Wild Animal Initiative
Wild Animal Welfare Research and Field Building
Wild Animal Initiative seeks to advance wild animal welfare science through research, funding, and professional services, with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of wild animals responsibly and at scale.
What problem is Wild Animal Initiative working on?
Wild Animal Initiative works to improve wild animal welfare by advancing the field of wild animal welfare science. By conducting research and supporting the needs of other wild animal welfare researchers, the organisation aims to garner public and academic interest in wild animal welfare and identify evidence-based solutions to the struggles wild animals face.
Animals in the wild endure a multitude of threats to their welfare, both from natural phenomena and human activities. With their staggering numbers—WAI estimates that wild vertebrates alone outnumber farmed vertebrates and humans by a factor of 100—the organisation believes that wild animals likely bear the brunt of global suffering. Yet, our knowledge about them remains limited, hindering large-scale welfare improvements. To confront this pressing challenge, Wild Animal Initiative works to foster the development of a scientific field dedicated to comprehending and enhancing wild animal welfare.
What does Wild Animal Initiative do?
Wild Animal Initiative’s mission is “to accelerate science that helps wild animals.” WAI believes we have a duty to alleviate wild animal suffering, whether caused by natural events or human actions. However, adopting responsible interventions that prevent unintended harm is crucial. Wild Animal Initiative is committed to cultivating a scientific field dedicated to wild animal welfare, which will establish essential knowledge of the factors influencing the welfare of wild animals and how to responsibly improve it. To that end, Wild Animal Initiative’s primary programme areas include:
Aims to improve wild animal welfare through scientific hypotheses, rigorous research models, and critical conversations about the future of the field. Visit the organisation’s research library and research priorities pages to learn more about this work.
Supports research projects focused on wild animal welfare by investing in dedicated scientists and attracting new funders to the field. See the organisation’s database of awarded grants to learn more.
Introduces new researchers to the field, provides training and networking opportunities, fosters a community of wild animal welfare scientists, and contributes to defining the field’s priorities.
What information does Giving What We Can have about the cost-effectiveness of Wild Animal Initiative?1.
The impact-focused evaluator Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) has recommended Wild Animal Initiative after conducting an evaluation of their work highlighting its cost-effectiveness. ACE writes: “Wild Animal Initiative’s work to increase knowledge and skills for animal advocacy is highly promising because it focuses on animal groups and interventions that we consider high priority. While we expect all of our evaluated charities to be excellent examples of effective advocacy, Wild Animal Initiative is exceptional even within that group. Giving to Wild Animal Initiative is an excellent opportunity to support initiatives that create the most positive change for animals.”
We looked into ACE as part of our 2023 evaluator investigations, and decided to not currently rely on their charity recommendations. However, we still expect choosing ACE recommended programs to be significantly more impactful than choosing animal welfare programs without an impact-focused evaluation behind them, and we remain open to (some of) ACE's recommendations being among the most cost-effective donation opportunities in animal welfare.
At Giving What We Can, we focus on the effectiveness of an organisation's work -- what the organisation is actually doing and whether their programs are making a big difference. Some others in the charity recommendation space focus instead on the ratio of admin costs to program spending, part of what we’ve termed the “overhead myth.” See why overhead isn’t the full story and learn more about our approach to charity evaluation.