Wild Animal Initiative has selected 13 new research projects to receive a total of $727,658 in grants, adding to the body of ongoing and completed scientific research we have funded.
Our Grants Program funds academic research on high-priority questions in wild animal welfare science. This year, after receiving 400 expressions of interest, we selected grantees based on how well their projects meet our selection criteria and address priority topics in the field of wild animal welfare science.
Projects in this round explore the welfare of urban rats, crickets, coyotes, hermit crabs, minnows, and many more. Read summaries of each project on our blog.
I love that you are thinking about this; it's one of my favorite topics too! I just wanted to chime in and say Wild Animal Initiative is doing a lot more re: urban wild animals than just the one pigeon study you referenced. All 80+ research projects we've funded are listed here, and as you scroll through you will realize the line between "urban" and "not" is sometimes clear, but other times very blurry. For example, some projects specifically investigate the welfare of animals in an urban environment — that's a clear yes. But many other projects investigate the welfare of animals that often live in urban environments, even if the study itself is not focused on the urban context. Those cases are relevant, because there are just so many research questions that need to be answered about species and about environments before we can confidently advocate for specific interventions.
We're also in the middle of a field study attempting to validate vocalizations as indicators of welfare in urban house sparrows. But we don't explicitly frame this as an "urban" study because the goal is to identify indicators of welfare that would be relevant to multiple species in multiple environments.
Just a few examples of how a lot of work can get done for urban wild animals without labeling it as such.
The paper first establishes a baseline for the representation of veterinarians in wildlife research. Along with Michaël, 14 students from the UniLaSalle Veterinary College in France examined the educational backgrounds of the authors of more than 5,000 articles published in animal behavior, conservation, ecology, and physiology over the last 10 years. They found that the representation of veterinarians was modest in well-established wildlife research disciplines, with only 3% of articles having at least one author with veterinary training.
Following the same procedure, they also examined the representation of veterinarians in the emerging field of wild animal welfare science. They found that almost half of wild animal welfare articles in animal welfare journals included at least one veterinary author. This high representation may be a reflection of veterinary students’ early interests in animal welfare and wildlife, of the role of animal welfare in veterinary education, and of veterinarians’ belief that wild animal welfare research has practical applicability. (Note that these findings and interpretations should be read cautiously, though, since the number of wild animal welfare articles found was relatively low.)
Michael says he would have been delighted to come across a paper like this when he was a young veterinary student interested in both research and wild animals. Seeing how feasible it is for veterinarians to get involved in wildlife research would have given him confidence to take my career in an unconventional direction, which is a key part of field-building.
Despite some limitations, the article also suggests that veterinarians may be better prepared to conduct research in wild animal welfare than in any other wildlife research discipline. But if veterinarians are to come to view wild animal welfare research as a safe professional pathway, the emerging field of wild animal welfare science will need to offer them more career opportunities. And that will require growth in the field — in its community, in its activities, in its recognition, and in the resources at its disposal.
Building a scientific field for wild animal welfare science isn't just about publishing papers or funding research (though we did plenty of both last year). It's about the connections that form when scientists meet, collaborate, and champion a shared vision. In 2025, we watched those connections multiply in exciting ways.
Here's a glimpse of what supporters in the EA community helped make possible:
15 research grants awarded across 26 countries — including our first projects in Costa Rica, Italy, Serbia, and Tanzania
12 scientific conferences attended, sparking new collaborations and introducing more researchers to wild animal welfare science
Completion of fieldwork on our house sparrow project and first associated paper published
Events spotlighting wild animal welfare organized independently by our collaborators — a sign that the field is taking on a life of its own
Inside the report, you'll find data, narratives, and visualizations that provide further insight on our field-building strategy and success so far.
In Wild Animal Initiative's latest call for proposals, we solicited ideas for projects that explore how variation in environmental conditions interacts with wild animal welfare, how welfare variation correlates with mortality risk, and other priority research topics. We received 401 expressions of interest, one of the highest levels of interest we’ve seen in funding for wild animal welfare research since we began our Grants Program in 2021.
Following intensive internal review, we invited 53 applicants to submit full grant proposals. Our Science Team and external review panel are currently reviewing these to select the finalists. Projects are evaluated according to selection criteria that include cost-effectiveness, potential impact, and neglectedness of the topic. We’re excited to share details about the newly funded projects with you this summer!
This is interesting, Niki, thanks! I particularly appreciate and agree with what you wrote about whales typically being considered and managed from a conservation perspective, which can often be at odds with a suffering/welfare perspective.
If you haven't already seen it, you might like to read this blog post Wild Animal Initiative published last year: AI is learning to talk to wild animals. What could that mean for their welfare? Please note some of the terms in that blog post are less technical than they could be, because we were optimizing headlines etc. for broad SEO rather than technicality.
Wild Animal Initiative attended a wild animal welfare research symposium organized by our grantees at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in the UK last month. The symposium included talks by WAI’s Science Team and grantees, interactive discussions, and networking opportunities. One of the researchers on our team also gave a lecture to 100 LJMU undergraduate students in animal behavior, wildlife management, and zoology.
This was the first time our grantees independently organized an event like this — a milestone that reflects the growth of the field. What began as funding for a single scientist’s research at LJMU is growing into a hub for researchers who are enthusiastic about wild animal welfare science and eager to adopt leading roles.
Hi Tristan, I'm on staff with Wild Animal Initiative and just wanted to say I really appreciate all of your thoughtfulness in considering where to give, as well as thank you for ultimately choosing WAI as one of the recipients. Totally agree that just "getting the ball rolling" is one of the biggest challenges right now, but we're really glad to see so much positive response from the scientific community so far.
It's not that the products currently available fall short in the sense that we believe they definitely don't work — they do hold a lot of promise. But the results of the pilot projects that have been done so far do not provide sufficient data for us to know exactly how to use them on a wide scale as a replacement for rodenticides, nor is there sufficient data yet about their effects on welfare. So there are still some knowledge gaps that require robust, third-party research to identify the most effective products; the most effective ways to apply them to large, wild populations; and how to measure their effects on welfare. It's possible that the Open Innovation competition will lead to some of those questions being answered for established products, or result in a new product for which some of those questions are answered in the early R&D stages.
Wild Animal Initiative has selected 13 new research projects to receive a total of $727,658 in grants, adding to the body of ongoing and completed scientific research we have funded.
Our Grants Program funds academic research on high-priority questions in wild animal welfare science. This year, after receiving 400 expressions of interest, we selected grantees based on how well their projects meet our selection criteria and address priority topics in the field of wild animal welfare science.
Projects in this round explore the welfare of urban rats, crickets, coyotes, hermit crabs, minnows, and many more. Read summaries of each project on our blog.
Maybe @Vasco Grilo🔸 can help!
I love that you are thinking about this; it's one of my favorite topics too! I just wanted to chime in and say Wild Animal Initiative is doing a lot more re: urban wild animals than just the one pigeon study you referenced. All 80+ research projects we've funded are listed here, and as you scroll through you will realize the line between "urban" and "not" is sometimes clear, but other times very blurry. For example, some projects specifically investigate the welfare of animals in an urban environment — that's a clear yes. But many other projects investigate the welfare of animals that often live in urban environments, even if the study itself is not focused on the urban context. Those cases are relevant, because there are just so many research questions that need to be answered about species and about environments before we can confidently advocate for specific interventions.
We're also in the middle of a field study attempting to validate vocalizations as indicators of welfare in urban house sparrows. But we don't explicitly frame this as an "urban" study because the goal is to identify indicators of welfare that would be relevant to multiple species in multiple environments.
Just a few examples of how a lot of work can get done for urban wild animals without labeling it as such.
Wild Animal Initiative’s latest research on the representation of veterinarians in wildlife research, with a special focus on wild animal welfare science, was published in Research in Veterinary Science. The lead author is WAI Research Manager Michaël Beaulieu.
The paper first establishes a baseline for the representation of veterinarians in wildlife research. Along with Michaël, 14 students from the UniLaSalle Veterinary College in France examined the educational backgrounds of the authors of more than 5,000 articles published in animal behavior, conservation, ecology, and physiology over the last 10 years. They found that the representation of veterinarians was modest in well-established wildlife research disciplines, with only 3% of articles having at least one author with veterinary training.
Following the same procedure, they also examined the representation of veterinarians in the emerging field of wild animal welfare science. They found that almost half of wild animal welfare articles in animal welfare journals included at least one veterinary author. This high representation may be a reflection of veterinary students’ early interests in animal welfare and wildlife, of the role of animal welfare in veterinary education, and of veterinarians’ belief that wild animal welfare research has practical applicability. (Note that these findings and interpretations should be read cautiously, though, since the number of wild animal welfare articles found was relatively low.)
Michael says he would have been delighted to come across a paper like this when he was a young veterinary student interested in both research and wild animals. Seeing how feasible it is for veterinarians to get involved in wildlife research would have given him confidence to take my career in an unconventional direction, which is a key part of field-building.
Despite some limitations, the article also suggests that veterinarians may be better prepared to conduct research in wild animal welfare than in any other wildlife research discipline. But if veterinarians are to come to view wild animal welfare research as a safe professional pathway, the emerging field of wild animal welfare science will need to offer them more career opportunities. And that will require growth in the field — in its community, in its activities, in its recognition, and in the resources at its disposal.
Wild Animal Initiative has published its 2025 annual report.
Building a scientific field for wild animal welfare science isn't just about publishing papers or funding research (though we did plenty of both last year). It's about the connections that form when scientists meet, collaborate, and champion a shared vision. In 2025, we watched those connections multiply in exciting ways.
Here's a glimpse of what supporters in the EA community helped make possible:
Inside the report, you'll find data, narratives, and visualizations that provide further insight on our field-building strategy and success so far.
In Wild Animal Initiative's latest call for proposals, we solicited ideas for projects that explore how variation in environmental conditions interacts with wild animal welfare, how welfare variation correlates with mortality risk, and other priority research topics. We received 401 expressions of interest, one of the highest levels of interest we’ve seen in funding for wild animal welfare research since we began our Grants Program in 2021.
Following intensive internal review, we invited 53 applicants to submit full grant proposals. Our Science Team and external review panel are currently reviewing these to select the finalists. Projects are evaluated according to selection criteria that include cost-effectiveness, potential impact, and neglectedness of the topic. We’re excited to share details about the newly funded projects with you this summer!
This is interesting, Niki, thanks! I particularly appreciate and agree with what you wrote about whales typically being considered and managed from a conservation perspective, which can often be at odds with a suffering/welfare perspective.
If you haven't already seen it, you might like to read this blog post Wild Animal Initiative published last year: AI is learning to talk to wild animals. What could that mean for their welfare? Please note some of the terms in that blog post are less technical than they could be, because we were optimizing headlines etc. for broad SEO rather than technicality.
Wild Animal Initiative attended a wild animal welfare research symposium organized by our grantees at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) in the UK last month. The symposium included talks by WAI’s Science Team and grantees, interactive discussions, and networking opportunities. One of the researchers on our team also gave a lecture to 100 LJMU undergraduate students in animal behavior, wildlife management, and zoology.
This was the first time our grantees independently organized an event like this — a milestone that reflects the growth of the field. What began as funding for a single scientist’s research at LJMU is growing into a hub for researchers who are enthusiastic about wild animal welfare science and eager to adopt leading roles.
Hi Tristan, I'm on staff with Wild Animal Initiative and just wanted to say I really appreciate all of your thoughtfulness in considering where to give, as well as thank you for ultimately choosing WAI as one of the recipients. Totally agree that just "getting the ball rolling" is one of the biggest challenges right now, but we're really glad to see so much positive response from the scientific community so far.
It's not that the products currently available fall short in the sense that we believe they definitely don't work — they do hold a lot of promise. But the results of the pilot projects that have been done so far do not provide sufficient data for us to know exactly how to use them on a wide scale as a replacement for rodenticides, nor is there sufficient data yet about their effects on welfare. So there are still some knowledge gaps that require robust, third-party research to identify the most effective products; the most effective ways to apply them to large, wild populations; and how to measure their effects on welfare. It's possible that the Open Innovation competition will lead to some of those questions being answered for established products, or result in a new product for which some of those questions are answered in the early R&D stages.