Meerkats are highly social mongooses that require stable group structures, foraging enrichment, and opportunities for sentinel behavior to maintain welfare in zoo settings.
Meerkat welfare in zoos depends fundamentally on maintaining stable, related family groups where social roles including sentinel duty can be expressed. Disrupting group composition causes intense social stress. Foraging enrichment that mimics invertebrate and reptile hunting — including buried food items and live insects — occupies natural behavioral time budgets. Health monitoring for tuberculosis is a critical management requirement in captive populations.