Animal Welfare Research Trends part 1
Recently, the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums held its annual meeting at SeaWorld of Florida. We had the opportunity to hear from several researchers on the latest zoo and aquarium animal welfare studies, with an emphasis on cetaceans. In part one of this two part series, we hear from Dr. Lance Miller from the Chicago Zoological Society on how the organization monitors, assesses, and studies welfare across the entire zoo collection. Dr. Miller also provides an overview of the extensive cetacean welfare study conducted in cooperation with dozens of facilities, which has already resulted in 9 peer-reviewed papers. Plus, Dr. Kelly Jaakkola from the Dolphin Research Center discusses her passion for cognition research, cognitive welfare for animals in human care, and the importance of providing species appropriate cognitive challenges to animals.