Population Dynamics and Animal Welfare

Natural selection favours the maximization of the number of surviving offspring. This need not result in the maximization of the welfare of individuals in the species. In some cases, it is not far from the maximization misery. The contrast between growth maximization and welfare maximization is first illustrated for a single population. In the Lotka-Volterra model of competing species and its generalizations, the choice of different birthrates does not affect the population sizes at equilibrium. Welfare could be increased without even sacrificing numbers (at equilibrium).