Exotic Enrichment & Learning - EEL lab

06/06/2026

If you have time and the expertise (i.e., Eurasian lynx experience or knowledge), please consider participating in this survey. Below is some additional information, as well as a direct link the survey:

Dear Experts,

You are invited to participate in this Delphi survey regarding the Validation of Welfare Indicators for the captive Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). This research project is part of a Master's Thesis aimed at developing a standardized, multidisciplinary welfare assessment protocol, structured around the Five Domains Model. This research is a collaboration between the University of Padova (Italy) and Jianghan University (Wuhan, China), along with other international experts.

https://ilariafrasson11.questionpro.com/t/AcydTZ8uQB

11/05/2026

Hey everyone,

We are just a few weeks away from the deadline to submit manuscripts to the special issue of Behavior Analysis in Practice (June 1, 2026* [see extended deadline below]). The special issue is titled, "The Science and Practice of Applied Animal Behavior", and you can find more information about the special issue here:

https://link.springer.com/collections/dfgehbcfgf

You can also contact me directly at [email protected] if you have any specific questions about the issue. Looking forward to seeing your submissions!

NOTE: We have extended the deadline for submissions until August 1st. For all those that have messaged me saying they needed a bit more time, now you have it! :)

Call for Contributions Behavior Analysis in Practice (BAP) is pleased to announce a special issue dedicated to Applied Animal Behavior (AAB). This edition ...

22/12/2025

I will be doing this webinar and workshop in Switzerland in a few weeks. The webinar is online (see the flyer) and the workshop is two days in-person with dogs able to attend. We still have a few spots open for the workshop, with most other events throughout Europe (Ireland (Donegal); England (London); The Netherlands (Asperen); Austria (Vienna)) near-full or full. Feel free to message me via my lab page here or J. Fernandez for more details, and it would be great to see some of you in Switzerland or elsewhere (I'm still planning some zoo trips and fun events too!)

Also, this is the shareable version, which I will post in a few more groups. Feel free to share it yourself. :)

01/11/2025

Another of the papers led by Sara Hanson, who is doing her doctoral work focused on snake welfare. This one is a systematic scoping review of all empirical efforts published examining reptile welfare in captive settings. There were a total of 72 articles reviewed, primarily with snakes and lizards (squamates) in zoo or lab settings. Most modifications involved changes in housing settings, such as lighting, temperature, or enclosure arrangements. Overall, the majority of welfare was measured behaviorally and found either neutral or positive effects, leaving lots to be done to better understand how to assess and improve the lives of reptiles under our care. 🐍🐢🐊

The link below should give everyone free access to the article:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396406986_Putting_the_Evidence_Into_Evidence-Based_Husbandry_A_Scoping_Review_of_Empirical_Approaches_to_Improving_Captive_Reptile_Welfare

13/10/2025

Here is the first in a couple papers published by Sara Hanson, a PhD student doing her dissertation work focused on captive snake welfare. This was part of her Honours research, where we looked at the behavioral responses of snakes to people. Turns out, the snakes appeared to habituate well to normal visitors, less so to extra people presence. Sara's work is important for pushing zoo snake and reptile welfare forward, and I'm happy to be part of a research team helping make that change happen. Feel free to like, comment, and share! 🐍

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396310790_Do_Snakes_Give_a_Hiss_Examining_the_Impact_of_Zoo_Visitors_on_Captive_Snakes

08/10/2025

Here's a fun systematic review we did on examinations of enclosure use in captive animals. We found 169 total papers (260 total studies), with the majority of published research being done in zoos and relying on simpler metrics like zone occupancy. Also, most publications focused on mammals, although some of the lesser studied taxa (e.g., arachnids; bony fish) were more likely to be cited. Overall, some important information for improving the way we assess welfare going forward, given that how animals use their enclosures is critical for assessing and improving their lives. Feel free to like, comment, and share. 🕷🐟🐢🦉🦛

PDF | Enclosure use research is important for better understanding the needs and preferences of animals under captive care. As such, enclosure use is... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

25/09/2025

Some exciting news here: The Science and Practice of Applied Animal Behavior, a special issue of the journal Behavior Analysis in Practice, is now live!:

https://link.springer.com/journal/40617/updates/27813838

Feel free to like, comment, and share (The EEL lab posting is shareable by all), and please let us know if you have any questions about the special issue.

Behavior Analysis in Practice provides science-based, best-practice information relevant to service delivery in behavior analysis. An official journal of the ...

15/09/2025

I think the abstract, particularly those first couple of lines, speak for themselves on this publication. In short, one of the common criticisms of learning principles is that they are typically based on a limited number of species. So, in the process of writing a paper on the history of pigeons as lab subjects, my co-author Andy Lattal and I thought we'd investigate a little further into this topic via one of the oldest behavior analytic journals: JEAB. We examined atypical subjects studied over most of JEAB's history (1958 - 2023), and found over 200 instances and publications covering 65 distinct species. We also discuss the relevance of atypical subject species diversity, including how applied animal endeavors could help set the stage for future experimental work. Feel free to like, comment, and share, and this original post on the EEL lab page should be shareable by all. :)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395371081_I'm_Not_Like_the_Others_Atypical_Research_Subjects_in_JEAB_Publications

09/09/2025

One of the tricky things about doing science in applied animal settings can be limited access to larger subject sample sizes. This is particularly true in settings such as zoos and homes, where your number of subjects could be as low as one animal. The difficulty from an statistics point of view is how can and should we analyze such data? We can certainly produce large samples through repeated measures of a few subjects, but how do we handle assumptions such as independent samples when trying to examine the results?

In this simulation- and scenario-based paper, we talk about overcoming the obstacles often associated with small-N research, including through the use of mixed effects model approaches. We also provide a table (Table 1) that lists the various assumptions and possible statistical tests that can be used to examine different data sets. The point is to better understand the results small-N research often generates, and how to do it while still taking advantage of an inferential statistics approach. Feel free to like, comment, and share (this post on the EEL lab page is shareable by anyone):

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395097627_Learning_Your_Individual_Inferences_A_Guide_for_Overcoming_Statistical_Challenges_in_Small-N_Studies

02/09/2025

Excited to share this publication - last year, a couple of vet students, Aedan and Fraser (now DVM-2 students), worked with me on a systematic scoping review of husbandry training practices in zoos. Our goal was to identify the number of peer-reviewed publications and detail results in terms of species trained, training practices used, and common behaviors trained, as well as other similar factors. That review is now published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science! You can access the paper at the link below, and I have kept the main announcement of the paper on my EEL Lab webpage, which makes it shareable by everyone. So, please, feel free to like, comment, and share, and hopefully our results are useful for guiding future training practices and publications involving training zoo animals. 🐼🦜🦒🐢

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/395105149_An_Examination_of_Husbandry_Training_in_ZoosA_Scoping_Review