Rewilding that restores predator-prey relationships changes welfare dynamics across ecosystems, with both benefits and harms for individual animals that require ethical consideration.
Rewilding's welfare implications are genuinely complex. Individual prey animals killed by predators experience acute suffering that is a normal part of ecosystem function. However, ecosystems with intact predator-prey relationships support more individuals with better average welfare than degraded systems - prey populations are healthier, forests regenerate, and biodiversity increases. The ecology of fear - prey animals changing behaviour in response to predator presence - is a chronic welfare influence that is often overlooked. Welfare biology that considers the full population across rewilded systems, rather than individual predation events, provides a richer basis for ethical evaluation of rewilding outcomes.