White stork populations have recovered dramatically in Europe through conservation efforts, but climate change is altering migration patterns and creating new welfare challenges for long-distance migrants.
White stork welfare is shaped by the complex adaptive responses these birds are making to a rapidly changing environment. Storks that shorten migration to avoid the Saharan crossing may avoid the acute welfare costs of that demanding journey, but they trade one set of risks for another: dependence on landfill food sources exposes them to contaminants and provides nutritionally inferior food to breeding birds. Storks making the full Saharan crossing face extreme thermal stress, dehydration risk, and food scarcity during crossing. The welfare of individual storks navigating these trade-offs depends on body condition going into migration, weather conditions during crossing, and the availability of quality food at stopover and wintering sites. The population recovery demonstrates that targeted conservation works; maintaining that recovery under climate change requires adaptive management of breeding habitats, migration routes, and wintering conditions.