Chimpanzees face welfare harm from bushmeat hunting that kills adults and orphans infants, from habitat loss, and from infectious disease transmission from humans, threatening their survival in West and Central Africa.
Chimpanzee welfare involves layered threats each causing significant individual suffering. Bushmeat hunting kills adults — often with wire snares that cause painful slow death or injury — and leaves infants who witness maternal death before being captured. Infant chimpanzees who survive are typically sold as pets, spending formative social years in isolation without the complex social learning environment they require. Respiratory disease transmission from human researchers and tourists causes illness in animals with no immunity to common human pathogens. Habitat fragmentation forces chimpanzees into smaller forest fragments with inadequate food resources and increasing contact with human settlements and disease.