Wild Animal Initiative

Remotely closing trap for targeted songbird capture 🪶🧪

@dr-bff.bsky.social shares how she developed this bycatch-eliminating trap on @fieldornith.bsky.social's blog.

Learn more about the House Sparrow project that Bonnie designed this trap for: www.wildanimalinitiative.org/blog/house-s...

‘What I cared about all along’: How Researcher Bonnie Flint’s interdisciplinary background led her to wild animal welfare — Wild Animal Initiative February 17, 2026 As an undergraduate biology student at Rice University, Researcher & Education Specialist Bonnie Flint was assigned a project: Find some wild animals, observe them for an hour…

Watching banded mongooses suffer from tuberculosis was a turning point for @dr-bff.bsky.social. Now, wild animal welfare research has led her to a whole field of questions that ecology isn't asking.

🗓️ One week left to apply to be our Services Coordinator!

If you're a lab manager, academic program or event coordinator, or early-career researcher passionate about building active and inclusive research communities, we'd love to hear from you.

WAI joins the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Welfare of Animals Involved in Research — Wild Animal Initiative In June 2025, Wild Animal Initiative became a formal member of the Roundtable on Science and Welfare of Animals Involved in Research, housed within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,…

In 2025, Wild Animal Initiative became a member of the BAHSCR's Roundtable on Science and Welfare of Animals Involved in Research. We're excited about the opportunities this partnership creates 👇️

buff.ly/6aYalMq

Alternative science careers in the nonprofit sector — Wild Animal Initiative With universities and federal science agencies facing upheaval and instability, scientific nonprofits offer a secure and mission-driven alternative career path for researchers and support staff.

This is a time of upheaval in the scientific community.

If you’re looking for ways to stay on track in your scientific career without relying on opportunities in government or academia, here are some ideas — including a role that’s open right now at Wild Animal Initiative.

Careers: Services Coordinator 2026 — Wild Animal Initiative Work at Wild Animal Initiative

WAI is hiring! If you know anyone who's great at building communities, coordinating programs, & supporting researchers—but doesn't want to be a PI themselves—send them our way. Remote, mission-driven, & a chance to help build a growing scientific field.

www.wildanimalinitiative.org/services-coo...

Careers: Services Coordinator 2026 — Wild Animal Initiative Work at Wild Animal Initiative

📢 We're hiring! 📢

We're looking for a Services Coordinator to support our research community, managing community platforms and coordinating programs and events.

Learn more and apply by March 2: www.wildanimalinitiative.org/services-coo...

🎓Training School: Phylogenetic Study of Affective States Across Species

Join us in Thessaloniki, Greece (April 14-15) with experts Liz Paul, Mike Mendl, & László Garamszegi.

💰 16 fully-funded places available!

Apply by Feb 23: 🔗 forms.office.com/e/U9jSVsH09S

Wild animal welfare postdoc opportunity! 👇

Don't be put off by the ad saying "UK Students only" - a limited number of scholarships are available for international candidates. So please apply!

Validation and efficacy of faecal glucocorticoid metabolites as indicators of animal welfare — Wild Animal Initiative Grantee: Miriam Zemanova Institutions: University of Fribourg, Animalfree Research, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics Project summary Fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) may be a suitable…

The Method Finder and 3rswildlife.info were developed by @miriamzemanova.bsky.social, a fantastic researcher supporting ethical research on wild animals.

We're proud to support Miriam's research on measuring stress levels using fecal glucocorticoids. www.wildanimalinitiative.org/grantees/mir...

METHOD FINDER | 3Rs Principles In Wildlife Research Examples of non-invasive research methods suitable for detection of wildlife species.

🧪🐠 New tool for #wildlife researchers: the Method Finder helps you find non-invasive or minimally invasive methods for your study in #wildlife #biology, #ecology, or #conservation.

3rswildlife.info/method-finder/

We're welcoming Yolanda Eisenstein to our board of directors.

Yolanda has dedicated her career in law to speaking up for and protecting animals. We're so grateful that Yolanda is now applying her expertise to guiding our work at Wild Animal Initiative.

Join our Research Community — Wild Animal Initiative Become a member of our community if you would like to engage researchers and practitioners around the world interested in understanding and improving the lives of animals in the wild.

Not a member of our research community yet? Join an international network of 500+ wild animal welfare researchers and practitioners. 🧪

We're delighted to welcome @lizspecht.bsky.social to our board of directors!

Liz's experience working at the forefront of efforts to accelerate progress in biotechnology makes her a valuable addition to our board.

Wild animal welfare research: 2025 — Wild Animal Initiative January 5, 2026 Wild Animal Initiative supports research in wild animal welfare science to catalyze activity in the field and ensure that as it grows, the knowledge the field produces will help…

In case you missed it: Check out our recap of the most exciting wild animal welfare research published in 2025. 🧪🐢

#animalwelfare #research #science #wildlife

Huge thanks to @wildanimalinitv.bsky.social and @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding! #animalwelfare #wildlife #animalbehaviour #conservation

New paper out in @animalecology.bsky.social: Social information about others' affective states in a human-altered world. Link: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
With @jackdawjordan.bsky.social, @margauxvanhussel.bsky.social, Mike Mendl, and @cornishjackdaws.bsky.social

Meet our new board member, Jake Wilson!

Jake is an expert in nonprofit finance, and brings years of experience working to help animals.

Jake is one of three new members we're welcoming to our board. We're thrilled to have his support in our mission to accelerate science that helps wild animals.

Evolving alongside the field: Strategy Researcher Simon Eckerström Liedholm’s path to wild animal welfare science — Wild Animal Initiative Wild Animal Initiative produces and supports wild animal welfare research, but it’s not just research for research’s sake. We see this work fitting into a bigger picture of helping the field of wild…

Our Strategy Researcher, @simonliedholm.bsky.social, has never shied away from exploring difficult or unusual questions. Read about his path to WAI and wild animal welfare science 👇

The use of a severity index to analyse impact of bacterial zoonoses on welfare of wildlife populations | Animal Welfare | Cambridge Core The use of a severity index to analyse impact of bacterial zoonoses on welfare of wildlife populations - Volume 34

🦠 We know that zoonoses can cause population declines, but how do pathogens impact the welfare of wild animals?

📉 Hirst & Halsey created a severity index that can be used to better understand these impacts.

🧪 Read the open-access paper: buff.ly/yqOnslY

#wildlife #animalwelfare

Considering affective state as a central component of the response of animals to environmental changes Abstract. Current environmental changes are often considered as negatively impacting the affective state of animals. Yet, the interplay between environment

In a new paper in Biology Letters, WAI's @meekl.bsky.social examines the overlooked relationship between affective state and wild animals' responses to environmental change. 🧪

Read the open access paper here: buff.ly/BOG8woU

@royalsocietypublishing.org
#paper #research #wildlife #animalwelfare

Wild animal welfare research: 2025 — Wild Animal Initiative January 5, 2026 Wild Animal Initiative supports research in wild animal welfare science to catalyze activity in the field and ensure that as it grows, the knowledge the field produces will help…

New blog post: 2025 research highlights 🧪

Last year, wild animal welfare researchers broke new ground on:
🦠 Understanding the welfare impacts of zoonotic diseases
🔬 Measuring welfare markers in the wild
🦝 The ethics of wildlife rehabilitation

Learn more:

It was wonderful to be invited to @ljmuofficial.bsky.social recently to take part in their symposium on wild #animalwelfare. 🐦‍⬛

Fantastic to hear from WAI grantees about a range of projects on wild birds, great crested newts, and leveraging new technologies to study welfare.

(Our account is run by me, @shannonwrites.bsky.social — I'm a science communicator).

Wild Animal Initiative

Hello Andrew, would you be able to add us to this feed? We do research and offer grants in wild animal welfare science. We'll share new papers and opportunities/info that might be of interest to researchers on the feed. www.wildanimalinitiative.org

Subscribe to monthly email newsletter — Wild Animal Initiative Sign up to receive updates about Wild Animal Initiative and the field of wild animal welfare science.

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date with monthly highlights from Wild Animal Initiative.

Considering affective state as a central component of the response of animals to environmental changes Abstract. Current environmental changes are often considered as negatively impacting the affective state of animals. Yet, the interplay between environment

2026. Considering affective state as a central component of the response of animals to environmental changes #AnimalWelfare url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... via @royalsocietypublishing.org

Read the full opinion paper by our Research Manager, Michaël Beaulieu, open access in Biology Letters: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...

(And may we draw your attention to the penguin photo on the cover of the issue — taken by Michaël! 🐧 📷 )

🧵 11/11

Crucially, to examine these responses as realistically as possible, future studies should provide animals with the freedom to choose between options associated with different affective values, as is observed in the wild.

🧵 10/11