Coatis are social, omnivorous procyonids from the Americas whose welfare in zoo settings requires appropriate group dynamics and environmental complexity.
Coati welfare in captivity benefits from their social adaptability and exploratory nature, but requires deliberate management of group composition and environmental complexity. Bands of related females with appropriate age structure display the rich social behaviors — allogrooming, play, cooperative foraging, and coordinated vigilance — that indicate positive welfare states. Barren exhibits rapidly become unstimulating for animals whose natural foraging activity occupies most of their waking hours. Regular substrate variation, novel foraging opportunities, and climbing structures that are regularly modified maintain behavioral engagement in animals who are intelligent enough to exhaust static enrichment quickly.