Beavers were extinct in Britain for 400 years; their reintroduction has generated remarkable ecological benefits while raising welfare questions about the animals themselves and affected wildlife.
Beaver reintroduction creates welfare impacts at multiple levels. The reintroduced animals themselves are adapting to new territories, occasionally in conflict with landowners or other beavers. Live trapping for translocation causes acute stress. But the ecosystem engineering beavers perform — creating wetland habitat, slowing flood pulses, raising water tables — produces benefits for hundreds of other species whose individual welfare improves as habitat quality rises. The net welfare calculus of beaver reintroduction appears strongly positive, but individual beaver welfare during management interventions requires careful attention.