Animal Welfare and the 5 Domains
"What do you need to make you happy where you live? Is it just the physical items which are important or do you need more? Can your mental state affect your welfare?"
All accredited good zoos recognize that the animals in their care should have good welfare. Animal welfare can be considered as the individual state of wellbeing of an animal, and this is classified by both its physical and psychological condition. Within good zoos, animal welfare is based around the 5 Domains.
The 5 Domains model of animal welfare and is an update to the 5 Freedoms and is based around the provision of suitable
- Nutrition
- Environment
- Health
- Behaviour
- Mental state
These 5 Domains may overlap and have combined effects on the overall welfare status of an individual animal and therefore the 5 Domains’ can serve as a useful framework for the general assessment of animal welfare in a zoo.
In the Five Domains model, there are 4 physical domains (nutrition, environment, health and behaviour) they are concerned with the physical wellbeing. The 5th domain is the mental state which considers the psychological wellbeing of the animal. This represents the animal’s overall individual feelings and experiences and therefore the 5th domain is a key element of animal welfare. An animal may have positive or negative emotional states and it is the balance between these individual experiences that can influence an animal’s ‘Quality of Life’.
For more information (in detail) about the 5 Domain's go to
EAZA Animal Welfare Webinar - Ngaio Beausoleil - The 'Five
Domains model: History, value and updates
Can you match the 5 Domains to the correct picture?