Foraging enrichment for zoo meerkats addresses their core behavioural need for digging and searching for food, reducing stereotypic behaviour and improving welfare outcomes.
Foraging enrichment for zoo meerkats addresses the core welfare deficit of captive feeding: the absence of the behavioural complexity associated with wild food acquisition. Meerkats that receive all food from static bowls are deprived of the majority of their natural daily activity budget. This deprivation contributes to stereotypic behaviour, social tension, and reduced behavioural diversity. Scatter feeding, buried food items, and cognitive foraging challenges provide the enrichment needed to restore something approaching a natural activity budget within the constraints of captive management. The low cost and high welfare benefit of foraging enrichment makes it among the most welfare-efficient interventions in zoo management.