Wolf predation raises complex welfare questions about prey suffering, but ecological evidence shows wolves improve ecosystem health and keep prey populations in better condition.
The welfare of individual prey animals during wolf predation — the fear of pursuit and the experience of being killed — is real and morally relevant. However, wolf predation must be understood in ecosystem context. Wolves remove sick and weak individuals, preventing suffering from chronic disease in ungulate populations. Wolf-maintained ecosystems have healthier, better-conditioned prey animals on average than overpopulated, disease-prone herds without predators. The alternative — human hunting or culling — also involves suffering. The welfare case for wolf reintroduction rests on aggregate population health outcomes, not the suffering of individual predation events.