Dr Sonya Hill
Deputy Head, Natural Sciences
Sonya Hill is Deputy Head of the School of Natural Sciences, Senior Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, and supervises a number of postgraduate students' research. Sonya has numerous roles and responsibilities, including being the Timetabling Contact and Disability Link Tutor for the School, the Chair of the Student Voice Meetings for biological sciences' programmes, and the Co-chair of the Faculty Student Success (Including APP) Subcommittee.
Sonya teaches across a range of degree programmes in biological sciences, with a focus on animal welfare and ethics, conservation, research methods, and behavioural science.
Sonya's main research interests revolve around scientific assessments of animal welfare, in particular for zoo- and sanctuary-housed wild animals, and behavioural adaptations of animals to their environments, including free-living wild animals. A lot of her work is on non-human primates, especially great apes, but she also has research interests covering a range of other taxa; her research has direct and indirect implications for the conservation of species.
Hill, S.P., 2009. Do gorillas regurgitate potentially injurious stomach acid during 'regurgitation and reingestion'? Animal Welfare 18 (2): 123-127.
Hill, S.P. and Broom, D.M., 2009. Measuring Zoo Animal Welfare: Theory and Practice. Zoo Biology28 (6): 531-544.
Hosey, G., Hill, S.P. and Lherbier, M.L., 2012. Can zoo records help answer behavioral research questions? The case of the left-handed lemurs (Lemur catta). Zoo Biology: 189-196.
Maslak, R., Sergiel, A. and Hill, S.P., 2013. Some aspects of locomotory stereotypies in spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) and changes in behavior after relocation and dental treatment. Journal of Veterinary Behavior 8 (5): 335-341.
Hill, S.P. 2013. Monitoring Adrenal Response in Zoo Animals as an Indicator of Welfare. Chapter 8 Pp. 95-107. In: Handbook of Zoo Research, Guidelines for Conducting Research in Zoos. Bishop, J., Hosey, G. & Plowman, A. (Eds.) 2013. BIAZA, London.
Hill, S.P. 2013. A Keeper’s Guide to Evaluating Environmental Enrichment Efforts. Chapter 6 Pp. 73-79. In: Handbook of Zoo Research, Guidelines for Conducting Research in Zoos. Bishop, J., Hosey, G. & Plowman, A. (Eds.) 2013. BIAZA, London.
Hosey, G., Melfi, V., Formella, I., Ward, S.J., Tokarski, M., Brunger, D., Brice, S. and Hill, S.P. (2016). Is wounding aggression in zoo-housed chimpanzees and ring-tailed lemurs related to zoo visitor numbers? Zoo Biology DOI: 10.1002/zoo.21277.
