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NEWS NOTES
Assessing Emotions in Wild Horses
A framework for assessing the mental and psychological wellbeing of wild animals has been developed by UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow Andrea Harvey, DVM, an animal welfare scientist in the University of Technology Sydney.
The significance of the study lies in its potential to revolutionize conservation efforts. Instead of focusing solely on population numbers and reproductive success, the research explores the quality of life experienced by wild animals.
This shift in perspective could provide crucial early warning signals about species challenges and population declines, leading to more effective conservation strategies.
“While research on the welfare of domestic and farm animals has been considerable, including indicators of emotional states such as stress, pain and fear, my aim is to bridge the gap by examining the individual lives, feelings and mental experiences of wild animals,” Dr. Harvey said.
“A deeper understanding of the wellbeing of wild animal populations can not only enhance conservation efforts, but also provide an indication of the state of the natural environment and its recognized links to human health and wellbeing.”
The study, which was part of Andrea’s PhD research at the UTS Centre for Compassionate Conservation, focuses on brumbies—free-roaming wild horses—from Australia’s alpine regions, however the framework is widely applicable for evaluating many wildlife species.
Dr. Harvey chose brumbies as horse welfare has been studied in domestic environments, providing a bridge to wild animals.
Her comprehensive conceptual framework, called the 10 Stage Protocol, includes physical and behavioral indicators for both negative and positive mental experiences in wild animals.
“If you have a dog, you know their usual routine, what they like, and how they behave in certain circumstances. You know if they’re happy, sad or distressed, so this research is shifting that understanding to wild animals.”
“We can never be certain what’s going through an animal’s mind and exactly what they’re feeling. It’s also an area that scientists have traditionally shied away from. However, we know mental experiences arise from physical states, and we can directly measure these states.
“Nutrition, the physical environment, health, and behavioral interactions all provide clues to the mental experience of animals. This includes negative states such as thirst, hunger, heat and cold discomfort, pain, fatigue, anxiety and fear and positive ones such as satiety, exercising agency, physical vitality and positive social interactions.”
This holistic approach brings together different areas of scientific knowledge, including neuroscience, behavior, and neuroethology—the study of the neural basis of an animal’s natural behavior—to interpret the data collected and gain insights into wellbeing.
“Welfare assessments need to be part of all wildlife monitoring, and ultimately all environmental policy decision making, which needs to take into account not just individual species, but also interactions between different species, and their ecosystems.”
For more information:
Harvey AM, Beausoleil NJ, Ramp D, et al. Mental experiences in wild animals: scientifically validating measurable welfare Indicators in free-roaming horses. Animals 2023;13(9):1507 DOI: 10.3390/ani13091507
