Email: ben.brilot@hartpury.ac.uk
Career Overview
I completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2003, studying the principles of animal signalling and communication, particularly between parent and offspring. I then undertook a period of postdoctoral study at the University of Newcastle, examining stress, welfare indicators, and markers of ageing in European starlings. I gained my first lectureship at the University of Plymouth, focusing my teaching and research in animal behaviour and welfare, including leading a BSc programme in this topic. I further developed my interests in comparative psychology, particularly the parallels between emotional processing in humans and non-human animals. I moved to Hartpury in 2019 to take up the Associate Head role and lead the Animal team within the Animal and Agriculture Department.
Teaching and supervision
- Research Methods for Animal and Agricultural Scientists (I have a keen interest in the practice of teaching statistics and statistical literacy to undergraduate students)
- Supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation students
- Director of Studies and Supervisor for two PhD students
Research interests
I am principally interested in the question of whether and how the behaviour of animals might tell us about how they are experiencing the world, in the sense of the potential for emotion states. I'm interested in this question both from a practical point of view: can we assess and improve the welfare of animals in our care, and a theoretical point of view: why should animals (including humans) possess emotions, what are the evolutionary advantages of things like anxiety states?
My topics of interest include:
- Animal welfare markers and measures
- Evolution of emotion states
- Behavioural markers of affect and emotion in animals
- Comparative behavioural tests of cognition and affect in humans and non-human animals
- The welfare value of exploration and the evolution of 'curiosity'
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