Urban environments support surprising biodiversity but urban animals face novel hazards including road traffic, poison, domestic animals, and pollution that affect their welfare.
Urban wildlife faces a distinctive set of welfare challenges from human infrastructure including road mortality, window strikes, poisoning from rodenticides, and domestic animal predation. Road traffic kills millions of urban animals annually from hedgehogs to foxes to deer. Urban animals conditioned to human food sources lose natural foraging skills and develop nutritional problems from inappropriate diets. Light pollution disrupts breeding, migration, and navigation. Noise pollution affects communication and stress levels. Despite these hazards, urban environments also provide food, warmth, and reduced natural predation for some species.