Giraffes are among the most challenging large mammals to keep in captivity, with complex social, spatial, and nutritional needs that are difficult to meet in zoo environments. Understanding giraffe-specific welfare needs has improved significantly in recent decades.
Giraffe welfare in captivity presents unique challenges. Their evolved biology is adapted to open savannah with extensive movement across large home ranges and hours of daily browsing activity at height. Zoo environments struggle to provide either the space or the foraging complexity that giraffe welfare requires. Without sufficient browse and foraging enrichment, giraffes show stereotypic behaviours and oral fixation that indicate chronic frustration. Substrate matters significantly: hard concrete or packed earth causes joint deterioration in animals evolved for soft varied terrain. Modern best practice for zoo giraffes emphasises deep substrate, access to elevated browse feeders, complex social groupings, and extensive foraging enrichment distributed across space.