ZLI & Wild Welfare Partner for Animals 


NEW YORK, February 11, 2021 /3BL Media/ — The Zoological Lighting Institute™ (ZLI) announced today new partnership agreement with the pre-eminent, UK based charity Wild Welfare. Partnership initiatives center upon important relationships of light and animal welfare, specifically aimed at improving the conditions of animal care in zoos and aquariums, but with importance for sustainable communities around the globe.

Expanding upon Wild Welfare’s four cornerstone areas of work, which include WELFARE TRAINING AND ASSESSMENTS, WELFARE RESOURCES AND ANIMAL ENRICHMENT, CREATING WELFARE PARTNERSHIPS, ANIMAL WELFARE LEGISLATION AND RESEARCH, the Wild Welfare/ZLI partnership stresses data-based science, risk management, and advocates a growing ‘animal-welfare’ driven approach to environmental sustainability. Seeking to perpetually improve best practices, ZLI and Wild Welfare each recognize the important roles that accredited zoos and aquariums serve in caring for animals and ecosystems.

Adopting the Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare, and stressing the need to explore positive outcomes according to biologically relevant terms, the collaboration anticipates future partnerships with zoos/aquariums globally to be ongoing and proactive. With enormous audiences and outreach potential, zoos and aquariums offer a unique opportunity to address community health, safety, and welfare issues related to artificial lighting at night (ALAN). Such issues span each of the Five Domains, directly impacting seemingly remote challenges of nutrition, health, environment, while impacting behavior and so hampering positive mental wellness. Adopting a positive approach to animal welfare, in recognition both of the value of every life as well as the crucial support role that individual animals play for human community well being, serves to initiate action on an overlooked but crucial area of climate change mitigation and sustainability.

“Although the importance of natural light for biological and ecological function is widely accepted and understood within the scientific community”, stated ZLI Founder Dr. James Karl Fischer PhD, “the science hasn’t been acted upon adequately. This means that animals, whether in a zoo setting or in the wild, are subjected to conditions that reduce or deny their opportunity to live and live to the fullest, in the manners in which they evolved. Essentially, the restrictions that artificial light imposes on animals need to be accounted for. This means scientifically monitoring light regularly, and including such data in decisions related to care, conservation and development. We are thrilled to partner with Wild Welfare, the seminal and global leader in zoo based animal welfare initiatives, as care for animals comes first in deciding how to use the facts that science presents for the benefit of all.”

The ZLI Wild Welfare partnership aims to raise awareness, understanding, funding, and action regarding the importance of light based animal welfare monitoring and researching in zoos and aquariums. For more information regarding partnership opportunities with Wild Welfare or ZLI, or to initiate, sponsor, or support photobiological research and animal welfare monitoring at your local zoo, please contact either ZLI or Wild Welfare today.

About The Zoological Lighting Institute: 

A unique charitable 501 c(3) with a mission to ‘Support the Sciences of Light and Life through the Arts for Animal Welfare and Wildlife Conservation,’  The Zoological Lighting Institute embraces the concept of ‘PhotoDiversity,’ referring to the importance that the diversity of natural light holds for living things, as well as the importance of cultural, social and human diversity has for science and its application. With an international Board of Directors overseeing four departments, including Film & Media, Education, Sustainable Design and the PhotoSciences, The Zoological Lighting Institute is breaking new terrain in the application of science to address the under appreciated realm of light and life. Current Campaigns include Beached, Bearanoia, Insect Apocalypse, Otohime’s Time, Precious Light and Save a Billion Birds!. Please visit www.zoolighting.org  or zli.org for more information on Sponsorships, Donor Advisory Fund (DAF) Giving Opportunities and Matching Contribution Programs.

About Wild Welfare

Founded in 2012, Wild Welfare is a UK registered charity working globally to improve welfare for wild animals living in captivity.We are the first captive wild animal welfare charity, set up by zoo professionals, that is solely focused on improving welfare standards by uniting leading zoos and animal welfare NGOs around the world. Each year, Wild Welfare’s work supports welfare improvements for thousands of wild animals living in zoos and aquariums around the world.It is likely only a small percentage of the estimated more than 10,000 zoos and aquariums that exist globally fall under country-wide animal welfare legislation or guiding principles from a zoo association. A much more significant number fall outside any such protection, so despite significant advances in animal welfare science by leading zoo bodies, poor animal welfare is still widely observed in many zoos around the world. Wild Welfare relies solely on donations to fund our projects and we appreciate support of any size. 

Join our work by making a donation at https://wildwelfare.org/get-involved-make-a-donation/.

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