Raptors rescued with injuries face specific welfare challenges during rehabilitation, and welfare-centered protocols influence both survival rates and release quality.
Raptor rehabilitation involves genuine welfare tensions between necessary intervention and the stress of captivity and handling. Raptors are flight-distance animals that experience extreme stress from close human contact - each handling event is welfare-costly. Rehabilitation protocols that minimize handling, maintain appropriate wild behavior through limited human contact, and assess release readiness rigorously serve both welfare and conservation goals. The welfare measure of success is not survival in captivity but successful return to wild self-sufficiency - birds that cannot be released have experienced welfare cost without the ultimate welfare-positive outcome.