Reintroducing apex predators including wolves, lynx and bears changes ecosystem dynamics in ways that affect the welfare of multiple species, with complex trade-offs requiring careful evaluation.
Rewilding apex predators involves complex welfare trade-offs that require nuanced analysis. Individual prey animals killed by predators experience welfare harms — though in many cases predator kills are faster than slow deaths from disease or starvation. The broader ecosystem effects of predator presence — healthy prey populations maintained below habitat carrying capacity, improved forest and vegetation structure, reduced disease prevalence through selective predation of vulnerable individuals — may result in better average welfare across many more prey individuals. The welfare calculus of rewilding predators is genuinely complex and requires case-by-case assessment, but dismissing it on the grounds that predation causes suffering misses the larger welfare picture.