Large carnivores are keystone species whose welfare and conservation are tightly linked. Protecting predators creates ecosystem benefits that extend to prey species welfare.
Large carnivore welfare and conservation represent one of the clearest examples of how individual welfare considerations and ecosystem-level thinking converge. Protecting individual predators from persecution, habitat loss, and human-wildlife conflict serves both the welfare of those individuals and the ecological functions that benefit prey species welfare through population regulation. The welfare calculus of predation — predators kill prey, causing acute suffering in individuals — must be balanced against the welfare costs of unchecked prey populations: overgrazing, starvation in over-dense populations, disease spread, and habitat degradation that ultimately harms far more animals than predation prevents. Coexistence programs that reduce human-carnivore conflict achieve the best welfare outcomes for all parties: predators survive, livestock are protected through non-lethal means, and ecosystems maintain their regulatory functions.