Juvenile gannets leaving colonies face high mortality during their first year as they learn to hunt, with welfare challenges throughout their dispersal.
Juvenile gannet welfare during dispersal is fundamentally challenged by inexperienced hunting at a time when energy demands are high. Birds that cannot develop effective hunting skills face starvation. Plastic ingestion causes gastrointestinal obstruction and slow starvation. While some mortality is natural, the additional human-caused mortality from plastic pollution and entanglement represents preventable welfare harm.