Rewilding programs restoring predators and keystone species to degraded landscapes raise complex welfare questions about individual animal experiences in restored ecosystems.
Rewilding raises genuine welfare tensions: individual animals reintroduced to wild environments face higher stress and mortality risks than they would in managed captivity. Wild prey animals in restored predator-prey systems face predation that causes acute suffering for individual prey individuals. However, populations that live in complete ecological systems may have higher aggregate welfare than those in depleted, ecologically truncated habitats where starvation, disease, and overpopulation create chronic suffering. The welfare philosophy underlying rewilding accepts that natural processes including predation are part of ecological integrity.