Behavioral diversity as a potential indicator of positive animal welfare

Miller and colleagues proposed that the diversity of behaviours an animal performs, not just the presence or absence of specific behaviours, can serve as an indicator of positive welfare, with higher behavioural diversity reflecting a richer, more controllable environment. They reviewed conceptual and empirical support for the idea that animals in good welfare express a broad, balanced behavioural repertoire, whereas stressed or impoverished animals show narrowed repertoires dominated by inactivity or stereotypy. The approach offers a relatively simple, aggregate metric for welfare monitoring. For captive felids, tracking behavioural diversity provides a complement to stereotypy and cortisol measures, capturing whether enrichment and enclosure design genuinely expand the range of species-typical behaviours expressed.