Wild chimpanzees face existential threats from habitat loss, disease, and hunting, with each population loss representing irreplaceable cultural knowledge and individual animals with rich social and emotional lives.
Wild chimpanzees are among the animals whose welfare we can most confidently assess as morally significant — they have complex social bonds, mourn their dead, experience joy in play, and suffer acutely from trauma and loss. Each individual lost to hunting, disease, or habitat destruction was a unique being with relationships, learned skills, and emotional experiences. Conservation of chimpanzee populations is simultaneously a biodiversity imperative and an obligation to the welfare of individual animals whose psychological sophistication leaves no reasonable doubt about their capacity to suffer and to flourish.