Meerkats are highly social mongoose that live in complex cooperative groups. Managing their social dynamics and providing appropriate enrichment is essential for good captive welfare.
Meerkat welfare in captivity depends on maintaining appropriate group social dynamics and providing environmental complexity for their active foraging lifestyle. Inadequate group size prevents the cooperative behavior central to meerkat social identity. Exhibit design providing multiple levels, sandy substrate for digging, rock features for basking and sentinel positions, and foraging opportunities through scatter feeding and puzzle devices engages their natural behavioral repertoire. Dominant pair suppression of subordinate reproduction is a natural social dynamic that does not represent a welfare problem, but physical space allowing subordinate animals to avoid dominant individuals is essential for low chronic stress in the group.