Rewilding programmes that reintroduce predators must grapple with the welfare implications of predation on prey species and the ecological complexity this creates.
Rewilding advocates emphasise ecosystem health benefits of predator reintroduction — reduced overgrazing, riverbank recovery, biodiversity return. The individual welfare perspective is more complex: prey animals killed by predators experience acute suffering, but prey populations regulated by predators are healthier, less prone to starvation, and live more natural lives. The net welfare calculation depends on relative weighting of individual versus population welfare and natural versus human-managed death.