Meerkats are highly social mongooses whose welfare in captivity depends on maintaining their complex cooperative group structures, providing appropriate foraging enrichment and managing inter-group conflicts.
Meerkat welfare in captivity is significantly better than for many large carnivores and primates, but requires careful social management. The dominant breeding female in captive mobs suppresses reproduction in subordinates through hormonal suppression and active aggression — this is natural behaviour, but in the confined space of a zoo exhibit, subordinates cannot disperse as they would in the wild, leading to chronic social stress and submissive individuals that cannot escape dominant aggression. Introduction of new individuals into established groups can trigger severe aggression and injury. Foraging deprivation is a key welfare concern: meerkats evolved to spend most of their waking hours digging and searching for food, and simple bowl feeding fails to meet this drive. Scatter feeding, buried food and puzzle feeders significantly improve welfare. Their need for warmth (they sunbathe daily to regulate temperature) means cold climates require heated indoor areas. Tuberculosis infection causes serious welfare harm and necessitates careful biosecurity.