Madeleine McAuley’s “Perch Party” photo has won the Agri-Food in Focus prize supported by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance in the 2024 University of Guelph Research in Focus photo contest.

McAuley, an Animal Biosciences PhD student in U of G’s Ontario Agricultural College, snapped the photo while assisting lab-mate and MSc student Steeley Ellis to collect data for her experiment about the development of perching behaviour.

The photo shows three-week-old pullets (young hens) that are part of the trial at the Ontario Poultry Research Centre; an active research facility owned by Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario and managed by U of G through the Alliance. The aim of this behaviour and welfare research, led by faculty researcher Dr. Tina Widowski, is to inform decisions about the provision of perches for egg layers in commercial systems.

McAuley’s award-winning photo was in good company among more than 90 submissions from U of G students, staff and faculty across a variety of disciplines.

Honourable mentions in the agri-food category are shared below.

In the general category, prizes were awarded as follows:

• First place – Tobacco in motion, frozen in time
• Second place – Bending Boundaries
• Third place – Jelly Bees
• Community Choice:  Master Chef: Bacteria Edition – Serving Up Today's Special Petri Plate
• Honourable mention – Primate Conservation and One Health in Madagascar
• Honourable mention – Sea Ice Coring in the High Canadian Arctic
• Honourable mention – The Night Shift
• Honourable mention – Channels to Food Sustainability: The Insight of Edible Mushrooms

Read about the winners on the Office of Research website.

Agri-food honourable mentions

Click on the links below to view the full-size photo and description of the research taking place.