Wild animals face enormous suffering from disease, parasitism, predation, and starvation. Emerging research explores whether and how human intervention could alleviate wild animal suffering.
Wild animal suffering is perhaps the largest unaddressed welfare challenge. For every charismatic adult animal photographed in nature documentaries, thousands of juveniles die painfully from starvation, parasitism, or predation. The aggregate suffering from natural causes in the wild may far exceed that caused by human agriculture. The field of wild animal welfare research seeks to understand whether interventions are possible, safe, and beneficial. This is a genuinely difficult ethical domain requiring careful analysis of trade-offs and unintended consequences.