Tigers in zoos face significant welfare challenges from spatial limitations and the suppression of their apex predator instincts. Evidence-based approaches improve their quality of life.
Zoo tigers present profound welfare challenges that even excellent facilities cannot fully resolve. The spatial limitation alone - from hundreds of square kilometers to small exhibits - cannot be adequately compensated for. The suppression of predatory behavior, which drives wild tiger cognition and daily activity, leaves captive tigers with nowhere to direct their most powerful behavioral drives. The prevalence of stereotypic pacing in zoo tigers across the world is evidence of how poorly captivity meets their needs. Better zoos invest in complex habitats with varied terrain, scent-based enrichment using prey animal smells, live feeding opportunities (large carcasses), and sufficient exhibit size for basic locomotion. Even so, the welfare gap between captivity and wild existence for an apex predator of this complexity is substantial.