Big cats in zoos require vast territories, complex social arrangements, and cognitive stimulation that challenge even the best-resourced facilities, making their welfare one of the most demanding areas of zoo animal management.
Big cat welfare in zoos represents some of the most challenging trade-offs in zoo management. The territorial drives of tigers and leopards are incompatible with the enclosure sizes most facilities can provide. Stereotypic pacing - seen in the majority of big cats in many zoo surveys - indicates that environmental conditions fail to meet behavioral needs. The best modern facilities have invested heavily in large, complex exhibits with sophisticated enrichment programs, and show genuine improvement in stereotypy rates. For conservation-dependent species like Amur tigers and snow leopards, zoo populations play a genuine role. For species not under conservation pressure, the welfare case for zoo keeping is less compelling.