Zoo animals now routinely live past natural lifespans, creating unique welfare challenges for aging animals. Evidence-based geriatric care dramatically improves quality of life.
Zoo geriatric care welfare parallels companion animal senior care - both require proactive identification of age-related conditions, appropriate pain management, environmental modification, and honest quality of life assessment. A 50-year-old chimpanzee in a zoo has outlived its wild counterparts by decades due to veterinary care, protection from predation, and consistent nutrition. This extended lifespan creates welfare responsibilities: managing the arthritis, vision changes, and potentially cognitive decline that come with extreme old age. Exhibit modifications that reduce the need for jumping and climbing, softer substrates for arthritic joints, modified diets for aging digestive systems, and reduced social pressure from younger, more vigorous animals all contribute to quality of life in aging zoo animals.