The white-tailed eagle — Britain's largest bird of prey — was reintroduced to the Isle of Wight in 2019 and is now establishing territories across southern England. Its welfare during reintroduction is carefully monitored.
White-tailed eagle welfare during reintroduction involves both individual bird monitoring and landscape-level threat management. Released juveniles are satellite-tagged, allowing real-time welfare monitoring — birds that stop moving trigger welfare checks. Illegal killing (shooting and poisoning) is documented: several reintroduced birds have been found dead with signs of persecution. Lead ammunition in carrion kills eagles through acute poisoning — switching to non-toxic shot in areas where eagles forage would directly improve survival welfare. Persecution by game keepers protecting pheasant and partridge production is the primary impediment to successful reintroduction — both through direct killing and through habitat exclusion.