Wild animals vastly outnumber domesticated animals, yet their welfare receives comparatively little attention. Understanding the scale of wild animal suffering and what can be done about it is a frontier of welfare ethics.
Wild animal welfare challenges foundational assumptions in both conservation and animal ethics. Traditional conservation focus on species and ecosystems rather than individual animals does not fully account for the immense aggregate suffering in wild populations. The scale of wild animal suffering from predation, parasitism, and starvation suggests that as our capacity to reduce it grows, doing so ethically becomes increasingly important. Current actionable interventions focus on reducing anthropogenic harms and targeted disease and fertility management.