Feeding enrichment for zoo carnivores that simulates natural hunting behavior is essential for psychological welfare and helps prevent the stereotypic behavior associated with barren feeding regimes.
Carnivore boredom in zoos is primarily a feeding problem: when the behavioral complexity of hunting is removed and replaced by a daily meat delivery, intelligent predators have little to occupy their time. Enrichment that restores the behavioral complexity of feeding - hiding food, requiring physical problem-solving, providing appropriately sized carcasses - dramatically improves welfare by occupying time, stimulating cognition, and providing species-appropriate physical challenge.