Animals living at high altitude face unique physiological challenges from oxygen availability, cold, UV radiation, and seasonal food scarcity that are intensifying with climate change.
High-altitude animals face welfare challenges from both natural stressors and intensifying human pressures. Climate change is altering the alpine environments these species depend on — earlier snowmelt disrupts timing of plant growth and insect emergence, affecting entire food webs. Livestock herding in alpine zones creates direct competition and conflict with predators, driving retaliatory killing. The welfare of individual high-altitude animals is determined by the ecological integrity of systems that are under increasing pressure. Conservation of these systems, including glaciers, alpine meadows, and traditional herding practices that coexist with wildlife, is the foundation of welfare for alpine species.