2025-B29 Developing best practice in the care of zoo-housed great apes

Project highlights

Working in partnership with The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA), who are the professional body that represents the leading zoos and aquariums across the UK and Ireland.

Opportunity to collect welfare and behavioural data from great apes housed at zoos across the UK and Ireland.

Collaborating with a large and supportive network of in situ and ex situ great ape conservationists, researchers and captive care practitioners.

Opportunity to make a lasting change to the welfare of zoo-housed great apes through identifying evidence-based best practise for captive great ape care, and user-friendly pathways to support zoos in achieving best practice.

Overview

More than 4000 great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos) live in zoos across the world. However, meeting their welfare needs is extremely challenging because they are large bodied, socially sophisticated species, that naturally inhabit large, complex, 3-dimensional wild habitats. Although understanding of the behaviour of wild and captive great apes is improving rapidly due to long-term wild studies and modern techniques in the study of captive animals, accessing that information and translating it into practical ways to improve, monitor and regulate welfare standards, is a major problem for the zoo sector. This project aims to close that gap and in doing so improve the quality of life for zoo-housed great apes.

Animal welfare is a multidimensional concept comprising animal feelings, behaviour, health, cognition, resources and husbandry. There are two distinct types of measurement in animal welfare: animal-based measures consider each individual’s response to their physical and social environment and indicate their physical and emotional state, whereas resource-based measures quantify the resources available to the animal and management practices, such as space allocation, housing facilities, bedding material, access to water, enrichment and food provision. Many zoos rely on resource-based approaches for welfare assessments because these are easier to assess quantitatively and are quick to collect; allowing the welfare of many animals to be assessed fairly rapidly. They also play an important role in the implementation of zoo inspections and legislation. Nevertheless, a key issue is that there is very little consensus as to what measures prove good, or bad, welfare for great apes and whether it is sufficient to quantify welfare by assessing the resources provided or whether it is essential to quantify each individual’s actual welfare experience. Moreover, identifying consistent and quantifiable indicators of their emotional state is extremely challenging.

The vision underpinning this Studentship is to enable the UK zoo sector to access, implement and quantify the success of evidence-based captive care that meets the biological needs of captive great apes and optimises their welfare. We aim to achieve this through conducting and translating research into guidelines and procedures that improve welfare, support zoo management and planning, and enhance the robustness of the zoo inspection process.

Figure 1: A captive chimpanzee feeding in an enriched and complex captive habitat. Photo ©: Ian Bickerstaff

CENTA Flagship

This is a CENTA Flagship Project

Case funding

This project is suitable for CASE funding

Host

University of Birmingham

Theme

Organisms and Ecosystems

Supervisors

Project investigator

Prof. Susannah Thorpe, University of Birmingham. [email protected]

Co-investigators

Dr Jackie Chappell. University of Birmingham. [email protected]
Dr Cerian Tatchley, British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria (BIAZA; CASE Partner). [email protected]
Dr Kirsten Pullen (Plymouth University). [email protected]

How to apply

Each host has a slightly different application process.
Find out how to apply for this studentship.
All applications must include the CENTA application form.
Choose your application route

Methodology

Literature reviews of the welfare and behavioural ecology of great apes to establish what is known and what research remains to be undertaken and to review existing welfare assessment techniques.
Workshops and discussion groups with great ape researchers, conservation and zoo practitioners and zoo regulators to identify barriers to improving welfare standards, monitoring and assessment, and find solutions to overcome them.
Some field work in zoos, to address key research gaps identified above. This could include behavioural observations on multiple great ape species at zoos across the UK and Ireland, to develop/test techniques to assess great ape welfare rapidly and reliably.
Translation of the outcomes of the above to create Best Practice in Great Ape Welfare guidelines and Pathways to Best Practice in Great Ape Welfare that maps out logical pathways by which UK zoos can advance from the range of current welfare/ husbandry practices in place to optimal levels, in steps that are financially, temporally and logistically viable for the sector.

Training and skills

DRs will be awarded CENTA Training Credits (CTCs) for participation in CENTA-provided and ‘free choice’ external training. One CTC can be earned per 3 hours training, and DRs must accrue 100 CTCs across the three and a half years of their PhD.

Training in literature review techniques and the specialist methodologies required for behavioural data collection will be provided by Thorpe, Chappell and Pullen. Tatchley and Pullen will help the student become embedded in the zoo sector and train them in the broad range of issues that impact on the way zoos house and manage captive populations. All supervisors will support development of welfare assessment methods and skills development in delivering impact and engagement from the project with zoos, sanctuaries and the public. The student will work with BIAZA under a CASE partnership, meaning they will spend a significant period of time working with the BIAZA team to acquire relevant skills.

In 2018 Pullen (then CEO of BIAZA) and Thorpe (University of Birmingham) established the ‘Great Ape Welfare group’ (GAWg) for UK and Irish Zoos, which Pullen now Chairs. GAWg aims to unite zoo practitioners, researchers of wild and captive great apes and other stakeholders to generate improved welfare outcomes for great apes in human care. The student will also work in partnership with GAWg, and with Thorpe and Chappell’s global network of great ape sanctuaries and rehabilitation centres. They will therefore be embedded in a large network that will provide excellent opportunities and support for career progression in a broad range of related fields.

Further details

You can find information about our project on great apes here and information about BIAZA’s work here.

For any enquiries related to this project please contact:

Prof. Susannah Thorpe, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, [email protected].
Dr Jackie Chappell, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, [email protected]

 To apply to this project: 

You must include a CENTA studentship application form, downloadable from: CENTA Studentship Application Form 2025.

You must include a CV with the names of at least two referees (preferably three) who can comment on your academic abilities.

Please submit your application and complete the host institution application process via: https://sits.bham.ac.uk/lpages/LES068.htm.   Please select the PhD Bioscience (CENTA) 2025/26 Apply Now button. The CENTA Studentship Application Form 2025 and CV can be uploaded to the Application Information section of the online form.  Please quote CENTA 2025-B29 when completing the application form.

 Applications must be submitted by 23:59 GMT on Wednesday 8th January 2025.  

Possible timeline

Year 1

Literature review of great ape behavioural ecology and the assessment of welfare. Initial placement at BIAZA to learn about the zoo sector. Development of observational behavioural data collection on welfare indicators. Training in developing data collection protocols and collecting data. Initial training on data analysis and statistics. Field work at zoo(s).

Year 2

Workshops and discussion groups with a wide range of stakeholders involved in assessing and improving captive great ape welfare. Second placement at BIAZA to make use of their contacts for matching ideas on welfare assessment and monitoring to zoo logistics. Analysis of data collected and initial development of what constitutes best practise. Final data collection if needed.

Year 3

Further workshops with all stakeholders to refine ideas. Write and publish end-user documents and resulting papers. Reach out to all stakeholders to share results.