Ep27 Hannah Buchanan-Smith on evolutionary principles, learning from the wild, and making a case for positive change for animals

Professor Hannah-Buchanan-Smith is the head of the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group, and Director of Human Animal Interaction Research Group in Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland, UK.

Hannah introduces us to her work, the importance of understanding how animals have evolved, their capacities, and adaptations. She emphasizes that it is key to learn about how animals live in the wild to provide good captive conditions. She shares highlights from her research career such as why animals live in mixed-species groups, research on comparative colour vision, and animal welfare studies.

Hannah describes some early life experiences and encourages you to persevere in reaching your goals and not to give up. She tells us what she finds rewarding and keeps her motivated in her job.

Hannah and Sabrina discuss the important distinction between care and welfare. Hannah talks about continuous animal welfare assessments, and she presents in detail different approaches. For her, the key aspects of good animal welfare assessments are validity, reliability, and feasibility. She also describes some challenges faced in designing and implementing animal welfare assessments with a variety of species, and in different contexts.

Hannah shares different research topics she works on, such as the use of the facial expression to assess welfare in mammals, personality in animals, the challenges and benefits of mixed-species living exhibitions, predictability, and the psychology of control.

To conclude, both Hannah and Sabrina remark on the importance of collaboration in science and practice.

Learn more about Hannah’s work HERE

Learn more about the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group HERE

Learn more about the Master's degree in Human Animal Interactions at the University of Stirling, Scotland HERE

Find out more on the Marmoset Care Website HERE

Find out more on Paws for Progress - the dog rehabilitation program - improving the lives of people and animals HERE

Read her paper with Sabrina Brando on Animal Welfare 24/7 HERE

Read her paper with Bassett on “Effects of predictability on the welfare of captive animals” HERE

Listen on your favourite player or directly HERE

Become a member of PAWS now HERE