Raptors including osprey face mortality from vehicle collisions, electrocution, and secondary poisoning that require targeted welfare interventions.
Raptor welfare encompasses both acute mortality events — electrocution, vehicle strike, poisoning — and the chronic welfare of individuals that survive sublethal exposures. Secondary poisoning from rodenticides causes neurological symptoms, internal bleeding, and prolonged dying in affected birds. Lead poisoning from game carcasses similarly causes days of neurological deterioration before death. These welfare harms are preventable through rodenticide restriction, lead-free ammunition requirements, and power line insulation. The osprey recovery story demonstrates that removing specific anthropogenic threats can enable remarkable population restoration — an encouraging model for addressing current raptor welfare threats.