Nutrition is foundational to zoo animal welfare, with inappropriate diets causing disease, obesity, and metabolic disorders in species whose natural diets are difficult to replicate in captive settings.
Zoo nutrition science has advanced enormously but remains challenging for species with specialized dietary needs shaped by millions of years of evolutionary history. Animals evolved to consume specific prey, plants, or combinations found in their native ecosystems often receive nutritionally adequate but behaviorally and physiologically suboptimal substitutes in zoos. The consequences — dental disease, metabolic disorders, obesity, nutritional deficiencies — represent ongoing welfare costs. Best practice zoo nutrition combines species-specific nutritional analysis, food presentation that requires foraging behavior, and regular monitoring of body condition and health markers.