What we evolved for, versus what we are putting ourselves into

Research first.
Educational second.

• Research. Our interests cluster around behavioural ecology in non-human animals, human cognition in modern screen-mediated environments, and the cultural imaginaries of science, technology, and animals. Anchored in Dr WELI's PhD work on kangaroo personality (ANU) and current ANU CPAS Visiting Fellowship.
• Educational. We develop and deliver children's animated series, illustrated books, school formats, apps, educator kits, and live engagement formats. Designed around how the brain actually learns, grounded in current research, never preachy.
• Public engagement. A multi-year body of delivered workshops, talks, festivals, and live programs through universities, science weeks, schools, and cultural festivals.
• Our pitch to funders. Children are growing up faster than their biology. Well-designed products built on real research are a market that is barely served properly. We work the seam where behavioural ecology meets early-life education, and we deliver both peer-reviewable outputs and audience-facing products.
• Partnership stance. Open to publishers, broadcasters, EdTech platforms, schools, universities, museums, and grant funders working on children's media, science engagement, evidence-led education, and screen-aware learning.

RESEARCH:current interests

What we
study

Three named clusters. Each carries current lead questions, partner institutions, and an open list of student topics.

Cluster 01

Behavioural ecology of non-human animals

Individual personality, social environment, and maternal effects across mammals. Anchored in Dr WELI's PhD on eastern grey kangaroos (ANU) and continuing collaborations across macropod and ungulate research networks.

EVIDENCE:Behavioral Ecology 2023

Cluster 02

Human cognition and behaviour in screen-mediated environments

How attention, affect, and social systems that evolved for face-to-face mob life interact with the screens we now spend most of our day inside. Draws on evolutionary mismatch theory and contemporary attention-economy research.

STATUS:literature review drafted

Cluster 03

Cultural imaginaries of science, technology, and animals

How popular culture frames the relationships between humans, other animals, and the technologies that mediate both. Posthumanist and science-and-technology-studies traditions plus current music + film analysis.

STATUS:in development

For grant funders, HDR supervisors, and student applicants: WildWooHoo's research line is documented and current. Open to ARC Linkage and Discovery partnerships, ARC Engagement supplements, Theo Murphy Initiative, and EdTech-research consortia. Research enquiries.

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT:delivered

Where we've
been heard

• ACT National Science Week. 2024 and 2025 program delivery. Inspiring Australia ACT.
• Encontro Anual de Etologia 2024 (Brazil). Commissioned opening plenary, Cabra da Peste.
• ANU HDR Research Festival. Featured contribution.
• ANU Three Minute Thesis 2024. Halftime feature.
• ANU Commencement 2025. Co-master of ceremonies.
• Athens Sci-Co. International science-communication appearance.
• Resilience Workshop. Closing keynote.
• SCOM6006 (ANU). Guest lecture, Centre for the Public Awareness of Science.

Engagement enquiries. Workshops, talks, festival keynotes, university and school visits. Dr WELI program subpages for corporate, universities, schools, and science-art audiences.

IMPACT:three thematic strands

Three impact
areas

Inside the wider thesis, the wing's work concentrates on three named strands. Every program sits in one or more, and we report against them when we talk to funders, partners, and researchers.

Impact area 01

Natural diversity

How individual differences, group dynamics, cooperation, and social behaviour in animals offer parallels to human life. Anchored by: Kangaroo Time, Cabra da Peste.

Impact area 02

Changing environments, changing brains

Climate change, screen-mediated environments, and the cognitive systems we evolved for. Anchored by: Why We Smile, Living Wild, the live workshop format, evolutionary-mismatch research line.

Impact area 03

Belonging to nature

Belonging to nature is biology, not nostalgia. Reconnection programs that work with how the brain actually feels. Anchored by: The Photography Project, Kanga-Kangaroo, educational formats.

ACADEMIC:foundation

Grounded in
peer-reviewed
research

• Dr WELI (Weliton Menário Costa). Sydney-based Brazilian-born behavioural ecologist. PhD ANU School of Ecology and Evolution (2017-2021). Current ANU CPAS Visiting Fellow. Member, Ecological Society of Australia. Founder and creative director of WildWooHoo.
• Kangaroo Time. Emerged from peer-reviewed work on eastern grey kangaroo personality, social environment, and maternal effects. Read the 2023 paper in Behavioral Ecology →
• Cabra da Peste. Draws on goat social hierarchy and rank research. Why We Smile. Draws on macropod life-history research (Marco Festa-Bianchet, Université de Sherbrooke) and behavioural-ecology literature on environmental change. Kanga-Kangaroo. Sits on top of mammal early-life and maternal-care science.
• Site-and-academic cross-references. WildWooHoo and Dr WELI's academic profile run as parallel sites with mutual citation. drweli.com → · drweli.com/media →

FUNDING:partnership lens

Open to
partnership

• Federal arts and science (Australia). Creative Australia Arts Projects, ARC Engagement supplements, ARC DECRA and Discovery, NHMRC Investigator and Ideas, Inspiring Australia and National Science Week, ANU CPAS partnership programs.
• State arts and education (Australia). artsACT, Sound NSW, Create NSW, Creative Victoria, state Departments of Education adoption programs.
• Philanthropic. Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Non-Fiction Fellowship, Theo Murphy Initiative, Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships, Ian Potter, Bertha, Templeton-adjacent for cognitive-cultural work.
• Residencies and place-based. Australian World Heritage Residency (Living Wild fit), Bundanon AIR, ANAT Synapse art-science, Bogong Centre for Sound Culture, Nature Foundation SA.
• International (Australia-eligible). Creative Europe, DAAD Joint Research Cooperation, Fulbright Postdoctoral (current ECR window), Wellcome.
• Brazil. Lei Rouanet, FUNARTE, Itaú Cultural, state cultural foundations.
• Commercial. EdTech publisher commissioning, broadcaster commissioners (children's media), school adoption fees, museum and science-centre programming budgets.