Zoo accreditation provides baseline standards but comprehensive welfare auditing requires assessment approaches that go beyond what accreditation inspections cover.
Zoo accreditation represents important minimum standards but should not be equated with comprehensive welfare assurance. Accreditation inspections are typically infrequent and may miss welfare problems present between inspection cycles. Outcome-based welfare assessment that regularly measures animal behaviour, health parameters and stress indicators provides more sensitive welfare monitoring. The shift in zoo welfare science toward positive welfare - assessing what good welfare looks like rather than just absence of suffering - requires new assessment tools not yet embedded in accreditation standards. Leading zoos are going beyond accreditation requirements in their own welfare assessment programmes.