As rewilding projects restore deer populations to more natural densities, welfare considerations for deer must be integrated with ecological goals and management planning.
Deer welfare in rewilding contexts involves understanding that very high deer density causes individual welfare harm through resource competition, nutritional stress, and increased disease burden. The welfare ideal is not maximum deer numbers but balanced populations where individual animals can meet their needs. Rewilding with predators - wolves and lynx - would naturally regulate deer numbers and create behavioral effects (landscape of fear) that improve habitat structure. In their absence, targeted human culling maintains populations at welfare-compatible densities. Culling should be conducted to the highest welfare standards including accurate shooting, rapid follow-up of wounded animals, and timing that avoids separating mothers from dependent young.