Urban Wildlife
Pelicans, herons and cormorants are large fish-eating waterbirds that increasingly use urban waterways and face welfare challenges from fishing line entanglement, food habituation and conflict with anglers and fish farm operators.
Large waterbirds in urban settings face welfare risks from human interaction. Food habituation from tourists feeding inappropriate foods causes nutritional problems and reduces natural foraging behaviour. Fishing line entanglement causes potentially fatal injuries — birds caught on discarded line may drown, suffer limb loss or starve if their movement is restricted. Legal persecution of cormorants at fish farms causes welfare harm to birds that are simply following their natural behaviour in a food-rich environment. Conflict between waterbirds and fish farms and angling interests creates political pressure for lethal management that rarely addresses the underlying attractive conditions created by concentrated fish stocks.