UK seabird colonies are among the most important in the world, facing welfare threats from food shortage, climate change, avian influenza, bycatch, and invasive predators at nesting sites.
UK seabird welfare involves a combination of individual animal suffering during welfare incidents and population-level welfare through conservation. The avian influenza pandemic caused visible mass mortality with significant individual suffering in gannet, skua, and tern colonies. Food shortage from warming seas causes adult and chick starvation that is invisible but widespread. Rat predation at island colonies causes predation deaths and nest failure across entire colonies. Rat eradication programmes — a direct welfare intervention — have transformed the reproductive success and welfare of numerous island seabird colonies.