Hornbills are keystone frugivores in tropical forests whose welfare and conservation are threatened by hunting, habitat loss, and the illegal wildlife trade.
Hornbill welfare concerns operate at individual and ecosystem levels. Helmeted hornbills killed for their casques face the welfare crisis of a deliberately targeted hunting industry. Individual hornbills trapped for the pet trade are highly specialized birds whose nesting and ranging needs cannot be met in captivity - birds adapted to range across thousands of hectares of forest confined to small cages represents profound welfare deprivation. At the ecosystem level, hornbills' role as seed dispersers for large tropical trees means their decline affects the regeneration of forests that thousands of other species depend on, creating cascading welfare effects throughout the ecosystem.