Mustelids as a family present shared welfare challenges in zoo settings — understanding their ecology guides welfare provision.
Mustelid welfare in zoo settings shares common themes across species: high locomotor activity frustrated by confined spaces, strong olfactory and predatory drives requiring complex enrichment, and solitary social tendencies that make inappropriate housing particularly damaging. Welfare-positive mustelid management provides the largest possible enclosures, multiple enrichment opportunities daily that engage foraging and predatory behaviour, scent-marking opportunities on varied substrates, and appropriate solitary or small-group social management. Monitoring for stereotypic behaviour — the most reliable indicator of welfare inadequacy in this family — should be regular and systematic, with enclosure improvement triggered by observation of stereotypy development.