Peregrine falcons have made a remarkable urban comeback after near-extinction from DDT. City populations face new welfare challenges from window strikes, lead poisoning, and rodenticide exposure.
Urban peregrine falcons demonstrate that wildlife and human infrastructure can coexist, but city environments introduce specific welfare hazards. Rodenticides applied to control urban rodent populations bioaccumulate in rodent prey and cause coagulopathy in raptors that eat them, resulting in internal hemorrhaging and death. Lead from shotgun pellets in game birds fed to urban falcons causes chronic neurological and hematopoietic damage. Window strikes, particularly during the post-fledging dispersal period when young birds are navigating unfamiliar environments, cause injuries that require wildlife hospital care. Monitoring programs that track urban peregrine health and mortality causes are essential for identifying and addressing these hazards systematically.