INTERBEING by AnimalConcepts

Today's podcast is a combination of different animal welfare scientists from around the world, giving their perspectives, insights, and visions on animal welfare assessments. This podcast will feature:

• Dr. Elizabeth Herrelko, Animal Welfare and Research Manager at Smithsonian's National Zoo
• Dr. Katherine Cronin, Senior Animal Welfare Scientist at Lincoln Park Zoo
• Daren Minier, Assistant Director, Animal Care, Conservation, and Research at Conservation Society of California - Oakland Zoo
• Dr. Eduardo Fernandez, Senior Lecturer of Animal Behaviour, Welfare, and Ethics, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, the University of Adelaide
• Dr. Samantha Ward, Senior Lecturer in Animal Science at Nottingham Trent University
• Dr. Jason Watters, Executive Vice President of Wellness and Animal Behavior at San Francisco Zoological Society
• Dr. Stephanie Allard, Vice President, Animal Care and Welfare at National Aquarium
• Sabrina Brando, Director of AnimalConcepts & PAWS

This is the first of many more multi-speaker podcasts to come, featuring experts & practitioners in animal care and welfare.

Be at your best to achieve excellence in animal care and welfare. The first online platform combining human and animal wellbeing science and practice. Get the education and tools you need so you and your animals can flourish. Become a member today!

Professor Hannah-Buchanan-Smith is the head of the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group, and Director of Human Animal Interaction Research Group in Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK.

Hannah introduces us to her work, the importance of understanding how animals have evolved, their capacities, and adaptations. She emphasizes that it is key to learn about how animals live in the wild to provide good captive conditions. She shares highlights from her research career such as why animals live in mixed-species groups, research on comparative colour vision, and animal welfare studies.

Hannah describes some early life experiences and encourages you to persevere in reaching your goals and not to give up. She tells us what she finds rewarding and keeps her motivated in her job.

Hannah and Sabrina discuss the important distinction between care and welfare. Hannah talks about continuous animal welfare assessments, and she presents in detail different approaches. For her, the key aspects of good animal welfare assessments are validity, reliability, and feasibility. She also describes some challenges faced in designing and implementing animal welfare assessments with a variety of species, and in different contexts.

Hannah shares different research topics she works on, such as the use of the facial expression to assess welfare in mammals, personality in animals, the challenges and benefits of mixed-species living exhibitions, predictability, and the psychology of control.

To conclude, both Hannah and Sabrina remark on the importance of collaboration in science and practice.

Learn more about Hannah’s work HERE

Learn more about the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group HERE

Learn more about the Master's degree in Human Animal Interactions at the University of Stirling, Scotland HERE

Find out more on the Marmoset Care Website HERE

Find out more on Paws for Progress - the dog rehabilitation program - improving the lives of people and animals HERE

Read her paper with Sabrina Brando on Animal Welfare 24/7 HERE

Read her paper with Bassett on “Effects of predictability on the welfare of captive animals” HERE

Become a member of PAWS now HERE

In this episode Amanda Embury, whose career has spanned over 40 years in the fields of animal welfare and species management, shares insights on ongoing animal welfare assessments, teamwork and continuous improvements.

Amanda shares how she started her work in zoos, her study comparing behaviour of wild and zoo gibbons, and ongoing interest in enrichment and behaviour of zoo animals. She gives insights of her work in her current role as Senior Manager Animal Welfare and Life Sciences which leads the team that provides strategic directions for animal welfare, species planning, animal behaviour, training and enrichment.

This includes developing policies and key strategic documents such as frameworks for animal welfare and species planning, and tools to help assess practices including an Animal Welfare Survey and Species Assessment Tool.

Amanda shares snippets of the ongoing process of developing and maintaining an animal care and welfare program, founded on a code specifying criteria for decision-making, and the importance of continues improvements, doing the research, and continuing to ask questions.

She highlights the many ways Zoos Victoria supports and encourages teamwork and bring all stakeholders together for animals.

Throughout the podcast Amanda shares different projects and animal stories, from birds and gibbons, to looking at risks, and a focus on opportunities for promoting predominantly positive animal welfare.

Learn more about Zoos Victoria HERE.

Learn more about published work via:

• 2015 – Animal Welfare at Zoos Victoria – written 6 years ago, provides a historic perspective to Zoos Victoria’s approach, significant advances have occurred since then, see pp85-91
• 2018 – Animal Welfare Risk Assessment for Zoos
• Zoos Victoria’s Code of Animal Welfare and Ethics
• Recent Zoos Victoria Research publications, see https://www.zoo.org.au/fightingextinction/research-and-publications/publications/
• Zoo and Aquarium Association (Australasia) Welfare-based Accreditation Program
• Five Domains model, 2020 Version by Mellor et al
• Wildlife Wellness Master Class, for PAWS members enter promo code “LEAP15” on checkout for a 15% discount.

In this episode, Dr. Jason Wark, an Animal Welfare Scientist in Lincoln Park Zoo’s Animal Welfare Science Program shares details and stories of how he and a wider team, manages and develops the ZooMonitor app.

Jason talks about his career and how he started in the zoo world. Jason describes the history of ZooMonitor – which was the brainchild of Dr. Megan Ross (iBuzz podcast #22) and was developed by Lincoln Park Zoo. It has grown as a data collection tool for recording and analysing behaviour to infer the welfare of animals.

Jason details many features of ZooMonitor including who is it for, and how to use it. He also gives us different examples of research that have been done thanks to this software, which is also available on mobile devices. Jason highlights the flexibility of this app for behavioural recording and different taxa. He thinks ZooMonitor has grown so quickly due to the accessibility and the increased attention to evaluating welfare and specifically animal-based measures.

Jason remarks on the importance of an evidence-based approach and data collection and gives advice for institutions looking to start a behaviour monitoring program.

Jason shares some examples of successful projects with the use of ZooMonitor, how he would like it to evolve, and concludes with a positive animal story.

Get access to ZooMonitor and learn more HERE

Learn more about Lincoln Park Zoo’s Animal Welfare Science Program HERE

Read published research describing the ZooMonitor app HERE and HERE

Robert Young is a Professor at University of Salford, at the School of Science, Engineering and Environment, and also a Chair in Wildlife Conservation. He has hundreds of publications in Wildlife Conservation, Animal Welfare, Animal Behaviour, Zoos and Anthropogenic Impacts.

Throughout the podcast, Rob talks about decades of research with over 50 species, on different continents, covering a wide variety of topics, studying animals both in the wild and in captivity.

Rob started his research during his Ph.D. on foraging behaviour in pigs and enrichment activities. He shares amazing and detailed stories of his projects in Brazil, including preparing animals for reintroduction into the wild, first studies in referential communication, vision and behaviour in primates, and sound pollution, among others!

Rob discusses with Sabrina the importance of learning and studying animals in the wild and applying that knowledge to improve the care of animals in zoos and other facilities where animals are housed under human care. He remarks on the importance of being proactive and global collaborations. 

Rob talks about different aspects of conducting research, wonderful discoveries done, and improvements made. He discusses the significance of care versus welfare, and inputs versus outputs in relation to animal welfare assessments. In addition, he shares examples of studies he has conducted in zoos, including the benefits of acoustic and video monitoring for animal welfare assessments. Rob also shares some of the challenges he faced, as research is not always easy. 

Sabrina and Rob discuss mental wellbeing and animal welfare, and he gives some tips for people who want to do animal welfare research. Rob recommends taking advantage of technology and tools for research, such as using records and CCTV for information sourcing. Rob says, “It is easier to avoid a problem than is to solve the problem”.

Rob concludes the podcast with a nice story about improved animal wellbeing.

Read more about Professor Robert Young HERE
Find his book in Environmental enrichment for Captive animals HERE 

Dr. Frans de Waal is a Dutch primatologist and ethologist. He is C.H. Candler Professor of primate behaviour in the Department of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also the director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory. Frans is the author of many books of which he discusses during this podcast.

Frans discusses the attribution of emotion and morality to animals, which is still a subject of debate among animal scientists. For many, empathy and emotion have been thought of as a distinctly human experience. 

Frans compares feelings and emotions and shares with us different stories and experiences to illustrate emotional capacities in chimpanzees, bonobos, and other animals. He remarks that emotions can be found everywhere in the animal kingdom.

Frans and Sabrina share their thoughts on how scientists and academics should be interpreting their work for broader audiences and how we can get science into practical resources to make animals' lives better under human care.

Frans (together with Dr. Jennifer Pokorny) was awarded the 2013 Ig Nobel Prize in anatomy, for discovering that chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends!

Frans encourages new scientists to do innovative research into animal emotions that will help us better their emotional capacities. 

With his decades of experience observing animals, how they behave and how they treat each other, Frans guarantees ample evidence that emotion exists everywhere in the animal kingdom, and that morality is not a uniquely human trait. 

Find here the books he mentions in the podcast: Chimpanzee Politics (1982), Mama’s last hug (2019), and more.

Find more about the paper winner of the Ig Nobel prize HERE

Dr. Megan Ross is a visionary institutional director focused on all strategic, operational, and programmatic initiatives at Lincoln Park Zoo (LPZ). She is also the first female zoo director in the 150-year history of the zoo. Megan is an expert in zoo and aquarium ethics, a published scientist, and a committed environmentalist. 

Megan talks about how she started in the zoo community many decades ago when she met Terry Maple. Throughout her time in the zoo, she has done research in several fields, and she discusses her studies with flamingos, as well as her research on ultra-violet light in birds when she was working as a bird curator.

Megan encourages people who are interested in a zoo career to say yes to (almost) all challenges, to try new things, and seek out advice from others respected in the field. Sabrina and Megan discuss the detail of honesty with yourself as a key point, and how it can help you achieve your goals, and enjoy what you are doing. Megan shares how this stance helped her find out what type of career she wanted.

Megan shares some of the extensive research programs LPZ has in-situ and ex-situ. About the behaviour and cognitive projects with great apes, projects involving protecting wild animals in the cities, and the conservation projects they have in different areas around the world. She remarks on the significant roles the zoos and aquariums have today, and the importance of local and global collaboration, in a respectful and integrated manner.

Megan describes the welfare program at the Lincoln Park Zoo through a holistic approach and she shares with us a practical example with goats, on how small changes can make huge impacts.

In conclusion, Megan shares success stories in animal care and welfare, and conservation science.

Read more about Dr. Megan Ross and her work HERE

Learn more about Lincoln Zoo Park and their conservation projects HERE

Terry Maple on animal welfare at the hand of science

Dr. Terry L. Maple is an animal behaviourist and wildlife conservationist known for his visionary leadership in revitalizing Zoo Atlanta as the director. Aside from being Professor Emeritus, he is the founder of the Center for Conservation & Behavior, and the Founding Editor of the journal Zoo Biology among many other things from his long career.

Terry shares with us how he transformed Zoo Atlanta in a build for change towards research and improvement for the welfare of the animals. He describes how he applied his knowledge in psychology for turning around and creating wellness-inspired habitats for animals.

Over the years, much of his work has been published in more than 12 books! 

Dr. Maple has written much related to zoo biology, in addition to many other scientific publications. He dives deeper into some of his books and his experiences like “Great Apes and Humans: The Ethics of Coexistence”, “Ethics on the Ark: Zoos, Animal Welfare and Wildlife Conservation” or “Beyond Animal Welfare: The Art and Science of Wellness”.

Terry discusses the evolution of welfare in zoos in the USA and how science contributed to these changes and legislation. He believes the key to animal welfare is science. As founding editor of Zoo Biology Journal, Terry mentions that in order for good science to continue, the best scientists have to be editors of these journals. He ultimately hopes a woman will soon lead the journal.

Lastly, Terry encourages young people to take a look in this field, as the zoo world is getting better and better.

Find out more about Terry and his work HERE

Read an interview with Terry HERE

Find all his books HERE

Listen to the podcast on your favourite player or head straight to Buzzsprout HERE.

Con Slobodchikoff is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Northern Arizona University, and co-founder and CEO of Zoolingua, a company that is using artificial intelligence technology to decode animal communication. Also known for writing the book “Chasing Doctor Dolittle: Learning the Language of Animals”.

Con shares with us his story on how he became interested in animal languages invites and encourages us to keep an open mind in our theories to understand it.

He shares his studies on defence behaviours in beetles, and later on about his work on prairie dogs, finding these animals to have a rich social life, including demonstrating that also nonrelatives could form part of a social group.

Sabrina and Con discuss the differences between communication and language, and about his books, “Chasing Doctor Dolittle” and “Prairie dogs”, both based on language abilities and communication in animal societies.

Con refutes the idea that animals don’t have thoughts and cannot communicate, and he will explain his revolutionary view on the non-existent gap between other animals and ourselves. He also mentions the idea that language extends to a variety of senses, instead of being single-sensory.

He dives deeper into why studying animal languages is so difficult, and the importance sounds can have for animal caregivers in animal care and welfare programs. Con also points out how language studies can be carried out in zoos or aquariums.

To conclude Con shares a nice story that shows thinking ability in prairie dogs.

To find more about Prairie Dogs: America's Meerkats – Language CLICK HERE

To read his book Chasing Doctor Dolittle: Learning the Language of Animals (St. Martin’s Press, 2012) CLICK HERE

For more information about his company Zoolingua, CLICK HERE

Saskia Verbruggen is an experienced animal trainer from the Netherlands, with a long career training marine mammals as well as birds of prey. She founded her own consultancy company Animal Training Roundeurope.

When she started her career, she enjoyed learning to train pinnipeds through positive reinforcement. Saskia shares with us her personal stories of the sea lions she cared for, learning that animals should have a choice in participating or not in a training session.

Saskia talks about the importance of giving animals the option to choose, and using positive reinforcement training, a common way of training with marine mammals, with birds of prey, rewarding them when they cooperate.

She discusses with Sabrina the complexity and quality of the habitats of the zoo she works in, trying to make them as natural as possible. She describes with detail the aviaries, and remarks that a key part for the birds is having different types of habitats, thus promoting optimal welfare.

Saskia shares how they give choice to the birds who participate in the public presentations, they can opt-out if they want, and the educational messages they convey during these flight demonstrations.

Saskia shares some of the challenges of working in a diverse team and highlights how wonderful is to work with people from different backgrounds bringing different strengths to the table and together doing their best for the animals.

Saskia and Sabrina discuss why some facilities do not house or work with certain species when they feel they cannot promote optimal welfare for the animals, and the different ways weight management of the birds, and other animals can and should be approached.

To conclude Saskia shares a wonderful story of Amy, about relationships and bonds with the animals. “As soon as they get more freedom, they are just choosing to come to us. They want to cooperate and love to work with us".

Learn more about Landgoed Hoenderdaell

Learn more about Animal training Roundeurope