Cognitive ethology - the study of animal minds - is advancing rapidly, with new findings on tool use, self-recognition, social cognition, and emotional complexity across species.
Advances in cognitive ethology have profound welfare implications - each discovery of sophisticated cognition in a previously underestimated species strengthens the case for taking that species' welfare seriously. The consistent pattern of discovery is that animals are more cognitively complex than previously assumed, warranting upward revision of their likely sentience and welfare interests. This has practical implications: the regulatory protection of fish, cephalopods, insects, and crustaceans should be informed by emerging cognitive evidence rather than outdated assumptions of simplicity.