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Ichneumon comments on Open thread, September 2-8, 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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That doesn't sound true if you weight by intelligence (which I think you should since intelligent animals are more morally significant). Surely the world's livestock outnumber all the other large mammals.
That's... a very good point, now that you mention it. Thanks for suggesting it! I looked into the comparisons in the USA (obviously, we're not only concerned about the USA. Some countries will have a higher population of wild or domestic, like Canada vs. Egypt. I have no idea if the US represents the average, but I figure it would be easiest to find information on.
That said; some very rough numbers:
Mule & black-tailed deer populations in USA: ~5 million (2003) (Source)
White-tailed deer population in USA: ~15 million (2010?) (Source)
Black bear population in USA: ~.5 million (2011) (Source)
Coyote population in USA: No good number found
Elk population in USA: ~1 million (2008) (Source)
That totals 21.5 million large wild animals- obviously, these aren't the only large wild animals in the USA, but I imagine that the rest added together wouldn't equal more than a quarter more than that- so I'll guess 25 million.
Domesticated animals:
Cattle population in USA: ~100 million (2011) (Source)
Hog & pig population in USA: ~120 million (2011) (Source)
Again, there are other large animals kept on commercial farms (goats, sheep), but they're probably not more than a quarter- so about 275 million large domesticated animals.
Looking at that, that does put "wild animal suffering" into perspective- if you accepted that philosophy, it would still only be worth >10% of the weight of domesticated animals. I had no idea.