WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)
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Roadkill: Citizen Science at Work
Get PDFWildlife roadkill data began to be collected in the 1990s by citizen scientists and is now a global enterprise
Illuminating Animal and Plant Sentience
Get PDFWBI’s journal, Animal Sentience, advances our understanding of sentience (feeling) and its phylogenetic extent
Why is fish welfare still so neglected?
Get PDFOldfield & Bonano (O&B) address an important problem in the field of fish welfare, one that calls for greater attention from scientists and practitioners. O&B show that fish welfare, particularly at the psychological level, is under-investigated. They focus mainly on zoos and aquaria, but their concerns extend also to other domains, including fish farming. Fish are sentient animals; priority should be given to their welfare in all environments where they are under human care
Don Griffin and the early days of cognitive ethology
Get PDFCarolyn Ristau’s trilogy provides a comprehensive account of Donald Griffin’s life and work, with the third volume focusing on cognitive ethology. This commentary focuses primarily on my own interactions with Don, particularly during my sabbatical at Rockefeller University when his campaign for cognitive ethology was gaining momentum. I recount my research on reptile behavior and cognition, my collaboration with Don and others at RU, and my role in advancing his ideas while contextualizing them within 19th-century comparative psychology. I also discuss developments in cognitive ethology, including critical anthropomorphism, the challenges of integrating subjective experience into behavioral science, and Griffin’s lasting influence on animal cognition research
Animal personality and sentience as distinct concepts
Get PDFOwens et al (2024) discuss how knowledge of both animal personality and sentience in target populations can be leveraged to enhance wildlife conservation programmes. In this commentary I expand on the distinction between these two concepts. Behavioural differences should be considered broadly across conservation programmes, not just those involving species deemed sentient
Changing Attitudes and Conflicts Over Wolf Management
Get PDFDiscover the evolving conflicts over wolf management in North America and Europe as rising wolf populations impact farmers and conservationists. Learn how dialogue projects aim to resolve these disputes
A History of Alternatives to the Use of Animals in Research and Testing
No full textA medical historian investigates the social history of the development of alternatives to laboratory animals
Book Reviews: Jane Goodall at 90 & The Emotional Lives of Animals, 2024 Revision
No full textJane Goodall and Marc Bekoff have made significant contributions to our understanding of animal emotions and feelings
Bringing Back Former Vegans And Vegetarians: An Obstacle Analysis
Get PDFPeople have a variety of motivations for switching to plant-based diets, yet not all people who begin the transition to a vegan or vegetarian (collectively called veg*n) diet maintain it long-term. In fact, Faunalytics’ study of current and former veg*ns (2014) found that the number of lapsed (former) vegans and vegetarians in the United States far surpasses the number of current veg*ns, and most who lapse do so within a year. Are these people the low-hanging fruit for diet advocates? They could be—there are many of them and they’re clearly at least somewhat willing to go veg*n, so maybe more attention should be paid to the lapsers.
That’s one possibility. The other, more pessimistic possibility, is that when we as advocates think our diet campaigns are successful, these are the people we think we’re convincing. That is, we see the part where they go veg*n, but not the part where they later lapse back. This interpretation is one that a lot of people made when our study of current and former veg*ns released, but we don’t have strong evidence either way.
This analysis, in which we looked at the obstacles faced by people who once pursued a veg*n diet and what they would need to resume being veg*n, aims to shed a bit more light on these questions. Although causes for lapsing have been analyzed to an extent, a deeper analysis that considers people’s reasons in their own words is necessary to not only understand why people give up their veg*n goals, but to find the best ways to help people stick with their commitment to veg*nism and even lure back some of the lapsers
Insentient “cognition”?
Get PDFA sentient state is a state that it feels like something to be in. Cows have them, cars don’t. Cognitive capacities are a subset of behavioral capacities. Not all behavioral capacities are cognitive (but the distinction is fuzzy). Might the difference have something to do with whether the behaver is sentient