River otter rehabilitation and habitat quality assessment address the individual and population welfare needs of a recovering freshwater sentinel species.
River otter welfare is an ecological welfare story — individual otter welfare depends on watershed health that is determined by agricultural and industrial practices at landscape scale. Otters in polluted waterways accumulate organochlorines, PCBs, and heavy metals that cause immune suppression, reproductive failure, and behavioral abnormalities. The welfare gain from water quality improvement programs benefits individual otters living in restored watersheds immediately and measurably. Rehabilitation programs are welfare-positive for injured individuals, but the greatest welfare impact comes from the habitat protection that prevents injury and illness in the first place.