Maned wolves are unique South American canids with specific dietary needs including fruit, and their welfare in zoo settings requires large enclosures, appropriate diet management, and consideration of their largely solitary nature.
Maned wolf welfare in captivity requires departing from assumptions based on familiar pack-living wolves or domestic dogs. As largely solitary animals, maned wolves do not need wolf-style pack housing, and inappropriate social groupings can cause stress through unwanted social contact. Their unusually frugivorous diet for a canid means that a purely meat-based zoo diet is nutritionally and behaviorally inadequate. The lobeira berry and other fruits engage natural foraging behavior beyond the mechanical consumption of meat-only diets. Space requirements that allow expression of their distinctive high-stepping, pacing gait are important for physical welfare. Olfactory enrichment that engages their highly developed scent communication system provides cognitive stimulation matched to their evolved behavioral repertoire.