Flamingos are highly gregarious birds whose welfare in captivity depends critically on sufficiently large social groups and appropriate habitat.
The welfare of flamingos in captivity is strongly dependent on group size and environmental conditions. Flamingos are evolved for vast, shallow wetland environments and massive social colonies — conditions that almost no captive facility can replicate. Abnormal behaviors including stereotypic walking, social withdrawal, and reduced breeding success indicate the welfare deficit that smaller captive groups on inappropriate substrates experience. Welfare improvements require larger minimum group sizes and habitat design that mimics the shallow saline wetlands flamingos evolved in.