African wild dogs are highly social pack animals with complex social hierarchies, and their welfare in captivity depends critically on appropriate group composition and management.
African wild dogs in zoos face the challenge of maintaining complex social structures in limited space. Their highly cooperative nature means that social disruption - through individual removals, incompatible pairings or insufficient group size - causes significant welfare harm. The best zoo programmes maintain stable packs with appropriate hierarchies and provide large, complex enclosures that allow pack movement and hunting simulation.