A gap in science
Today, wild animals are usually studied as members of species or parts of ecosystems. Almost nobody studies how each animal is doing, whether it's suffering or doing well.
A new field: welfare biology
That's why the creation of welfare biology has been proposed.
As this field grows, it will be possible to create safer and more effective programs to help.
Many fields working together
Welfare biology would bring together knowledge from several sciences:
- ecology, which studies the relationships between living things and their environment;
- animal welfare science, which studies how animals feel;
- zoology, which studies animals;
- veterinary medicine, which takes care of animals' health.
The author calls this a "cross-disciplinary" field: each of these sciences would be used starting from the question "how are these animals doing, and how can we help them?"
In short
- Today, science studies very little about wild animals' well-being.
- Welfare biology would study how they're doing, in order to help them better.
- It would combine ecology, animal welfare science, zoology, and veterinary medicine.