Meerkats are highly social sentinel species that require appropriate group sizes, burrowing substrates, and basking opportunities to express their natural sentinel and cooperative vigilance behaviour.
Meerkat welfare in zoos depends on providing the social and environmental complexity that matches their highly cooperative natural lifestyle. The sentinel behaviour that makes meerkats so appealing to zoo visitors is a genuine welfare need: elevated vantage points that meerkats can occupy voluntarily to scan for threats fulfil the same motivational system whether or not predators are present. Sandy substrate for digging, group sizes that allow the cooperative social relationships meerkats form, and morning basking access all contribute to welfare outcomes that make meerkats among the more achievable zoo welfare successes when managed well.