Chimpanzees are humanity's closest living relatives, sharing 98.7% of our DNA, yet their welfare in the wild is severely threatened by habitat destruction, bushmeat hunting, and disease.
Chimpanzee welfare merits exceptional consideration given their cognitive and emotional sophistication. Chimpanzees form deep social bonds — loss of family members causes observable grief and long-term behavioral changes. Orphaned infants require years of intensive socialization rehabilitation to develop normal social behavior. Bushmeat hunting disrupts community social structures when alpha individuals are killed, creating cascading social disruption. Ebola outbreaks cause horrific cluster mortality events. The psychological trauma of captive research settings — even without invasive procedures — caused chronic stress and abnormal behaviors in chimpanzees that took years of sanctuary rehabilitation to address. Their welfare needs and the depth of their suffering capacity are closer to humans than to most other species.