Meerkats are highly social mongooses with complex dominance hierarchies that present unique welfare management challenges in zoo settings.
Zoo meerkat welfare requires understanding and managing their complex social hierarchy. Dominant individuals suppress reproduction in subordinates through physical intimidation and infanticide — in confined zoo spaces without the ability to disperse, this can cause chronic stress in subordinate animals that cannot escape the dominant female. Group composition management, exhibit design with multiple refuges, and careful monitoring of body condition and stress behaviors in subordinates are essential welfare management tools. Foraging enrichment is high priority — meerkats are highly motivated foragers spending much of their day searching for food. Scatter feeding, puzzle feeders, and digging substrates for buried food items engage their natural foraging motivation. Their sentinel behavior can be observed in zoo settings and provides visitor education.