Providing behavioral variety and challenge for carnivores held in zoological collections.
Behavioral diversity is the central welfare challenge for captive carnivores, whose evolved behavioral repertoire is predicated on the demands of hunting, territorial defense, and social interaction that captivity cannot provide. Enrichment programs that approximate natural behavioral demands - through feeding challenges, environmental complexity, and social management - are the primary tool for reducing the behavioral poverty that drives stereotypies and chronic stress. The evidence base for specific enrichment effectiveness is growing, allowing increasingly targeted interventions. However, the fundamental tension between captive constraints and carnivore behavioral needs cannot be fully resolved through enrichment alone.