Gerenuks are extraordinary browsing antelopes from the Horn of Africa that stand bipedally to feed from tall shrubs. Their highly specialised diet and behaviour create distinctive welfare challenges in zoo environments.
Gerenuk welfare in zoos is fundamentally dependent on two factors: appropriate diet and enclosure design that enables bipedal browsing. Standard ungulate feeding regimes — hay, pellets, low-level browse — fail to engage the gerenuk's specialised feeding anatomy and motivation. Providing browse at height (1.5–2 m) in a variety of thorny and leafy species enables the natural bipedal posture that defines this species' ecological niche. Without this, animals may show reduced activity, misdirected foraging, and compromised nutritional intake if their gut microbiome is adapted to a leafy browse diet rather than grass-based feeds. Arid-adapted physiology means gerenuks may over-drink if given unrestricted water access in humid climates, making management of water provision and environmental humidity important considerations in temperate zoo settings. Enclosure design should allow retreat from visitor view and minimise social competition by providing adequate space for the natural loose social associations of this species.