Rewilding initiatives are transforming conservation, allowing ecosystems to recover with minimal human management. These projects have welfare implications for the animals reintroduced and those already present.
Rewilding is among the most ambitious and interesting intersections of conservation and animal welfare. The welfare of individual animals released into rewilded landscapes — wolves adjusting to new territories, bison exploring recovered grasslands, beavers establishing dam networks — is a genuine welfare concern in conservation planning. Beyond the reintroduced animals, the trophic cascade effects of apex predator restoration create behavioral changes in prey populations that have welfare dimensions worth acknowledging. A landscape with wolves is better ecologically but involves individual deer experiencing more fear — both realities deserve recognition in a complete welfare-informed account of rewilding.