Jason Watters, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized animal behaviorist and zoo biologist. He has published dozens of research articles and book chapters. The body of his work focuses on animal personality, application of animal behavior to conservation problems and animal welfare.
In the American zoo community and abroad Dr. Watters is considered one of the leading scientific voices in zoo animal welfare and is regularly invited to present ideas and findings on animal welfare issues. He is Executive Editor Emeritus of the journal Zoo Biology. This journal is the primary academic research outlet for zoo-based research and publishes work in various fields from animal behavior to nutrition. As editor, he developed a large international network of peers. He is regularly consulted and collaborates actively with colleagues at several zoos and universities.
Dr. Watters has pioneered methods to assess and invented tools to adjust the behavioral health of animals who live in zoos. He has built research programs at two major zoos that were aimed at these goals and helped numerous students develop. Dr. Watters has been on the faculty of University of Chicago, University of California at Davis, and San Francisco State University, and has been a lecturer at Stanford and a visiting scholar at Nottingham Trent University in England. His peers recognize him as one who develops, and tests, theory aimed at exposing generalities in animal behaviors.
Dr. Watters has served on the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Research and Technology Committee, has been an Executive Vice President at a major US zoo, overseeing several departments, has co-authored the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums Animal Welfare Strategy, and served on the team that drafted the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Strategic Framework for the Wellbeing of Animals.
Dr. Watters has worked on the behavior and conservation of animals from nearly every limb on the tree of life: insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Working across species in this way has helped him to find similarities that point to general needs and allows him to make adjustments in the lives of individual animals to improve their quality of life.
