Wild animals also experience adversity.
Many studies in humans and other animals have shown the importance of early life experiences in shaping how individuals develop.
To address this need and demonstrate the cumulative impact of multiple stressors, our research team decided to develop an index for wild animals based on psychological research on human childhood trauma.
So, what about wild animals?
We developed a framework on how to create a cumulative adversity index – similar to the adverse childhood experiences score, but for populations of wild animals.

On the Trauma of Wild Animals: the Case of the Marmots