“Management designed to achieve conservation objectives are likely to fail if animal welfare concerns are ignored.” — David Fraser
Updates
November 2024. My abstract “Cognitive enrichment drives exploration and solving of novel problems in rehabilitating harbor seals” was accepted as a long presentation at the 25th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Perth, Australia.
2024 Society for Marine Mammals Conference Speaker
Wild Animal Initiative Seed Grant Grantee
November 2023. Wild Animal Initiative awarded me and my colleague Parker Forman funding for dataloggers to study wild elephant seal weanlings. We will examine the effects of pre- and post-release behavioral interventions to improve welfare, behavioral competency, and reintroduction success.
Hot off the Press: New Paper Published with My Lab!
September 2022. The Watters lab wrote a paper together! In Frontiers in Veterinary Science, our lab discuss the considerations we should take when measuring anticipatory behavior, an animal-based measure that assesses animal welfare.
2nd Field Season with The Marine Mammal Center Begins
January 2022. My second field season in collaboration with the wonderful volunteer crews and vet staff at The Marine Mammal Center begins! We are studying how enrichment improves the welfare and behavioral competency of harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) pups and northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) weanlings.
1st Field Season with The Marine Mammal Center
April 2021. My first field season begins after a 1 year delay due to the global pandemic. This season I will be examining the effects of enrichment on the welfare and behavioral development of harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) pups at The Marine Mammal Center.