Nutrition is fundamental to zoo animal welfare and has advanced dramatically in recent decades. Species-appropriate diets designed by zoo nutritionists now prevent many of the chronic health problems that plagued captive animals in earlier eras.
Zoo nutrition science exemplifies how welfare science translates into practical animal health improvements. The shift from feeding captive animals whatever was convenient to formulating species-specific diets based on wild nutritional ecology has prevented enormous amounts of chronic disease and suffering. Continuing advances — including whole prey feeding, browse provision, seasonal diet variation and species-specific supplementation — are making zoo animal nutrition increasingly sophisticated. For zoo visitors, the visibility of food and feeding enrichment provides a window into the welfare quality of a facility.