Animal welfare concepts

Walking around a zoo can be a joyful, fascinating experience. But it can also raise an important question: how do you know if the animals you’re seeing are happy? Are they thriving, or simply coping with their environment? Animal welfare is complex. It unfolds over time, behind the scenes as much as in public view, and to assess it thoroughly, a comprehensive welfare assessment needs to be applied over many days. But the encouraging news is this: even as a visitor, you can le

Resilience has become a prominent topic in zoo and aquarium welfare science, and for good reason. For those working with animals under managed care, it's clear that it’s not just the current welfare state that matters but also how animals cope with challenges over time. This also means the animals need to be given challenges to overcome, which must be carefully designed. This blog explores what resilience means, how it aligns and differs with welfare, and how to build and me