Research overview: pacing as thwarted ranging and appetitive motivation in captive carnivores

Stereotypic pacing is the signature abnormal behaviour of captive carnivores, and a leading explanation links it to thwarted ranging and unfulfilled appetitive, pre-consummatory motivation, the searching and travelling that would precede hunting in the wild. This overview surveys the evidence connecting natural home-range size and daily travel to captive pacing, the role of feeding anticipation in driving pre-feeding pacing, and how barren or under-stimulating enclosures intensify it. It examines competing and complementary explanations, including frustration, recurrent escape attempts and central nervous system changes that make established stereotypies persist. The synthesis frames pacing as a multi-causal welfare signal rooted partly in motivations that captive environments cannot easily satisfy, with implications for enclosure and feeding design.