Meeting the nutritional needs of wild animals in zoo settings is complex and often poorly understood, with diet inadequacy contributing to chronic welfare problems across multiple species.
Nutritional welfare in zoos is often invisible — unlike stereotypic behaviour or visible injury, diet inadequacy manifests slowly as chronic health problems over months or years. A great ape developing metabolic bone disease from vitamin D deficiency, or a big cat with neurological symptoms from taurine deficiency, may not appear obviously unwell until disease is advanced. The welfare stakes are high: nutrition underpins immune function, reproductive health, musculoskeletal integrity, and neurological function. Enrichment feeding that distributes food in ways requiring searching, manipulation, and problem-solving addresses both nutritional needs and the behavioural deprivation inherent to captive environments. Zoo accreditation standards now typically require documented nutrition plans, but implementation quality varies considerably.