Rewilding programmes that restore natural ecological processes offer welfare benefits across restored ecosystems while raising welfare questions about management methods.
Rewilding creates ecological conditions where wildlife welfare changes substantially. Restoration of predator-prey dynamics reintroduces predation as a natural mortality cause, replacing the slow deaths from disease and starvation that characterise prey populations in predator-free systems. Whether this represents a welfare improvement depends on philosophical assumptions about the value of natural versus human-mediated mortality. The welfare of restored populations through better habitat quality - more diverse food sources, appropriate habitat structure, restored natural behaviours - is more clearly beneficial. Rewilding programmes that monitor wildlife welfare outcomes alongside ecological metrics represent the most defensible approach.