Elisabetta Palagi is an Associate Professor at the University of Pisa, whose research focuses on social and sexual behaviour, and mechanisms underlining empathy such as rapid facial mimicry and emotional contagion.

Elisabetta shares a short story of growing up on a farm, of chickens and other animals, her early interest in animal behaviour, and a wise lesson by her grandmother.

She shares her start in academia, being a student at the University of Pisa, and completing her PhD in evolutionary biology. After her studies she continued at the University of Pisa, in the role of mammal curator at the museum of natural history, expanding her views on animal behaviour through zoology.

She shares her collaboration with the Pistoia Zoo where she studied lemurs. After great apes, wolves, hyenas, sea lions, and others, both in the wild and under human care.
Elisabetta discusses aspects of her and collaborative research on animal friendships, focusing on individuals, agonistic support, relationsh...

Becca Hanson is a Founding Principal of Studio Hanson | Roberts. She is a landscape architect with over 44 years of experience.

Becca shares with us how her love of nature started in Cincinnati, Ohio, during her childhood in the woodland behind her home. Here she could interact with nature first-hand by climbing trees, handling animals etc.

Becca started her university career intending to be an architect. However, she realised it was not for her, so took a nine-year sabbatical where she had a child and lived in Europe. During a trip to the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens in Wisley in the UK, she saw the rockery. This inspired Becca to finish her degree to construct similar works. Becca then enrolled in the University of Washington to get a BLA in Landscape Architecture and a minor in plant community ecology.

From here Becca got a job with Jones & Jones, who were working to design landscapes for the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle. The more she worked with zoos, the more she fell in l...

Today on iBuzz we welcome Dr Gordon Bauer, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New College of Florida. Gordon has investigated animal senses, cognition and behaviour in a wide variety of species such as manatees, bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales and sea turtles.

Gordon opens with one of his first interactions with humpback whales and explains how he became interested in studying animals at a young age with frequent trips to his local zoo. He reflects on how he explored a number of possible career paths before returning to work with animals at the age of 30, a decade after graduating from his B.A. in Psychology.

He describes his work at the University of Hawaii, working in dolphin communication and cognition. He talks about how collaboration with researchers from other fields allowed him to pursue biomagnetism in species including bottlenose dolphins, porpoises and humpback whales. This culminated in his first published article, kickstarting his ongoing and influential career in c...

Today we're celebrating these amazing, unique animals with some useful resources to help you care for vultures.

Download the free interactive PDF of our flyer HERE

Check out Hawk Conservancy Trust to learn more about vultures!

Access to all our webinars, resources and materials, become a member of PAWS HERE

On today’s podcast, we welcome Terry Maple onto iBuzz to talk to us about his new book, The Life of Willie B., and his impressive lifelong career as a behavioural researcher, wildlife conservationist, professor, author, and zoo director. 

Terry tells us of the inspirations behind his latest book, citing the positive changes for animals - particularly great apes - that have occurred in the zoo industry during his career. He talks about his life’s journey to Zoo Atlanta, starting out  as an animal social psychologist, and his interest in what made a zoo great. Inspired by his local zoo growing up, San Diego Zoo, he began a 30-year career revitalising and reforming the then-discredited Zoo Atlanta. Through his management, he - alongside a team of “reformers” -  was a key driver in turning Zoo Atlanta into the respected facility it is today. 

Terry talks about how gorilla management has changed since he started his work with the apes. He explains how, as research into great ape behaviour...

Media contact: Sabrina Brando

Founder and Director

AnimalConcepts

[email protected]

+34644805737

Press Release

A new platform, all dedicated to elephants, and a collaboration between Global Elephant Care and AnimalConcepts, is launching soon! 

Purpose

Coming from a culture of care and compassion and combining the most up to date scientific literature and best practices, we strive to improve standards and promote optimal wellbeing for elephants in all types of human care globally.

"Gerry & Sabrina trumpet in excitement about this new platform for elephants and peoples around the world!" 🐘 💚 🐘

Promoting positive wellbeing and flourishing is at the core of what contemporary zoos, sanctuaries and all other facilities caring for elephants strive for. The aim of this platform is to provide a progressive, safe, and active space for all people involved in caring for elephants anywhere.

Through this online continued education platform, both individuals and organis...

Samantha Chiew on understanding the effects of animal-visitor interactions, learning from little penguins, and animal welfare policy

Samantha Chiew starts by sharing some of her first memories of connecting with animals at a children’s farm.

With so many other ways to study and work with animals abound, Samantha reflects on different pathways and how she obtained an MSc and joined, like Sabrina, the CAWSEL course in Cambridge.

Samantha shares about her work at the Healesville Sanctuary as a customer service representative, learning about why zoos are so important. Looking at both animal welfare and the visitor experience.

She then pursued a PhD in zoo animal welfare studying penguins and human and visitor interactions. Samantha shares research findings and how outcomes were used to modify environments and regulate the visitor animal interaction. "Findings have increased our understanding of the multifaceted nature of visitor attitudes and have identified some influencing factors on...

This is the 3rd episode with Jan van Hooff in which we continue to follow his stories from England to the Netherlands, back to Burgers' Zoo and the monthly TV program on AVRO TV, called "ZooZoo" from 1964 till 1967 which Jan presented with his brother Antoon. Jan continued on his PhD with the late Professor Dijkgraaf.

Jan shares his involvement in research concerning the socialization of a large group of chimpanzees held at the United States Air Force in 1966. Focusing on not only the physical
but also psychological wellbeing in a group living environment. 

He continues with stories of the chimpanzees at Burgers' Zoo and his work with Frans de Waal who was his PhD student. Jan shares historical perspectives on raising chimpanzee babies, the socialisation of the group and stresses that chimpanzees should never be pets!

Hear about chimpanzees on the loose, building boats and ladders and going to the self-service, and a somewhat surprising ending. 

Jan discusses natural versus unnatura...

The global zoo community has made great efforts and progresses to understanding, promoting, and engaging in the animal welfare and conservation domain. However, there are, among others, various legal, educational, strategical, and operational aspects which affect animal welfare, and which warrant critical analysis, discussions, mitigation, and resolution. This podcast will not only highlight some of the ‘System failures’ as Sabrina Brando has started to call them, root problems that cause some or many symptoms but will also be a call to action. Too often we still deal with symptoms instead of going to the root of the problem, many of which can only be solved by local and a global approach, and multi-disciplinary collaboration.

Working with zoos and aquariums and promoting optimal wellbeing for the many animals in our care, what does such a relationship look like, what are the different distant and proximate aspects related to animal wellbeing are important for us to review and address...

Jan van Hooff briefly recapped what was previously discussed in episode 44 of iBuzz, saying how he grew up in Burger’s Zoo and studied biology at the University of Biology.

Jan discusses how he initially got his biology kick from working in the institute of Sven Dijkgraaf, who is famous for his input towards the discovery of echolocation in bats during World War II. Jan states that Dijkgraaf himself was inspired by Lazzaro Spallanzani. He observed that bats could still navigate when blinded, but not when their ears are plugged. Building on this Dijkgraaf noted that bats could distinguish different shapes using different calls. Jan also noted that Donald Griffin simultaneously discovered echolocation in bats and dolphins. His work triggered an interest from the Navy, which allowed the development of sonar in submarines.

Jan noted that Dijkgraaf and his team also discovered the use of electroreception in sharks, enabling them to find prey in the sand. This work triggered many physiolog...