Enhancing welfare through cognitive assessment of parenting skills in captive managed animals

Project ID: H01
Theme: Health Innovation

Project overview
Early development is a critical period for all mammals, particularly primates, whose young depend on prolonged maternal care. In captive environments, ensuring that infants receive adequate care while avoiding aggression from others is a major welfare challenge. Rhesus macaques—the most widely used primate model in biomedical research—sometimes exhibit neglect or abuse toward infants, highlighting the need for improved understanding of social and cognitive factors that shape caregiving behaviour.

This PhD project is linked to a BBSRC funded grant and will investigate how primates perceive and respond to infants, combining cutting-edge cognitive testing with actual behavioural data. The findings will be used to develop non-invasive tools that can predict how individuals will interact with infants, ultimately informing breeding management and enhancing welfare standards in captive colonies. The aim of this project is to understand the mechanisms of individual differences in parenting as means of animal welfare and as fundamental rules of life.

Methods
The student will use eye-tracking technology to examine rhesus macaques’ visual attention at the Medical Research Council Centre for Macaques (CFM), located in Porton Down, Salisbury, UK.  Experiment 1 will test whether macaques show visual attraction to infants compared to adults, revealing attentional biases that may underlie caregiving motivation. Experiment 2 will present videos showing expected or unexpected events—such as an infant being threatened—to assess their understanding of appropriate social interactions.

These cognitive data will be use at the final stage to link with existing long-term behavioural records (e.g., maternal care, aggression) at CFM. This integrative approach will provide insight into the cognitive mechanisms underlying parenting and help identify individuals likely to be competent—or risky—caregivers. Around 70 macaques will be tested, providing one of the largest datasets collected for this kind of cognitive study in non-human primates.

Training and environment
The student will spend both in Nottingham and Porton Down. When the student is based at CFM, the project lead will be on site for pilot data collection ensuring hands-on support and subsequently supervise with weekly online meetings to monitor progress and provide feedback.

The successful candidate will receive comprehensive training in comparative cognition, primate behaviour, and animal welfare science, gaining hands-on experience with non-invasive experimental design, statistical analysis, and scientific communication. The project offers a unique opportunity to work closely with researchers at Nottingham Trent University and CFM, within a vibrant interdisciplinary network of primatologists and animal welfare scientists.

Supervisors

1) Dr Yuri Kawaguchi
2) Professor Bridget Waller
3) Dr Claire Witham

References

Kawaguchi, Y. & Waller B. M. (2024). Lorenz’s classic ‘baby schema’: a useful biological concept? Proc. R. Soc. B.29120240570

Kawaguchi, Y., Kano, F., Tomonaga, M. (2019). Chimpanzees, but not bonobos, attend more to infant than adult conspecifics.  Animal Behaviour, 154,  171-181.