Assessment tools designed by scientists, ready for your teams.
Welfare questionnaires, behavioural ethograms, observation sequences: AKONGO provides a scientific base of over 100 questionnaires and ethograms, adapted to each species and translated into your teams' language.
- 100+ questionnaires & ethograms
- Ethograms per species
- 27 languages
Animal Welfare Monitor
Animal Welfare Monitor
Welfare science, accessible in the field
Welfare is an individual state, influenced by the physical and social environment and by the animal's perception of that environment. It is a state that varies over time (Rault, 2025).
Assessing welfare at the individual level draws on the animal's physiological and health status, its behaviour, and its reactivity towards humans. It also takes the characteristics of the environment into account (Fraser, 2009).
Our questionnaires are based on a transposition of the Welfare Quality® method to zoo species, described in two scientific publications. An approach that is both rigorous and workable for field teams.
Several tools complement each other: the rapid assessment questionnaire is a first step, not very specific, used to prioritise efforts; species-specific questionnaires go further. In parallel, behavioural observations reveal what the animal actually does in its environment. These tools are applicable throughout the animal's life.
Questionnaires adapted to each species
Each questionnaire is structured around the four fundamental welfare categories: housing evaluates habitat quality, space, and facilities; nutrition covers diet, diversity, and access to water and food; health addresses clinical condition, veterinary monitoring, and prevention; behaviour analyses the behavioural repertoire, social interactions, and stereotypies.
The system is built on baseline questions applied to all species, onto which specific variations are added at the taxonomic order level, then further refinement at the family and species level. This hierarchical architecture ensures that each assessment is relevant without being redundant.
Built-in contextual help accompanies the questions with reference photos, detailed descriptions, and scientific references, so the evaluator can answer accurately even when facing a species they are discovering for the first time.
A common language to describe behaviours
AKONGO provides species-specific ethograms — catalogues of named, described, and illustrated behaviours — ensuring the entire team uses the same words to describe the same actions.
To make training and behaviour recognition easier, several ethograms include integrated video resources. Each ethogram can be adapted to your facility's needs and translated into your teams' language.
In the evaluator's own language
French-English translations are performed manually by bilingual domain experts, ensuring terminological accuracy. For the 25 other languages, a proprietary AI workflow developed by AKONGO respects the zoological context and adapts to the taxon involved.
The system supports the native language of both the field data collector and the office analyst: the evaluator works in their language, the analyst reads in theirs, and the data remains reliable.
Team training, an essential prerequisite
Reliable data requires trained observers who are consistent with one another. For behavioural observations, inter-observer concordance tests verify that everyone records behaviours the same way. Animals may react differently depending on the observer — a keeper from the sector, from another sector, or a veterinarian — but the way data is recorded must stay the same from one user to the next.
For questionnaires, you have access to all the answers chosen, which lets you check the consistency of assessments.
What AKONGO scientific resources bring you
- Solid scientific foundation
Over 100 questionnaires and ethograms built from the Welfare Quality® method and the latest scientific publications.
- Adapted to each species
A questionnaire for primates does not ask the same questions as one for reptiles. The system automatically adapts to the species being assessed.
- 27 languages available
Manual French-English translations by experts. Other languages via an AKONGO AI workflow ensuring zoological accuracy and taxon adaptation.
- Inter-observer concordance
Concordance tests and access to all chosen answers ensure everyone scores the same way.
- Standardised observations
Ethograms ensure the entire team uses the same words for the same behaviours. Consistent data, reliable analyses.
- Complete versioning
Every change is tracked. Revert to a previous version if needed. The change history is fully transparent.
Explore the scientific resources
Connected modules
Scientific resources directly feed into the other Animal Welfare Monitor modules.
- Rapid assessmentWelfare questions are reused in daily assessment grids.Explore module
- Behavioural analysisStandardised ethograms feed into focal observations and behavioural scans.Explore module
- Mobile appQuestionnaires and ethograms are used directly in the field, even offline.Explore module
- Control centreAssessment results are surfaced in the global dashboard.Explore module
- Individual managementWelfare scores from questionnaires appear in each animal's record.Explore module
Scientific tools, designed for the field
Scientific references
Learn more about the Welfare Quality® method
Learn more about our solutions
- Tools
Explore our comprehensive range of tools optimised for managing and analyzing animal welfare data.
- Training
Discover our training organisation and develop your expertise in ethology and animal welfare.