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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Sophia Daoudi-SimisonORCiD, Dr Drew AltschulORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2025 The Authors.Despite increasing awareness of animal welfare, there are vast discrepancies between legal protections and recommended practices for different species, in different countries and at different institutions. While many guidelines are now available, they often target specific research contexts or species, leaving a gap in comprehensive ethical oversight across the entire research process. Within animal behaviour research, there is a bias for considering ethics during only the methodology and design phase. This often means only the immediate impact on animals directly involved in the research is accounted for. Conducting ethical research should extend beyond ensuring animal welfare during data collection and include environmentally sustainable research practices, alongside the ethical treatment of people working within and alongside animal behaviour research. We offer the Consult, Approve, Research and Evaluate (CARE) framework to improve the scientific integrity, transparency and ethical practices within the field of animal behaviour. CARE encourages researchers and academic bodies to (1) Consult existing (academic and traditional) knowledge on the study species, local human–animal interactions, their environment and previously implemented ethical practices and to reflect on personal experience and biases when approaching a study question; (2) seek Approval from relevant bodies (e.g. institutional ethics committees and local and government authorities) even when not mandatory; (3) uphold ethical standards while carrying out Research and (4) Evaluate the short- and long-term impacts of the specific study. Our framework is designed to distribute accountability at every level of the academic system, from individual researchers to their institutions, funding bodies and publishers. We pitch this framework as a ‘version 1.0’ to recognize the fast-evolving nature of ethical standards in animal behaviour research and to allow space for improvement. CARE provides a necessary infrastructure for addressing systemic biases and ensuring ethically sound, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable animal behaviour research.
Author(s): Badihi G, Taylor-O'Connor J, Bezerra de Melo Daly G, Komeda V, Daoudi-Simison S, Rodrigues ED, Webster MM, Altschul DM, Hobaiter C, Wiltshire C, Klein H, Freymann E, Grund C, Soldati A, Henderson M, Leroux MM, Slania NE
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Animal Behaviour
Year: 2026
Volume: 231
Print publication date: 01/01/2026
Online publication date: 12/12/2025
Acceptance date: 19/09/2025
Date deposited: 05/01/2026
ISSN (print): 0003-3472
ISSN (electronic): 1095-8282
Publisher: Academic Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123428
DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123428
Data Access Statement: This study is not based on any new or pre-existing data.
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