AWARE Institute is an independent consulting organization based in Portland, OR, with the mission of bringing together scientific methods and efficient software systems to support animal welfare assessment, research, and education.
We are driven by our fascination with the animal world, but equally inspired by the power of data and sound science to help elevate the practice of animal management and enhance the welfare of animals.
Science-based animal welfare assessment is a compelling strategy to drive progress in animal care. AWARE offers expertise in technology-supported comprehensive welfare monitoring for range of species and across a variety of managed settings.
The AWARE Animal Welfare Monitoring system turns daily record keeping into actionable data. Our tools generate standardized and readily-interpretable metrics that characterize how individual animals experience managed care, and real-time and longitudinal metrics that demonstrate how animals are faring behaviorally and biologically.
Read More information on our Software System.
AWARE supports secure and confidential collaborative efforts that leverage resources to yield scientifically valid results and provide a common platform for coordinating progress toward welfare goals. Our multi-institutional projects generate population-level performance indicators that serve as objective benchmarks for welfare outcomes that identify program strengths and opportunities for improvement.
We offer assistance to help bring out the best in animal care programs. In this advisory capacity, we conduct on-site visits to review existing facilities and management practices and then work with animal care teams to develop holistic animal welfare programs based on leading science.
Our approach is to embed welfare monitoring into the daily practice of animal care. We achieve this by working with species-specialists to understand housing and management practices and then customizing software tools that capitalize on the process of daily documentation. We also apply best practices of animal welfare science to the development of software tools that support reliable and efficient measurement of welfare outcomes.
AWARE's model has been designed to help animal care communities to deepen their understanding of their population and programs. Our projects yield information on the prevalence of welfare outcomes, allow for in-depth understanding of the range and diversity in management practices, highlight opportunities to enhance welfare, and inform the development of guidelines or standards.
Clients begin by setting up their zoo profile, which provides background information on animals and facilities (A). On a daily basis participants document practice using the Daily Management Tool and collect welfare outcome data using "on the fly" via mobile web-applications (B) or at a desktop (C). The AWARE software system synthesizes input and animal outcome data (D) to provide users with reports, metrics, and performance indicators (E). Synthesized data can be used to guide future planning, assist program development, or to conduct research (F).
AWARE's Welfare Monitoring System capitalizes on the process of daily documentation to provide zoo professionals data on specific welfare indicators and associated management factors. We designed all modules using flexible architecture and each is customizable to accommodate species-specific practices. We can develop new modules and integrate these into the system to support a wide variety of goals, and we may be able to integrate existing documentation systems, such as medical records.
Currently available modules include:
AWARE is proud to be a contributor to the recently published PLOS ONE collection titled: Epidemiological Investigations of North American Zoo Elephant Welfare . This landmark study demonstrates the impressive potential for collaborative welfare projects to generate meaningful results that can help shape and inform the future of animal care in zoos and aquariums.
The collection resulted from a comprehensive study analyzing the daily lives of 255 Asian and African elephants in 68 North American zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Research focused on factors related to the wellbeing of elephants including: behavior, body condition, foot and joint health, female reproductive function, and walking distance.
The AZA Elephant Welfare Initiative is collaborative effort toward positioning the AZA elephant care community at the forefront of evidence based welfare-focused animal management. To execute this initiative, AWARE employs a model that leverages the collective efforts of AZA elephant holding zoos, and supports enhanced practice of elephant management through:
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Cheryl’s interest in understanding and enhancing the welfare of zoo animals has been the motivating force in her academic and professional pursuits for the past fifteen years. She combines this interest with skills in applied research and education in her role as director of AWARE Institute. Cheryl is author of peer-reviewed papers on stereotypic behavior, environmental enrichment, and social management of animals, among others. She served as the consulting project manager for the Using Science to Understand Zoo Elephant Welfare project where she applied her skills in collaborative project management and software design to support the systematic welfare assessment of nearly the entire AZA population of African and Asian elephants.
As an animal welfare scientist and former zoo elephant trainer, Brian’s research efforts are directed towards using science to improve the lives of animals. He is particularly interested in understanding how environmental (e.g., space experience and use) and managerial factors (e.g., the use of operant conditioning) influence stereotypic and social behavior. He is also interested in using cognitive challenges as a way of inferring subjective experience and as a means of environmental enrichment. In addition to his role with AWARE, Brian is completing his PhD in Animal Biology at the UC Davis under the guidance of Joy Mench.
YeunShin began observing the behavior of zoo animals at the Brookfield Zoo as an undergraduate, and quickly became fascinated with animals’ behavioral responses to managed environments. She studied zoology under the mentorship of Devra Kleiman at the National Zoo and University of Maryland, and received her PhD in Animal Behavior from the University of California, Davis. In addition to her role at AWARE, Yeun is a lecturer and the Assistant Director of the Center for Animal Welfare at UC Davis.
Jennifer applies a data-driven approach to improving animal welfare and strengthening wildlife conservation efforts. She received her Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of California, Davis, in 2012 where she focused on protozoal transmission among wild and domestic animals in North American and international settings. Jennifer was the data analyst for the IMLS-funded study Using Science to Understand Zoo Elephant Welfare and has expertise in developing standardized measures of zoo animal housing and management that are essential to multi-institutional research efforts.