Using a scientific approach

TO ENHANCE ANIMAL WELFARE

Video credit: ABYSS

Photo credit: Isabella Clegg

Animal welfare is an emerging topic of global concern.

Humans impact the welfare of both captive and wild animals. Welfare science provides a toolkit of objective measures that can be used to assess and improve welfare. Our group of welfare experts are able to apply these innovative tools where animal welfare questions are being raised and develop sustainable, evidence-based management plans.

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PROJECTS

We provide expertise regarding captive and wild animal welfare, including the species-specific Cetacean Welfare Assessment and our Zoo-Well Assessment series. Check out our IdeaBox enrichment project too!

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NEWS

See our latest media releases, scientific publications and workshops.

SOCIAL

🎶 🐦 On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a Packing Puzzle! 🐦 🎶

🌟 Packing Puzzle 🌟

Idea: This one is really simple, but we wanted to highlight before the holiday season as there will be increased opportunities to save old packaging! In the video Rhiannon describes how she gives it to her gorgeous muscovy.

Species: Any who are safe to be left with the packaging material in case of accidental ingestion

How to source: You can find different animal-safe packaging in many places - this is called molded pulp packaging and is compostable once used. It commonly holds electronic and appliance goods so it may be worth speaking to local stores to see if they also have regular supplies of unwanted packaging. Egg cartons can be used as an alternative too, although slightly less of a puzzle.

Varying the item: The packing puzzle could be left on the floor, hung, or attached to other enclosure items. Multiple trays could be attached together to increase complexity.

Goal Behaviour: Birds have to manipulate item and be precise with pecking action to access small food rewards hidden inside.

🎶 🐦 On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a Disc Puzzle Feeder! 🐦 🎶

🌟 Disc Puzzle Feeder🌟

Idea: The Disc Puzzle challenges birds to pull out cardboard discs from a vertical tube to access hidden food inside.

Species: Tested with ground-foraging raptors such as caracaras, but also adaptable for parrots or corvids.

How to build: Cut slots along a cardboard tube, insert circular discs with string handles, and place treats between them. Suspend or secure the tube within the enclosure.

Behaviour to expect: Birds will pull, tug, and manipulate the discs, exercising cognitive skills and natural foraging instincts.

📸 Credit: Saskia Verbruggen, Roundeurope Animal Training & Landgoed Hoenderdaell.

🎶 🐦 On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: Hole-y Branches! 🐦 🎶

🌟 Hole-y Branches 🌟

Idea: This idea comes from TheCreatureComforts on Etsy

Species: Tested with garden birds, but could be applicable to many of them

How to source: Available from several places online (see link below or dm us), but could be easily sourced responsibly. The seller lists that the collected logs have been air-dried slowly, then sealed with an animal-safe finish to reduce degradation. The seller uses birch, cherry, oak and black walnut, and uses already fallen brances. The more perches on the side, the better!

Plugs: Suet plugs have been used with this item for garden birds, but in zoo settings wooden plugs could be used that are shaped to fit in the holes, perhaps with a bit of rope attached, and would increase the difficulty of access food. The plugs could be hollow with a hole to slowly release food, or could simply be blocking access to food placed deeper within the hanging branch.

Goal Behaviour: Birds perch on hanging branch to access the food, or reach up from the ground. If using suet or other plugs for the holes, the birds will need to pull out the plug and then access the food inside the plugs, or food stashed behind the plugs in the branch.

📸 Credit: TheCreatureComforts (Etsy), https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1100297995/reclaimed-log-suet-feeder-birch-oak (Not a paid advertising collaboration, just sharing a great enrichment idea!)

🎶 🐦 On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a Dandelion Feeder! 🐦 🎶

🌟 Dandelion Feeder🌟

Idea: This is a pre-fabricated feeder involving a sphere with a hole to release feed, mounted on a coiled stalk, secured to the ground

Species: Tested with muscovies and chickens, but also designed for domestic birds and smaller zoo birds (larger birds might need more robust materials)

How to install: Available from several places online (see link below or dm us), and can be dug into the ground or even attached horizontally to enclosure mesh if a more permanent attachment is needed. Could increase or decrease the difficulty of aquiring the food by making more holes, smaller holes, and changing the accessibility of the dandelion from the ground. Check the item regularly to ensure the platic sphere isn't getting cracked.

Goal Behaviour: Birds will peck at the sphere to move it around and cause food items to fall out of the hole

Need your enrichment to look naturalistic? This item could be easily painted, styled or covered with natural materials to blend into enclosure.

📸 Credit: Moyardow, https://a.co/d/ha1H60e (Not a paid advertising collaboration, just sharing a great enrichment idea!)

🎶 🐦 On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a Flap Feeder! 🐦 🎶

🌟 Flap Feeder🌟

Idea: The Flap Feeder encourages birds to lift hinged flaps to reach food hidden inside a PVC tube, combining problem-solving with physical challenge.

Species: Originally built for macaws but suitable for other parrots or raptors that enjoy problem-solving.

How to build: Cut a PVC tube to length, glue end caps in place, saw out sections to create flaps and sand down, and reattach them with small hinges. Secure to the aviary with carabiners or hooks.

Goal Behaviour: Birds will lift, peck, and test the flaps, and will develop motor skills to balance and access the harder-to-reach flaps.

Need your enrichment to look naturalistic? This item could be easily painted, styled or covered with natural materials to blend into enclosure.

One thing to watch is that the birds don't nibble the PVC pipe too much as you can see starting to happen in the video. Covering the pipe with other materials would help mitigate this.

📸 Credit: Saskia Verbruggen, Roundeurope Animal Training & Landgoed Hoenderdaell.

🎶 🐦 On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me: Kerplunk! 🐦 🎶

🌟 Kerplunk🌟

Idea: The Kerplunk device mimics the classic childhood game, and here sticks are slotted through holes drilled into a tube structure to trap food items, where the birds can remove the sticks to access the reward

Species: Originally built for emu and cassowaries but suitable for many species, and could be used to encourage foraging for nest material as well

How to build: Cut a PVC tube to length, drill holes of a size to match the stick type or nesting material that you are using. The feeder could be hanging or on the ground, and food items are trapped in the middle by the sticks. This item could be varied in many ways, such as with different thicknesses of sticks, different shapes of tubes or balls, capped or uncapped on one end of the tube, and whether the item is hanging or free-moving on the ground.

Goal Behaviour: Birds investigate and remove the sticks one by one to release the food items. Could also provide nest material as part of the device to encourage problem-solving for nest-builders.

Thank you to @SydneyZoo for sharing this idea, which will soon be on the IdeaBox platform! The team said the emu got the hang of removing the sticks and may or may not have realised this was releasing the food reward - hopefully she will learn the cause and effect link with repeated exposure to the item!

📸 Credit: Australiana Team, @thesydneyzoo, Australia

🎶 🐦 On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me: a Busy Board for Birds! 🐦 🎶

🌟 Busy Board for Birds🌟
Idea: The Busy Board is a “fidget board” for birds, offering tactile and visual stimulation through a mix of textures and movable parts.

Species: Ideal for intelligent species such as caracaras, corvids, or parrots who enjoy manipulating objects.

How to build: Attach safe, non-toxic items (like beads, bells, chains, and mirrors) onto a large board using screws or ties. Fix the board securely to the aviary or let it rest flat on the ground. Ideally different items can move position on the board to promote variability and exploration.

Goal behaviours: Birds will peck, pull, and investigate — using their curiosity and dexterity to explore new objects, building confidence and reducing boredom.

📸 Credit: Saskia Verbruggen, Roundeurope Animal Training & Landgoed Hoenderdaell.

🎶 🍐 🐦 On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree 🐦 🍐 🎶 This enrichment device was tested with vultures but could definitely be used with partridges and other Galliformes.

🌟 Tube Box Enrichment 🌟
Idea: The Tube Box is a simple foraging and cognitive enrichment tool made from a crate filled with cardboard or PVC tubes of different sizes. Food or enrichment items are hidden inside the tubes, encouraging birds to explore and problem-solve.

Species: Designed for vultures, but adaptable for any curious bird that enjoys investigating and foraging.

How to build: Cut tubes of various diameters, place them snugly in a crate or box, and drop food or toys inside a few tubes. If meat items are used, make sure cleaning protocols can be applied. Can also construct with PVC and glue if you want a permanent version, and even better if you can find a way to secure the plastic tubes in place but where they are also able to swap positions to increase variability.

Goal behaviours: Birds will peck, nudge, and explore the tubes, using their beaks and problem-solving skills to retrieve items, thereby encouraging natural foraging behaviour.

We love this idea because anyone could make it, even with zero budget, and it will still promote exploration and problem-solving.

📸 Credit: Saskia Verbruggen, Roundeurope Animal Training & Landgoed Hoenderdaell.

Did you know that pinnipeds use their vibrissae (whiskers) to track their prey, and a study showed they can follow the path of a fish through the water up to 30 minutes after it’s gone?

In a remarkable study, a trained harbour seal was able to track the exact route of a fish that had been pulled through its pool on a string, long after the fish was removed. The seal used only its vibrissae to detect the faint water movements left behind.

These specialised whiskers are extraordinarily sensitive and are capable of picking up minute hydrodynamic trails created by moving objects. This allows pinnipeds to locate prey in dark or turbid water, effectively “seeing” with touch.

This research beautifully demonstrates how finely tuned marine mammal sensory systems are to their environments, and underscores the importance of providing conditions in human care that allow animals to express such natural sensory behaviours. Check out our Ideabox enrichment catalogue for pinnipeds on our website - it's free to access and has plenty of problem-solving enrichment ideas, including a fish on a string exercise!

📖 Reference: Dehnhardt, G., Mauck, B., & Bleckmann, H. (2001). Hydrodynamic trail-following in harbour seals (Phoca vitulina). Science, 293(5527), 102–104.

"Sound on!! 🔊

Why do wolves howl?

Wolves howl to stay connected across their environment: it’s their way of keeping the pack together, coordinating hunts, and defending territory. But there’s more to it than just communicating physical distance, and their songs can carry more nuanced information.

For example, each wolf has a distinctive voice, and pack members can recognise who is howling just by the sound. Studies even show that wolves howl more intensely when a close social partner is missing, suggesting it’s not just about logistics, but emotional state and social bonds as well."

How can we build resilience in zoo and other animals under managed care?

At the top level, resilience is built through everyday management practices that promote agency, adaptability, and positive social experiences.

More specifically, building resilience can involve promoting:
• Cognitive enrichment (develops problem-solving and flexibility, e.g. Puzzle feeders, sensory challenges)
• Agency and control (reduces helplessness, enhances predictability, e.g. autonomous enrichment, voluntary participation in training)
• Appropriate challenge (trains recovery from stress, e.g. gradual exposure to novelty, brief food withholding for some species)
• Social buffering (provides emotional support, e.g. stable, affiliative social groups
• Environmental complexity (stimulates exploration and autonomy, e.g. multi-zone habitats, strategic enrichment design)

Measuring resilience may be more straightforward than assessing welfare, in that it involves tracking the stress response and monitoring the return to baseline.

In summary, resilience seems to be a very useful concept to consider in terms of improving welfare through providing zoo animals with 'small' stressors that they have the capacity to overcome. We'll keep exploring this here and on our Learning platform with our Members, and would love to hear your thoughts.

If you haven't already, check out the Whitham and Miller review on this topic (J. Zool. Bot. Gard. 2025, 6(3), 48).

Following on from the last post on resilience and animal welfare, now we'll explore how the concepts of resilience and welfare align or differ i.e. do animals in better welfare always have better resilience, and vice versa?

Animal welfare generally refers to an animal’s current state of being - the balance of affective states, how it is coping with its environment. It is multidimensional and can fluctuate relatively easily depending on internal and external factors.

Resilience, by contrast, is about capacity i.e. the ability of an animal to remain minimally affected by challenges and to recover quickly from them.

Good welfare can clearly foster resilience, and vice versa. Animals with positive affective states, enriched environments, and strong social bonds tend to be better equipped to cope with future stressors. And being able to deal with manageable stressors can increase positive affect, social bonds and therefore improve welfare.

But where do the concepts differ? An animal can experience good welfare but low resilience e.g. an animal kept in a very stable, comfortable environment might show excellent welfare indicators, until the environment changes. Without prior exposure to manageable challenges, it may lack coping flexibility and show strong negative reactions to stress.

In addition, an animal can appear resilient but not necessarily have good welfare. Some animals may cope (e.g., through physiological adaptation) while still experiencing chronic stress or negative affective states. High resilience, in this sense, doesn’t always equal positive welfare, especially if resilience comes at biological cost.

So to summarise, ""Welfare"" is the state now; ""Resilience"" is the capacity for tomorrow. In the next post, we'll look at practical approaches to building resilience in zoo animals. We'd recommend reading Whitham and Miller's recent review on this topic (published in J. Zool. Bot. Gard. 2025, 6(3), 48).

What do we mean when we say an animal has resilience? Can - and should - we help animals in our care be more resilient?

We attended an interesting seminar hosted by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums a few weeks ago on resilience in zoo animals, and how it links to welfare. Jessica Whitham, a well-established welfare scientist who has been involved in many key publications on zoo welfare, did a great job of presenting the topic and pointed us to her and Lance Miller's recent review on the topic (published in J. Zool. Bot. Gard. 2025, 6(3), 48).

Resilience was defined here as ""the capacity of the animal to be minimally affected by a disturbance or to rapidly return to the physiological, behavioural, cognitive, health, affective, and production states that pertained before exposure to a disturbance"".

In other words, how well can an animal cope with a stressor and how quickly can it return to baseline?

This suggests that resilience aligns very closely with welfare, and indeed many of the topics discussed to improve resilience were what we think of as improving welfare. Things like higher social play, enrichment engagement, problem-solving and behavioural diversity have been shown to correlate to better resilience i.e. quicker and better returns to baseline.

The point was also made that resilience can be built or trained, not just inherited.

In the next post, we'll look at how resilience and welfare align or differ i.e. do animals in better welfare always have better resilience, and vice versa.

In the meantime, do you think the animals you work with or study are resilient? How have you built resilience with them?

Join us 24 November for the second part of our gorilla seminar series where we will explore more exciting new results from a multi-year and multi-institutional study on gorillas. This seminar will focus on the nutrition of gorillas living in zoos, and explore ways in which the offered diet can be adjusted to better align with wild diets. We will focus on key nutrients for cardiac and metabolic health, and how different types of foods can be used to support overall health and welfare.

Marino and colleagues have last week published an "Update on captive cetacean welfare" in PeerJ, where they review available studies on cetacean welfare.

Firstly, it's always valuable to have an up-to-date review of a topic, and it is interesting to see the latest information on cetacean welfare gathered together.

The authors highlight ongoing welfare concerns, particularly for belugas and orcas, and suggest these species may experience more negative outcomes. However, it’s not entirely clear how that balance has been drawn, as there are no structured comparisons of data. From our reading, it seems as though the comparatively limited amount of scientific data available on these species as compared to dolphins, rather than consistent evidence of poorer welfare, has led them to make this conclusion.

We were happy to see that the authors cited the C-Well assessment as one of the only ways cetaceans' "quality of life" is being evaluated, which they differentiate from welfare. They say they are concerned about the "extent to which such welfare measures are actually implemented".

We'd like to highlight that in our update paper to the C-Well (Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research 13(3) 2025), we found a significant increase in welfare scores for those facilities who had applied the assessment multiple times.

At Animal Welfare Expertise (AWE), our position is that some cetaceans can experience good welfare under human care, but this is not widespread and depends on significant investment, skilled staff, and evidence-based management.

As for "sanctuaries" (or, more objectively, large, naturalistic sea-pen environments), we believe they hold theoretical potential to support good welfare, if designed and managed well. However, empirical evidence demonstrating this is still limited (we all know the theoretical arguments, as presented in the Marino paper), and research should be prioritised to fill that gap.

Overall, this paper is a helpful reminder of the importance of robust, species-specific welfare research in guiding decisions for cetaceans under human care.

Having space to express species-typical movement behaviour is important. When space is limited, as it always is in some way in zoos and aquariums, we need to design meaningful spaces and facilitate dynamic environments to encourage this behavioural expression. Space allocation in multi-species exhibits is especially challenging: how can we accommodate each species' movement needs, especially if we can't control how other species use the space? We'd love to hear your ideas below.

Marineland of Canada’s recent announcement that it may euthanise up to 30 healthy beluga whales has shocked many. There are many factors in this case which suggest that euthanasia is not necessary at this stage - most notably, recently the AZA and CAZA joint statement to say that they are committed to exploring alternative housing options for the whales 💪

But the news also raises a difficult question that we'd like to discuss: is euthanasia of a healthy animal always a welfare harm?

In the zoo world, euthanising healthy animals is sometimes called management euthanasia. It is used in some regions and for some species more than others. For example, in Scandinavian countries, it is often used as a population management tool where the argument is that it allows more breeding and diversity of ages in groups of animals. In facilities where management euthanasia is not used, breeding of animals must be restricted to a few individuals.

For the individual animal, if euthanasia is quick and painless, it doesn’t reduce the animal’s welfare. However some researchers believe that taking away the animal’s chance for future positive experiences is itself a harm that should be considered.

At Animal Welfare Expertise, we carry out welfare assessments and make recommendations for improvements based on the results. In very rare cases, if we see that welfare is consistently poor, and does not improve despite targeted changes, euthanasia may be discussed as part of a responsible, structured framework. We would deem it highly irresponsible to decide to euthanise animals before making reasonable efforts to improve welfare, either in situ or by moving them to another facility.

This is not an easy conversation, but is one we need to have with honesty and clarity. Check out this month's blog on the same topic, up on our website now. We believe euthanasia in general is a topic that should be discussed more openly by those working with and responsible for animals.

📸 Image no. 1 credit to Shedd Aquarium, during C-Well Assessment application.

#AnimalWelfareScience #ZooWelfare #AnimalWelfare #marineland

Hi folks, Rhiannon here with another Enrichment at Home with Rhiannon! Let’s talk about the element of challenge in enrichment. There is a sweet spot to enrichment where you want the device to prompt cognitive thinking and problem solving, but not be so difficult that the animal disengages and “gives up.” This is a moving target as often animals will get better and better at solving puzzles and you may need to add challenge to keep them engaged. In this video you can see one of my cats trying to get the hang of a new puzzle, while sister cat observes his strategy.

Rhiannon and Justine of the AWE team recently traveled to Singapore and visited the Zoo. They were delighted to find a whole building dedicated to enrichment devices and the value of enrichment in supporting positive welfare! How does your facility showcase your EEDs and enrichment program?

A 2024 paper by Skinner and coauthors found that garter snakes exhibited signs of behavioral plasticity.

Researchers examined 62 individuals in pairs as well as larger groups and discovered that not only did the snakes
prefer to be around each other in a setting where they did not need to compete for resources such as heat and food,
but that they also would change their behavior, becoming more or less bold to match the group dynamic.

What could this mean for reptile welfare?

Many reptiles are thought to be solitary, but are sometimes placed in large groups in captivity. This research pushes us to think further into the flexibility of reptile social needs on both an individual and a species-level scale, expanding how adjustments to social grouping might be used in reptile care and welfare.

Nature doesn’t need Halloween to get eerie — these creatures are terrifyingly real. Cast your vote below (if you dare)…

🪱 A. Zombie Worm – Feasts on whale bones at the bottom of the sea. No mouth, no stomach… just acid and bacteria doing the dirty work.

🕷️ B. Goliath Bird-Eating Spider – So large it can crunch a mouse. Its fangs are as long as your fingernail and it hisses when threatened.

🦎 C. Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko – Looks like a dead leaf until it isn’t. Masters of camouflage that vanish before your eyes.

🐦 D. Vampire Finch – Lives on the Galápagos and drinks the blood of other birds. Pecks until the victim gives in.

🐙 E. Ghost Octopus – Pale and transparent, drifting silently in the deep sea like a soul without a body.

🦈 F. Goblin Shark – A “living fossil” with a jaw that shoots forward faster than you can blink.

💬 Vote below and tell us which one gives you the creeps — or fascinates you most. #HalloweenScience #SpookySpecies #STEM

Did you know the Javan rhinoceros (scientifically revised as Eurhinoceros sondaicus) is the only rhino species where females don’t grow a horn? Instead, they have just a small bony bump on their nose.

This makes Javan rhinos unique among living rhinoceroses. Once widespread across Asia, today fewer than 80 survive—all in Ujung Kulon, Java. Their evolutionary story shows how rhinos adapted to different diets: Javan rhinos are browsers (leaf-eaters), while their cousin, the Indian rhino, is a grazer of tall grasslands.

So next time you picture a rhino, remember: not all rhinos wear their horns the same way. 😉

📄 Source: Nardelli & Heißig (2025). A taxonomic review of the genus Rhinoceros with emphasis on the distinction of Eurhinoceros.

🔊🐮 AI Unlocks the Emotional Language of Animals
Can artificial intelligence really help us understand what animals feel?

A new study from the University of Copenhagen trained AI to analyse the vocalisations of cows, pigs, wild boars, and other ungulates — and could distinguish positive from negative emotions with nearly 90% accuracy.

Researchers say this could revolutionise animal welfare and farming by allowing us to monitor stress and comfort in real time. But it also raises big questions about how much we should rely on technology to interpret animal emotions.

👉 What do you think — is AI the future of animal welfare monitoring, or should human observation always come first?

📄 Lefèvre, Sypherd & Briefer (2025). Machine learning algorithms can predict emotional valence across ungulate vocalizations. iScience, 28(2).

Why are the Iberian Orcas Sinking Boats?

Researchers have proposed two main hypotheses:

1. A Social Game
Similar to how other orca populations have developed quirky, socially shared behaviors (such as wearing dead fish like hats or pushing marine mammals onto shorelines), this could be the latest in a long line of orca play. Juveniles are often the innovators, and behaviors, especially playful or exploratory ones, can spread rapidly through social learning.

2. A Stress Response
Some think that the behaviours may stem from negative past experiences, such as boat collisions or fishing gear entanglement.

Nobody knows for sure why the orcas have suddenly started showing these behaviours. It is our opinion at Animal Welfare Expertise that they are a form of play, where a few original orcas worked out that they could break rudders easily, and have continued doing it. To continue the discussion, we dive deeper into this topic on our blog, so if you would like to learn more visit https://www.animalwelfareexpertise.com/blog.

Hey folks! Rhiannon, here. Did you ever have a “parachute” day in gym class? Did you know that you can get your very own parachute toy and some beach balls in bulk to have that fun again? Although this was set up for my nephews to play with when they visited, my dog, Marble, had even more fun with it. It is now added to the enrichment schedule for the dogs. It is especially great for high-energy zoomies!

Happy #WorldGorillaDay! A reminder to celebrate not only gorillas themselves but also the fascinating dynamics that shape their societies. Male gorillas are nearly twice the size of females, armed with massive canines and obvious strength. Yet in multi-male groups of mountain gorillas, most females outrank at least one adult male.

How do they do it? Through leverage, not force. Female gorillas:

Choose when to transfer groups and with whom to mate, giving them reproductive power.

Form strong ties with alpha males, gaining support in disputes with subordinates.

Secure priority access to resources like sodium-rich decaying wood.

This reveals that power isn’t always about size. In gorilla societies, female influence comes from autonomy, strategy, and relationships.

On World Gorilla Day, let’s celebrate these remarkable animals and the hidden strengths that hold their groups together.

📄 Silk & Rosenbaum (2025). Female power and leverage in gorilla societies. Current Biology, 35(16).

Happy #worldrhinoday!

Let's celebrate these incredible animals together. Post your best rhino photo in the comments and whoever's photo gets the most likes wins!

🦍 World Gorilla Day Seminar: Gorilla Energetics

This #WorldGorillaDay, we’ll explore how gorillas use and balance energy—whether climbing through forests or living under human care. From feeding and activity patterns to the challenges of managing energy budgets, this session will shed light on the science behind gorilla wellbeing.

��📅 Date & Time: 24 September 7pm UTC

🔗 Get access at www.animalwelfareexpertise.com by getting a membership or purchasing through our shop!

Join us for evidence-based insights into gorilla energetics and celebrate these remarkable great apes with us.

Animals communicate in complex ways. What do you think is being communicated during this interaction?

🐔🔊 Listening to Chickens to Understand Welfare
What if we could hear how animals are feeling? A new study from Dalhousie University has developed a machine learning framework that decodes chicken vocalisations to monitor welfare—without ever touching the birds.

By analysing thousands of calls across different contexts, researchers trained models to identify whether chickens were healthy or unwell, hungry or social, and even how they responded to stressors like sudden sounds or visual surprises. Using features such as mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs),, you could say “acoustic features that capture changes in pitch and tone, and spectral contrasts, paired with models from Random Forest to deep learning (LSTMs), the team could track stress, illness, and behaviour in real time.

Why does this matter? Acoustic sensors are affordable, scalable, and non-invasive. They allow entire flocks to be monitored continuously, offering farmers and welfare scientists a powerful new tool to improve care while supporting sustainable production.

📄 Venkatraman Manikandan & Suresh Neethirajan (2025). Decoding Poultry Welfare from Sound—A Machine Learning Framework for Non-Invasive Acoustic Monitoring. Sensors 25(9), 2912.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40363349/

📢 New Seminar Series: Gorillas
We’re excited to announce a three-part seminar series dedicated to gorilla science and welfare. 🦍 Each session will spotlight a different aspect of gorilla health featuring the latest research conducted by AWE’s, Rhiannon Schultz, as part of her doctoral work.

24 Sept 7pm UTC – World Gorilla Day: Gorilla Energetics – how gorillas use and balance energy in the wild and under human care.

Nov: Gorilla Nutrition – exploring diet, feeding strategies, and their welfare implications.

Jan: Regurgitation & Reingestion – understanding a complex behaviour and its management.

Join us for evidence-based insights that support better conservation and care.

📢 New on Our Website
We’re excited to reinstate the AWE Blog! 🎉 This will be our space to share insights on current events, spotlight our projects, and dive into animal welfare topics shaping conservation and care today. Expect thoughtful articles, timely discussions, and practical perspectives from across the field.

Conservation has always evolved with society’s shifting priorities. 🌍 From early emphases on wilderness, through biodiversity and ecosystem services, to today’s focus on human wellbeing and Indigenous knowledge—new values are layered rather than replaced.

Animal welfare is the most recent addition, but incorporating it remains contentious. What counts as welfare? Which species should be included? Should we weigh short-term suffering against long-term benefits?

This new article calls for structured decision-making to make these questions explicit. Clear articulation of values and trade-offs can reduce misunderstanding, sharpen debates, and build lasting trust in conservation science.

🔍 Read: Lynch et al. (2025). Explicit value trade-offs in conservation: integrating animal welfare. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 40(6).

KawLiga the Muscovy Drake is showcasing our first video of our new segment: Enrichment at Home with Rhiannon!

Once a month, we are going to share a simple, goal-based enrichment idea for companion/domestic species that you can try at home with pets or with animals in your care.

This month’s feature is the Packing Puzzle. You can upcycle packing material into a puzzle that fits beaks and bills, adding challenge and stimulation to feeding time. The bonus of this item is that the material is compostable, so no cleaning or storing afterward is needed.

🐆Pacing is sometimes more than a symptom — in cheetahs, it can become a self‑reinforcing feedback loop, where repetition itself fuels the urge to keep moving.

Breaking that cycle isn’t just about ‘more enrichment’ in general, but tailoring it to the cat’s underlying motivational system: scent‑driven exploration for the foragers, high‑speed lure chases for the sprinters, and choice‑based feeding that restores an element of control.

The best results come when enrichment mirrors the ecological pressures that shaped them.

What enrichment ideas have worked for your cats?

Share them in the comments!🐆

Inside C-Well v2.0 — the updated Cetacean Welfare Assessment now features 44 measures across six domains: Nutrition, Environment, Physical Health, Behaviour, Training, and Enrichment. Half of these measures focus on meeting fundamental needs, while the other half assess opportunities for positive welfare, such as enrichment engagement, affiliative behaviour, and variety in training sessions.

One of the biggest changes in version 2.0 is the expansion of free-time behavioural measures — growing from just one in the original framework to eight today. These measures capture how animals choose to spend their time outside of structured sessions, providing a more objective and complete picture of welfare. By combining resource-based criteria with detailed, animal-based data, C-Well v2.0 evaluates both what is provided and how animals respond, supporting more targeted and evidence-based improvements.

Read the full open-access paper for detailed findings, methods, and insights: Clegg & Schultz (2025), Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research. If your organisation is interested in applying C-Well or adapting the Zoo-Well framework for other species, contact us to discuss how we can support your welfare assessment and improvement goals.

📄 Clegg, I.L.K., & Schultz, R.L. (2025). Findings and refinements from a decade of applying the Cetacean Welfare Assessment (“C-Well”). Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research, 13(3).

When it comes to improving cetacean welfare, repetition matters. Data from Clegg & Schultz (2025) shows a clear trend – facilities applying the Cetacean Welfare Assessment (“C-Well”) more than once see welfare scores increase by an average of 2% with every repeat assessment. This finding comes from version 2.0 data covering 95 repeated assessments across 47 individual cetaceans from three species. Each C-Well application provides a detailed, evidence-based report with tailored recommendations, allowing animal care teams to address specific areas – from social group composition and enrichment schedules to environmental complexity and training approaches.

By conducting follow-up assessments, facilities can track whether these changes have the intended effect, adjust strategies, and target new areas for improvement. While the research cannot confirm causation – many factors in an animal’s life can influence welfare – the pattern suggests that structured, repeat welfare monitoring, combined with actionable feedback, plays a valuable role in driving positive and measurable change over time.

📄 Clegg, I.L.K., & Schultz, R.L. (2025). Findings and refinements from a decade of applying the Cetacean Welfare Assessment (“C-Well”). Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research, 13(3).

What matters most for captive cetacean welfare? According to a decade of C-Well data, larger pool volumes, bigger group sizes, and more affiliative behaviour are all linked with higher welfare scores. These findings highlight the importance of both physical space and social bonds in promoting positive states for dolphins, belugas, and orcas. Full details in Clegg & Schultz (2025), Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research.

📄 Clegg, I.L.K., & Schultz, R.L. (2025). Findings and refinements from a decade of applying the Cetacean Welfare Assessment (“C-Well”). JZAR, 13(3).

From bottlenose dolphins to belugas and killer whales – the Cetacean Welfare Assessment (“C-Well”) has come a long way since its launch in 2015. Over a decade, it’s been applied more than 30 times across five species in 15+ organisations worldwide, evolving into version 2.0 with updated measures, more behavioural data, and a stronger focus on positive welfare opportunities. Read the full research by Clegg & Schultz (2025) in the Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research to explore the journey.

📄 Clegg, I.L.K., & Schultz, R.L. (2025). Findings and refinements from a decade of applying the Cetacean Welfare Assessment (“C-Well”). JZAR, 13(3).

🦧 Happy Orangutan Day- Visitor Effects on Captive Sumatran Orangutans

A recent study by Gading et al. (Cambridge University Press, published online 4 March 2025) examined six critically endangered Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) at Toronto Zoo — comparing their behaviour and physiology during COVID‑19 lockdowns and after visitors returned.

Researchers found no evidence of negative effects when visitors came back:
• No changes in space use, hiding, foraging, or inactivity
• No shifts in faecal consistency or glucocorticoid metabolites (stress indicators)

Interestingly, orangutans hid less when visitors reappeared — suggesting they may not perceive visitors as stressful. However, keeper presence did influence behaviour, indicating that future research should explore how keepers and environmental factors shape orangutan responses.

📌 Why this matters:
• Naturalistic ‘visitor effects’ linked with stress in other studies were not evident here.
• Context matters — visitor impacts can vary by species, individual, and environment.
• This research helps inform zoo design and animal care strategies by recognising that not all viewing experiences compromise welfare.

A fascinating reminder: our assumptions about visitor–animal interactions need a nuanced, evidence‑based approach — even beyond the pandemic.

Gading, E. F., Schoof, V. A. M., Franke, M., & MacDonald, S. E. (2025). Visitor effects on the welfare of captive Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) during the pandemic lockdowns. Animal Welfare, 34(2), 123–135. https://doi.org/10.1017/awf.2025.5

#WorldOrangutanDay #OrangutanResearch #VisitorEffects #PrimateWelfare #ZooScience

At Dolphin Quest Oahu, caretakers have climbed inside a giant floating Orb Ball to interact with dolphins up close. It’s a brilliant form of enrichment for everyone involved – giving dolphins novelty, choice, and new ways to explore their environment.

Find this and other creative enrichment ideas in our IdeaBox on our website – your go-to hub for sparking innovation in animal care and welfare.

www.animalwelfareexpertise.org

🐘 World Elephant Day – Measuring What Matters for Elephant Welfare

Behind the scenes in UK zoos, dedicated keepers are using the Elephant Welfare Group’s Welfare Monitoring Toolkit to track and improve elephant welfare.

This scientifically validated set of tools helps assess:
1️⃣ Behaviour – through the Elephant Behavioural Welfare Assessment Tool (EBWAT)
2️⃣ Body Condition
3️⃣ Locomotion
4️⃣ Foot Health

📝 Keepers collect data quarterly – and often before and after big changes, like new herd members, facility upgrades, or shifts in management. This helps monitor how each elephant is coping and adapting over time.

💡 The toolkit even includes a free Android app for the behavioural welfare tool, making it faster and easier for carers anywhere in the world to monitor welfare and respond quickly to changes.

This work is a reminder that elephant care is more than feeding and enrichment — it’s science, observation, and compassion in action.

Let’s celebrate the people working tirelessly to give elephants the best possible lives. 🐘💚
#WorldElephantDay #ElephantWelfare #ZooCare #animalwelfarescience
-->https://biaza.org.uk/elephant-care-management @officialbiaza

We’re expanding! 🦒🐴🦌 Until now, the Ideabox has been packed with creative enrichment ideas for cetaceans, pinnipeds, and birds — but now we’re calling on you to help us grow it for horses and all hoofstock species too!

If you’ve got a clever enrichment activity, feeding puzzle, or device that’s helped improve the welfare of hoofed animals in your care — from horses and donkeys to giraffes, antelope, or deer — we’d love to hear it. By sharing what works, you help other caregivers, keepers and trainers around the world put better welfare into practice, every day.

💡 Have questions about submitting or how it works? Email us anytime at hello@animalwelfareexpertise.com — we’re always happy to help!
🌍 Visit animalwelfareexpertise.com to browse, share your idea, and explore what’s possible. Together, we can build a practical, inspiring resource for everyone working to make life better for hoofstock in human care.

#AnimalWelfare #EnrichmentIdeas #HoofstockCare #HorseWelfare #ZooEnrichment #FarmAnimalCare #AnimalWelfare

Meet Carolina, our AWE summer intern! Originally from Manchester, Carolina is studying Zoology with Animal Behaviour at Bangor University. She is particularly interested in how animals think and interact. Although bears are her favorite, she has been working hard this summer to expand our ethograms and enrichment catalogue for equids and other hoofstock. We are happy to have her as part of the team!

🔔📣New Paper Alert!📣🔔

We are very excited to announce that our newest paper, Findings and refinements from a decade of applying the Cetacean Welfare Assessment (“C-Well”) to multiple species on public display, was published today in the Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research!

Over the next few weeks, we will be breaking down the results and discussion in the paper, but it is open access, so check it out now!
https://www.jzar.org/jzar/issue/view/52

How do we support the people who care for zoo animals when they grieve?

Animal care professionals and volunteers often form deep bonds with the animals they look after — but when an animal dies or is transferred, that bond can bring real grief. A new study by Nageotte et al. (2025) in Human-Animal Interactions explores how zoo staff experience animal-related loss and what organizational support they wish they had.

Through open-ended surveys with US zoo professionals and volunteers, the authors identified three big themes:
• The need for a zoo culture that accepts and validates grief
• Practical policies like time off, flexible tasks, and grief rituals
• Better mental health resources and leadership training

Many participants said that hiding emotions, working through pain, or feeling blamed adds to burnout. Suggestions included grief training for managers, memorials for all animals (big and small), and spaces to say goodbye.

This research is an important reminder that good animal welfare goes hand in hand with the well-being of the people who care for them.

🐾 Do you think zoos do enough to help staff cope with animal loss? Should more formal grief practices be the norm? We’d love to hear your thoughts — share your experiences or ideas for change.

Nageotte, N.L. et al. (2025). Animal loss and grief in zoos: Qualitative insights to inform organizational support for zoo professionals and volunteers. Human-Animal Interactions. https://doi.org/10.1079/hai.2025.0004

#ZooProfessionals #AnimalCare #OccupationalWellbeing #GriefSupport #AnimalWelfare

Today we pause to reflect on what it really means to provide good welfare for one of the world’s most iconic but vulnerable big cats.

Read the full story at BBC News: Female tiger killed by male during zoo introduction. A tragic reminder that even well-planned introductions carry risks for solitary, territorial species like tigers.

Managing tigers in human care demands deep knowledge, careful preparation, and constant welfare monitoring. From complex social introductions and enclosure design to enrichment, health care, and end-of-life decisions, every aspect matters for good welfare.

Big cats are not easy ambassadors — they need space to roam, opportunities to express natural behaviours, and management that respects their individuality and biology. Balancing conservation goals, breeding programs, and the individual welfare of each animal is never simple.

At Animal Welfare Expertise, we know that ethical tiger care takes collaboration, science, and transparency. Facilities worldwide must constantly learn and adapt to keep improving welfare standards for these magnificent animals.

🐯 How do you think zoos and sanctuaries can best protect the welfare of tigers in their care?
We’d love to hear your thoughts for #WorldTigerDay. Share your ideas below — or tell us what you’ve seen that works well.

📧 For more on how we support animal welfare, visit animalwelfareexpertise.com or email us anytime at hello@animalwelfareexpertise.com.

#TigerWelfare #AnimalWelfare #BigCats #ConservationCare

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