Measuring zoo animal welfare: theory and practice

Hill and Broom reviewed the conceptual and practical challenges of assessing welfare in zoo animals, applying Broom's coping-based definition to the captive context. They surveyed the range of indicators, behavioural, physiological, health and reproductive, and discussed how to combine them, account for species and individual differences, and avoid over-reliance on any single measure. The paper emphasised that welfare assessment must be systematic, evidence-based and tied to clear definitions, and it bridged welfare theory with the realities of zoo practice. It is a frequently cited framework for designing welfare-assessment protocols. For felids it provides the methodological scaffolding for integrating stereotypy, cortisol, body condition and behaviour into coherent welfare judgements.