Mission · Thesis · Reach

The animal kingdom - including us

WildWooHoo's edge is animal behaviour and sociality seen through evolution. Behavioural ecology has spent decades documenting how animal societies handle the things our societies are still arguing over - diversity, hierarchy, coexistence, change, mothering, belonging. Despite all the worlds we have built, biologically we remain part of the animal kingdom. We draw parallels between animal and human societies through music, audiovisuals and educational materials, opening into ecology, evolution and the ecosystems we share.

Dance Your PhD 2024 · Overall winner (Science / AAAS) Falling Walls Engage 2025 · Top 30 worldwide 250+ media features · six continents

The thesis:
parallels,
not separation

  • Diversity. Individuality is real and measurable in animals. Personality, temperament, role. We are not the only species that contains multitudes.
  • Hierarchy. Competition, rank, and dominance shape who eats, who reproduces, who is heard. Goats and humans differ in vocabulary, not in pattern.
  • Coexistence. Most social mammals live the question of how to share space with difference. The answers we admire most in human society were already there.
  • Change. Environments shift, ranges move, populations adapt or break. Climate and migration are not abstractions when you study them.
  • Mothering and care. Maternal effects, group rearing, learned behaviour. Family is not a uniquely human invention.
  • Belonging. Identity is built through the group, the place, the song. For us, for kangaroos, for whales.

See the projects.

Two impact areas

Inside the wider thesis, our work concentrates on two named strands. Every project sits in one or both, and we report against them when we talk to funders, partners, and researchers.

Impact area 01
People playing as a kangaroo group

Natural diversity and our relationship with one another

Individuality · group life · cooperation · social behaviour

We explore how individual differences, group dynamics, cooperation, and social behaviour in animals offer parallels to human life. Projects in this area ask what diversity, hierarchy, identity, and coexistence look like when you observe them at species level, and what that reveals about how we live together.

Anchored by: Kangaroo Time · Cabra da Peste · Kanga-Kangaroo.

Impact area 02
Kangaroo silhouette at sunset

Changing environments and our belonging to nature

Environmental change · adaptation · belonging · place

We create work that reconnects audiences with the fact that we are part of the animal kingdom and part of nature, especially in moments of environmental change, range shift, migration, and disconnection. The questions we ask are about belonging in a place that is no longer the same place.

Anchored by: Benevolence · environmental storytelling commissions · educational formats.

How we create

A four-step process underneath every WildWooHoo project. Animal behaviour and ecology first. Emotion second. Story third. Output last.

  1. Step 01

    Animal behaviour as muse

    We begin with natural behaviour, an animal society, an ecosystem, or an environmental feeling.

  2. Step 02

    Emotion as entry point

    We shape music, imagery, rhythm, and language so audiences feel first and reflect second.

  3. Step 03

    Interconnected storytelling

    Human and non-human worlds are placed in relation, so the work creates recognition and social meaning at the same time.

  4. Step 04

    Creative work with message

    The output becomes a song, music video, children's series, book, classroom format, or public moment, designed to travel and carry the impact.

Project line, Mirror Worlds

Dr WELI's named angle inside WildWooHoo. A continuing body of work that takes behavioural research, kangaroo personality, goat hierarchy, ecological change, and translates it into songs, videos, and screen formats that draw the parallel back to human life. Mirror Worlds is the spine; the projects on /projects are its current chapters.

Parallel chapters: Kangaroo Time, individuality Cabra da Peste, hierarchy Benevolence, change Kanga-Kangaroo, early life

Why music.
Why now.
Why us.

  • Reach. Pop, video, and short-form storytelling travel further than any peer-reviewed paper, museum panel, or classroom unit. The infrastructure already exists, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and it's already where audiences are.
  • Feeling first. Public attitudes change through feeling, not facts. Songs and videos are how feeling scales.
  • Underused channel. Music almost never carries serious behavioural-science content. The category is open, and the bar to be the most credible voice in it is achievable.
  • Track record. WildWooHoo already proved the model: Kangaroo Time won Science Magazine's global Dance Your PhD prize and travelled to 250+ outlets. The case is no longer hypothetical.
  • Independent ownership. We retain creative and commercial rights to every project, so impact, revenue, and reach all compound back into the studio.

Public-good outcomes we work toward

  • Science literacy
  • Cultural inclusion
  • Environmental engagement
  • Children's STEAM uptake
  • Diverse voices in science
  • Audience for behavioural research
  • Cross-disciplinary collaboration
  • Cultural-sector employment
  • School + festival programming
  • International cultural exchange

Grounded in
peer-reviewed
research

  • Dr WELI is a Brazilian-Australian behavioural ecologist (PhD, ANU). Founder of WildWooHoo. Every project carries a paper, a fieldwork base, or a behavioural finding underneath it - not as a footnote, as the source code.
  • Kangaroo Time emerged from peer-reviewed work on eastern grey kangaroo personality, social environment and maternal effects. Read the paper in Behavioral Ecology →
  • Cabra da Peste draws on goat social hierarchy and rank research. Benevolence draws on environmental-change behavioural literature. Kanga-Kangaroo sits on top of mammal early-life and maternal-care science.
  • WildWooHoo and Dr WELI's academic profile run as parallel sites with mutual citation. drweli.com → · drweli.com/media →

drweli.com →

Open to
partnership.

  • Australia: Creative Australia, Australia Council, state arts funding (Create NSW, Creators Fund ACT, Creative Victoria), Inspiring Australia, ARC engagement supplements
  • Europe: Creative Europe, Falling Walls partners, EU climate-communication funding, individual national arts and science councils
  • Brazil: Lei Rouanet, FUNARTE, Itaú Cultural, state cultural foundations
  • Broadcasters and streamers: children's animation, music documentary, science-led series
  • Research institutions: cultural-output partners for grants that require public engagement and impact translation
  • Philanthropic partners: climate, biodiversity, education, and science-in-society funders

Talk to us.