Blog: why zoo animal nutrition is still so important

Dr Lauren Samet on why nutrition remains a hot topic for animal welfare.

Recently I’ve been lucky enough to attend both the BIAZA Mammal Working Group Conference and the first ever EAZA Animal Welfare Forum. Both were excellent experiences and shared a common theme among some of the talks - the timely push towards creating and completing Animal Welfare Assessments tailored to the species within our care.

Animal welfare, providing animals in zoos with the best possible conditions has been on the radars of zoo professionals for many decades now. Working as an Animal Nutritionist at Chester Zoo and as Chair of EAZA’s European Zoo Nutrition Group, it probably won’t surprise you that this blog is biased towards the importance of a good diet, feeding practices and nutrition in supporting animals’ welfare.

Often the first of the five welfare domains to get a call out when being listed, nutrition (previously referred to as the “freedom from hunger and thirst” or the “need for a suitable diet” in older welfare literature), is a basic husbandry staple to keep an animal alive, however a good diet is more than simply one that keeps an animal alive for any period of time.

While nutrition is not more important than the other aspects of welfare, it can affect all of them. Malnutrition can negatively impact an animal’s health, whilst appropriate nutrition can be preventative against disease. Feeding “enrichment” and providing a natural diet can be useful to promote natural behaviours, encourage wild type daily activity budgets, and help prevent boredom and physiological imbalance. An environment with natural foraging opportunities can also provide these benefits to welfare, whilst other environmental factors such as UVB light, can play a role in an animal’s nutritional status, health and ultimately, once again, welfare. As we know, all these elements alongside the anticipation, satisfaction and satiation that food and water can bring can impact an animal’s cognitive health, mental state, and the positive experiences they have access to within their lives (positive experiences beyond the “moment on the lips” satisfaction of receiving a treat; think instead: an old age with reduced joint pain because of living an active life at an appropriate weight, which supports mobility and muscle tone maintenance).

With all this in mind – can more be done to support nutrition within our sector?

Yes. Forward thinking, welfare and conservation minded zoos are constantly looking to raise the bar. We’re continually looking at ways to improve standards further to develop and provide even better levels of care for all species. Nutrition is an area where progress across the sector can be made through increased investment in dietary analysis and subject education, all of which means deployment of more trained and dedicated zoo nutritionists.

There are still though lots of things we can all do, in any zoo-based role, to promote good animal welfare via favourable nutritional choices within our zoos:

1. Read and follow published husbandry guidelines – EAZA’s Best Practice Guidelines or BIAZA’s Animal Care Sheets should contain sections on feeding and diet that are evidence-based and written and/or signed off by taxonomic experts. Use the science that exists.
2. Ask for nutritional support from a nutritional specialist. BIAZA have a Nutrition Sub-Group but they are also part of EAZA’s European Zoo Nutrition Group (ENG) – a group of exotic animal nutrition experts that can offer support and guidance with animal diets and feeding (and are available to help write species best practice guidelines too if needed). Visit our website to find out more about how to get in touch.
3. Get specific in the dietary sections of species’ welfare assessment tools – if you are designing a welfare assessment tool, get in touch with BIAZA or EAZA Nutrition Groups for assistance to refine the question frameworks surrounding dietary provision (e.g., natural foraging/feeding time budgets, tailored nutrient intakes, and feeding tailored to life stage can all improve an animal’s welfare).
4. Join us! – whether you are completely new to zoo nutrition or pride yourself in your Mastermind level knowledge of toad gut biota, the biennial EAZA Zoo Nutrition Conference 2023 is being held in Latvia at Riga Zoo in January 2023, whilst our Facebook page shares the latest news, events, research and resources in all things zoo nutrition. We are also currently running a survey to identify nutrition specialists for various TAGs and EEPS and ESBs (please take part here).
5. Share good practice – If you are doing something great in terms of diet and feeding, if you’re seeing evidence-based reliable, replicable, and valid positive welfare results based on dietary changes you’ve made then let people know! Present at conferences, speak at meetings, and share your data; advocate for positive improvements and changes in this sector – it needs your help!

Zoo animal nutrition is still really important for animal welfare and it’s important to prioritise it within our zoos.

By Dr Lauren Samet

Chair of EAZA’s European Zoo Nutrition Group / Member of BIAZA Nutrition Sub-Group

Email: [email protected]

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not a reflection of BIAZA's positions.