Wildlife Climate Migration: Welfare Dimensions of Range Shifts 2025

Keywords: climate migration wildlife, range shift welfare, poleward migration, species welfare climate

Climate change is driving range shifts in thousands of wildlife species, as animals track suitable thermal conditions poleward or to higher elevations. These range shifts create novel welfare challenges: species moving into new territories encounter unfamiliar predators, competitors, parasites, and prey. Barrier crossing - roads, urban areas, agricultural land between refugia - causes injury and mortality. Species failing to shift fast enough face habitat degradation, starvation, and heat stress in situ. Novel host-parasite interactions as ranges overlap create disease exposure to immunologically naive populations. Welfare-positive climate adaptation strategies include wildlife corridors facilitating range shift, assisted colonisation programmes for slow-moving species, and habitat management to maintain thermal refugia. Research on climate-welfare intersections is nascent; the field lacks systematic frameworks for assessing individual animal welfare costs of climate-driven displacement. Conservation organisations are beginning to integrate welfare science into climate adaptation planning.

Key References: IPCC Biodiversity Climate Report 2024; Global Change Biology 2024; IUCN Climate Adaptation Guidelines 2023

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