Seabird colonies face welfare challenges from climate change affecting prey availability, human disturbance at breeding sites, and invasive predators; colony-level welfare monitoring provides early warning indicators.
Seabird breeding colony welfare is determined by the convergence of multiple factors: prey availability, predation pressure, weather, and human disturbance. Breeding failure — chicks dying from starvation, exposure, or predation — represents welfare harm at both individual and population level. Monitoring breeding success as a welfare indicator provides early warning of colony health deterioration before population decline becomes severe. Welfare-improving interventions including predator removal and disturbance reduction have demonstrated dramatic breeding success improvements.