Arctic terns make the longest migration of any animal. Their welfare is threatened by climate-driven changes to food availability and breeding habitat at both ends of their extraordinary journey.
Arctic tern welfare is under threat from multiple climate-linked pressures simultaneously. Warming North Sea waters reduce sand eel abundance, starving chicks. Arctic permafrost thaw alters nesting habitat. At the Antarctic end of their migration, changes in sea ice affect prey availability. Each breeding failure represents not just lost chicks but physiological stress on adults who have already expended extraordinary energy migrating. Climate action is the most fundamental welfare intervention for this remarkable species.