Wild rabbit populations have declined dramatically in Europe, with welfare implications for predators and ecosystems.
Wild rabbit welfare involves both the welfare of individual rabbits and the cascade effects of rabbit decline on predators. Myxomatosis causes severe suffering — swollen eyes, breathing difficulty, and immune collapse over several weeks before death. Rabbit hemorrhagic disease causes rapid mortality but may involve acute suffering. Individual animals dying from these diseases experience genuine welfare costs. The population-level decline deprives dependent predators — lynx, eagles, foxes — of their primary prey, causing nutritional stress and welfare harm for these species. Conservation efforts that restore rabbit populations through habitat management and disease-resilient genetics benefit the entire predator community.