Georgia Mason

I am a behavioural biologist who moved from the UK (my hometown's near Richmond, if you're a Ted Lasso fan), for a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Animal Welfare in 2004. From May 2020-May 2025 I was Director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. And in 2024 I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for my life's work on animal well-being.

Keeping animals in labs, zoos, farm or our homes can, at its best, give them better welfare than they would ever experience naturally. But at its worst (when conditions are highly restrictive, or animals are from species that struggle to adjust to captivity), it can cause severe chronic stress. Since the UK's influential Brambell Report of 1965, it's been suspected that simply keeping animals healthy, well-provisioned and protected from physical harm is not enough to ensure their good welfare. And since then, animal welfare scientists have shown that very often animals also need to be able to exercise, socially interact, and forage in the ways they have evolved to. For example, some of my earliest experimental work showed that when living in fur farm conditions, naturally aquatic American mink still value being able to splash about in water, even after being captive-bred for many generations, and despite not needing to hunt to eat.

By why are some of these innate needs so strong? And how can we know how animals feel anyway? These are the questions that fascinate me. And for the next few years I aim to tackle them using systematic review and meta-analysis (see references at end for some examples). I am especially interested in understanding how animals respond to chronic adversity, to pinpoint behavioural or physiological changes that indicate low moods or a poor quality of life; and in identifying the cognitive and behavioural traits that allow some animals to thrive in captive conditions (or instead predispose them to struggle).

If this interest you too, then reach out. But note that my lab is in a lull until Fall 2027 (while I wait for a funding decision and wrap up past projects). After then I am looking forward to recruiting a diverse group from undergrads to postdocs (if you're in an equity-seeking group, you're very welcome!), and to enjoying many fun lab activities from journal clubs to group outings (plus getting some great science done too of course).

For further information, see my Google Scholar page, and my lab blog.

B.A (Hons), Zoology – Cambridge University 1987

Ph.D – Cambridge University 1992

• UNIV*6120 - Communications and Outreach in Biology (Winter 2025)
• BIOL*6170 - Stress and Resilience in the Anthropocene (Winter 2025)

• 'Assessing Animal Welfare - a Guide to the Valid Use of Indicators of Affective States' -- a 2026 book co-edited and authored with Mike Mendl and Birte Nielsen.
• Conventional laboratory housing increases morbidity and mortality in research rodents: results of a meta-analysis - Cait et al. 2022, BMC Biology.
• How much 'enrichment' is enough for laboratory rodents? A systematic review and meta-analysis re-assessing the impact of well-resourced cages on morbidity and mortality - Cait et al. 2024, Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.
• Nature calls: intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots - Mellor et al. 2021, Proc. Roy. Soc. B
• Feeding, mating and animal wellbeing: new insights from phylogenetic comparative methods - Mellor & Mason 2023, Proc. Roy. Soc. B
• The welfare problems of wide-ranging Carnivora reflect naturally itinerant lifestyles - Bandeli et al. 2023
• Cait, J., Cait, A., Scott, R. W., Winder, C., & Mason, G. (subm. 2021). Conventional laboratory housing increases morbidity and mortality in research rodents: results of a meta-analysis. Under review, BMC Biology. BMCB-D-21-00744
• Mellor. E.L., McDonald Kinkaid, H. K., Mendl, M. T., Cuthill, I. C., van Zeeland, Y. R. A. & Mason G. J. (2021). Nature calls: Intelligence and natural foraging style predict poor welfare in captive parrots. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283: 20150738 (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.1952)
• Ross, M., Rausch, Q., Vandenberg, B. & Mason, G., 2020. Hens with benefits: Can environmental enrichment make chickens more resilient to stress? Physiology & Behavior, 226: 113077.
• Adcock, A., Choleris, E., Denommé, M., Khan, H., Levison, L., MacLellan, A., Nazal, B., Niel, L., Nip, E. & Mason, G., 2021. Where are you from? Female mice raised in enriched or conventional cages differ socially, and can be discriminated by other mice. Behavioural Brain Research, 400: 113025.
• Díez-León, M., Kitchenham, L., Duprey, R., Bailey, C.D.C., Choleris, E., Lewis, M., & Mason, G. (2019). Neurophysiological correlates of stereotypic behaviour in a model carnivore species. Behavioural Brain Research 373: 112056.
• Mason G & Wuerbel H. (2016). What can be learnt from wheel-running by wild mice, and how can we identify when wheel-running is pathological? Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283: 20150738
• Phillips, D., Reynolds, K., Ervin, K., Fureix, C., Niel, L., Choleris, E. & Mason, G. J. (2016). Cage-induced stereotypic behaviour in laboratory mice covaries with nucleus accumbens delta fosB expression. Behavioural Brain Research 301: 238-242.
• R. K. Meagher, J. Ahloy Dallaire, D. L.M. Campbell, M. Ross, S. W. Hansen, M. Díez-León, R. Palme, G. J. Mason (2014). Benefits of a ball and chain: Simple environmental enrichments improve welfare and reproductive success in farmed American mink (Neovison vison). PLoS One 9(11):e110589. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110589.
• M. Díez-León, J. Bowman, S. Bursian, H. Filion, D. Galicia, J. Kanefsky, A. Napolitano, R. Palme, A. Schulte-Hostedde, K. Scribner & G. Mason (2013). Environmentally enriched male mink gain more copulations than stereotypic, barren- reared competitors. PLOS One 8(11): e80494.
• R. K. Meagher & G. J. Mason (2012). Environmental enrichment reduces signs of boredom in caged mink. PLOS One 7(11): e49180.
• G. J. Mason (2010). Species differences in responses to captivity: Stress, welfare and the comparative method. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 713-721.
• R. Clubb, M. Rowcliffe, K. U. Mar, P. Lee, C Moss & G. J. Mason (2008). Compromised survivorship in zoo elephants. Science 322: 1649
• G. Mason & J. Rushen (eds.) (2006). Stereotypic Behaviour in Captive Animals: Fundamentals and Applications to Welfare (second edition). CAB International, Wallingford, UK.
• R. Clubb & G. Mason (2003). Captivity effects on wide-ranging carnivores. Nature 425: 473 – 474.
• G. Mason, J. Cooper & C. Clarebrough (2001). Frustrations of fur-farmed mink. Nature 410: 35 – 36.