Pralle Kriengwatana

Pralle Kriengwatana is a behavioural biologist at KU Leuven working with the M3-BIORES research group, specializing in animal stress, cognition, and bioacoustics through comparative and computational approaches to identify emotional valence indicators in avian vocalisations. Her work pioneers the emerging field of music for animal welfare by investigating how musical stimuli mechanistically affect animal emotional states.

She earned her PhD in Psychology from Western University (2013) with emphasis on behavioural and cognitive neuroscience, establishing foundational expertise in animal behaviour assessment. Her educational trajectory reflects deep interdisciplinary training bridging psychology, neuroscience, and ethology.

Research interests span animal stress physiology, cognitive processing in non-human species, bioacoustic communication analysis, welfare assessment methodologies, avian vocal emotion indicators, and cross-species musical perception. Her methodological toolkit integrates computational modeling with empirical behavioural observation to develop non-invasive welfare metrics.

Key scientific recognition includes:

• MSCA Individual Fellowship from the European Commission

She has secured competitive funding from UK Research & Innovation Councils (BBSRC) and collaborated extensively with leading institutions including University of Leiden, University of Amsterdam, University of St Andrews, and University of Glasgow. Current work focuses on an internally funded KU Leuven project applying integrative approaches to avian vocalisation analysis for welfare applications.

Within the M3-BIORES group, she contributes to interdisciplinary research on sustainable biological resource systems, particularly developing bioacoustic indicators for animal emotional states in agricultural and conservation contexts.