GPS satellite tracking of individual ospreys provides unprecedented welfare insights into migration, habitat use, and mortality causes for this successful conservation recovery story.
Osprey individual tracking provides a model for wildlife welfare monitoring that goes beyond population counts to document individual welfare events throughout an animal's life. Tag data revealing mortality location enables post-mortem investigation, identifying whether deaths result from illegal killing (reportable crime), infrastructure collision (preventable), or natural causes. This individual-level data has driven osprey-specific responses including power line marking, fishing net modification requirements in certain areas, and illegal killing prosecutions enabled by location data at time of death. The welfare value of population monitoring that enables individual welfare response represents a significant advance over aggregate population assessment that cannot identify or respond to specific welfare-reducing factors.