morphological (body size, mass, and fluctuating asymmetry) indicators, and behavioral endpoints (prey capture rates and web structure). By integrating these measures, the project aims to triangulate spider welfare across multiple domains and improve our understanding of how urban stressors affect individual well-being.
Grantee: Alessandra Costanzo
Institution: University of Milan, Italy
Grant amount: $27,000
Grant type: Discovery grants
Focal species: Orb-weaver (Araneidae) and long-jawed orb-weaver spiders (Tetragnathidae)
Conservation status: n/a
Disciplines: Physiology, animal behavior
Research locations: Italy
Project summary
Urban areas are the fastest-growing habitat type worldwide, causing significant loss of other types of habitats and biodiversity declines, while also potentially reducing the welfare of some individual animals through sublethal stress. While urban wildlife research has mainly focused on charismatic species like birds and pollinators, less attention has been given to neglected taxa such as spiders. This pilot project aims to develop welfare indicators for the orb-weaver spider Araneus angulatus, a species commonly found in urban settings. Juveniles will be exposed to urban stressors such as non-lethal mosquito-repellent pesticides, elevated temperatures simulating the Urban Heat Island effect, and changes in food availability. Once they reach adulthood, the effects of these stressors on individuals will be assessed using physiological (biomarkers of oxidative stress, detoxification, neurotoxicity, and energy metabolism) and morphological (body size, mass, and fluctuating asymmetry) indicators, and behavioral endpoints (prey capture rates and web structure). By integrating these measures, the project aims to triangulate spider welfare across multiple domains and improve our understanding of how urban stressors affect individual well-being.
Why we funded this project
This project advances wild animal welfare science by introducing a multi-indicator framework for assessing welfare in an arachnid, a taxonomic group largely neglected in welfare research.