Overview of wild animal welfare assessment approaches and the ethical challenges involved.
Wild animal welfare assessment faces unique methodological and ethical challenges. Observational approaches must infer welfare states from behaviour and condition without the controlled conditions of farm or zoo research. Physiological indicators require non-invasive sampling. The Five Domains model is being adapted for wild population welfare assessment. Compassionate conservation has developed frameworks for integrating welfare assessment into management decisions. Citizen science welfare observation is an emerging data source.