Rewilding projects on former agricultural land in Europe are restoring wildlife populations, with welfare implications for both reintroduced and colonizing species.
European rewilding projects are creating new wildlife welfare contexts — landscapes where animals navigate the unpredictability and opportunity of semi-natural systems rather than managed reserve conditions. The welfare picture is complex: reintroduced large herbivores may face winter nutritional stress until vegetation structure develops; colonizing birds and mammals enter novel predation dynamics as carnivore populations rebuild; individual animals within thriving populations still experience individual welfare events. Compassionate conservation principles — tracking individual welfare alongside population metrics — improve the welfare quality of rewilding outcomes.