Ep41 Geoff Hosey on academic research, human-animal interactions and lemurs

Geoff Hosey is an Honorary professor at the University of Bolton in the UK. His experience of undertaking research and supervising students has mostly been in behavioural biology, animal welfare and primatology, and he is still involved in research on zoo animal welfare, particularly about human-animal relationships in the zoo.

Geoff shares how he started studying animals and animal welfare and explains what behavioural biology is. He suggests new students to starting an academic career to do research in this field and encourages zoos and other animal facilities to do more research in general.

Geoff shares aspects of his academic work, which he mostly conducted at Bolton University, teaching behavioural biology and supervising many different research projects on wild and captive animals across a variety of species. Geoff talks about his work comparing behaviours of wild lemurs in Madagascar and in captivity and he shares some nice primate stories.

He shares insights from the studies of the human-animal interaction conducted, the different effects of zoo visitors on animal behaviour, and the importance of good records to shed light on these interactions. Geoff discusses with Sabrina their shared research on marine mammals in captivity and his books Zoo Animals and Anthrozoology. To conclude, he shares a research story about racing cockroaches.

Download the BIAZA Research Handbook HERE

Find his book “Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Management and Welfare” HERE & “Anthrozoology: Human-Animal Interactions in Domesticated and Wild Animals” HERE

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