I mean, this is a broad justification in favor of trophy hunting that applies to bucks in New Jersey as well as it does to antelope on the savanna. I'm not saying we shouldn't fund and support the reintroduction of apex predators. But, like, it's complicated.

One of the biggest hurdles is that typically the rural people living in these areas don't want these predators reintroduced. "Lions eat people" is a very reasonable concern in Africa. Ranchers in Wyoming hate wolves because the wolves will hunt their sheep and cows (though research has shown that this fear is typically overblown). And reintroducing apex predators into areas with a large and porus rural-urban interface (like New Jersey) would create a lot of problems for both residents and the predators themselves. As an example, a small rural town near me has had a rash of mountain lion attacks in the past few years, where the mountain lions would kill peoples dogs when let out in their back yards.

We had a bill proposed in the last few years in Colorado to reintroduce wolves. I was surprised when my friend who is a wildlife ecologist was opposed to it. "Some dumbass tourist is going to try to pet them, get killed, and set the public perception of wolves back 100 years - we need to increase reintroduction efforts along contiguous wildlife corridors in sparsely populated areas, not just where voters are the most liberal."

So, like, it's a good idea. But it will take a lot of time and effort, and faces significant political challenges. And in the meantime, we already have a functioning system of hunting for population control.