Rooks are highly intelligent, social corvids that nest in spectacular colonial rookeries. Their welfare is tied to arable farming practices that affect earthworm and invertebrate food availability.
Rook welfare research has revealed impressive cognitive capacities that underscore their sentience. Rooks demonstrate causal understanding of tool use, can plan ahead for future needs and show empathy-like responses to distressed companions. Despite this, rooks are still legally shot under general licences in some management contexts. The welfare case for careful consideration before lethal management of such cognitively complex animals is strong. Agricultural rooks that feed on earthworms in arable fields are not simply consuming human food but are performing important ecosystem services. Their welfare in modern arable landscapes is compromised by consolidation of fields, loss of meadow earthworm communities and reduction of permanent pasture.