Volunteers became salmon, deer and earthworms. Then they set out to save their river

Eighteen volunteers in Somerset were trained to experience the world through the sensory abilities of animals — salmon, deer, kestrel, otter, earthworm — then explored the River Tone to understand wildlife pressures. The study identified and mapped human-caused risks in an online database, and inspired a 30-year community campaign to restore the river.

The study participants used empathy and physiological knowledge to simulate animal experience; this is not biological data on actual animal suffering, but a tool to understand human impacts.