Rewilding projects that reintroduce predators and herbivores raise important animal welfare questions alongside ecological benefits, requiring careful planning to minimise individual animal suffering.
Rewilding offers large-scale ecosystem benefits but involves deliberate introduction of individual animals to conditions of potential stress, predation and resource shortage. Each translocated animal experiences the welfare costs of capture, transport and release into unfamiliar territory. Prey species face novel predation pressure; predators may struggle to establish territory. Welfare-conscious rewilding requires pre-release conditioning, phased release strategies, post-release support and ongoing monitoring to reduce avoidable suffering at the individual level.