There are around 10 000 zoological gardens around the world, and all of them house animals from various species with diverse Umwelten. All contemporary accredited zoos have taken on the responsibility to adhere to the highest welfare standards with regard to the animals they keep, however it has proven to be a very difficult task. We believe that assessing the suitability of a zoo environment for a specific animal should encompass consideration for the presence of different meaning-carriers necessary for the actuation of different functional circles. Also, the operation of functional circles (whether they are complete or incomplete) is crucial, and assessments should be made about the availability of different eco-fields that are needed to fulfil the activities of an animal. A more profound analysis is needed on the effect that the environment of the zoological garden has on zoo animals. From the relevant research it is evident that the species with complex Umwelten seem to struggle the most in captivity, because it is difficult to reproduce their natural habitats both, regarding quantity and quality, and species-specific social groupings. Consequently, the environment of the zoological garden, for many species, does not enable the animals to express all of their species-specific behaviours, and often the animals’ time allocation differs from their in situ counterparts. This, in turn, leads to manifestation of stereotypic behaviours (i.e. relatively invariant and repetitive behaviours not found in in situ animals). This presentation will analyse these behavioural peculiarities called stereotypies by employing the concepts and reasoning provided by Jakob von Uexküll and, to some extent, James Gibson. We shall consider the relation between the perceptual cue and effector cue to reveal the inner working mechanism of stereotypic behaviours and rely on the concept of environmental affordances to discuss the interactions that zoo animals have with their surroundings.