Zoo animals are increasingly living to old age, creating end-of-life welfare challenges that zoos are developing new expertise to manage.
Geriatric zoo animal welfare requires the same honest welfare assessment as any end-of-life companion animal decision, but in a more complex institutional context. Public attachment to well-known long-lived animals can create pressure to continue life-extending interventions beyond the point where quality of life is maintained. Welfare-focussed zoos resist this pressure in favour of animal-centred decision-making. The development of animal palliative care — managing pain, maintaining enrichment appropriate to reduced mobility, and providing comfortable environments for final months or years — is an important welfare advance. End-of-life quality is as important a welfare indicator as lifetime health.