Meerkats are highly social mongooses from the Kalahari that require large family groups, extensive burrowing opportunities, and warm environments to maintain good welfare in zoological settings.
Meerkat welfare in zoos centers on appropriate group size, burrowing opportunity, and thermal management. As cooperative breeders with complex social structures, meerkats in pairs or very small groups cannot express the full range of sentinel behavior, cooperative pup-rearing, and social learning that constitutes natural meerkat society. Groups of at least 5-8 individuals — ideally with a natural age structure — provide the social environment meerkats need. Burrowing is not merely a behavioral preference but a core safety and thermal regulation need: meerkats retreat to burrows when temperatures are extreme, when predators are detected, and for sleeping. Exhibits that lack adequate substrate depth for functional burrowing fail to meet this need. Thermal management is critical — meerkats from the Kalahari experience cold stress in temperate climates without heated indoor areas and warm shelters. The popularity of meerkats as interactive zoo animals creates welfare risks through excessive handling and interaction with visitors, which should be managed to prevent chronic stress.