Dr Jacqui Wilmshurst
Research Student
School of Health, Wellbeing & Social Care
Biography
What do my practices of care in wildlife rehabilitation teach me about recovery, healing, disability, captivity, mothering, and relating across species, cultural, and disciplinary boundaries?
What does quality of life for captive, disabled animals look like, and how can I create and support it?
How can I ethically and meaningfully engage with the animals as co-creators in the research and practice? What do agency, kinship, solidarity, communication, and attuned care look like this in this context?
What does creating a bottom-up 'community through care' around my practice reveal about cultural influences on wildlife care in the UK, and how could we do better?
What does caring for members of 'problem' species reveal about human-wildlife relationships in my culture?
As the owner of a sanctuary specialising in the care of grey squirrels and birds from the corvid family, and a licenced rehabilitator, I use multispecies autoethnography to explore these questions through my lived experience and daily care practice.
I have a previous academic background in the health and environmental psychology, exploring human-environment relationships as applied to natural hazards and climate change, cultural framings of risk, and nature-relating in 'at-risk' communities. Other 'ways of knowing' were embraced alongside conventional scientific and academic enquiry.
In addition to my work as an academic, I was previously an officer in the British Army (retired as Captain) and a leader in mental health and wellbeing in large complex organisations including the BBC, Meta and TikTok. I am a Chartered Member and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Socety, in the Division of Academics, Researchers and Teachers in Psychology.
I run a small sanctuary, Nala's Nook, specialising in the care of permanently captive grey squirrels and corvids, from my home in East Yorkshire. As of summer 2026 I am training to be an animal physiotherapist.
www.jacquiwilmshurst.com
Research interests
Human-Wildlife Relationships
Rehabilitation & care across species boundaries
Narrative Methods
Anthrozoology
Multispecies Methodology
Multispecies Care Ethics
Animal Ethics
Disability Studies
Animal Welfare
Wellbeing and Resilience
Teaching interests
Nature Connectedness and Nature-Relating
Nature-Stories
Animal Ethics
Environmental & Conservation Psychology
Health & Wellbeing
Urban Wildbeing
