Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, with complex social, cognitive and emotional lives that make their welfare in captivity deeply challenging to meet.
Chimpanzee welfare in captivity requires extraordinary investment in social management and environmental complexity. Their fission-fusion social system makes group composition critically important — incompatible individuals cause severe social stress. Isolated or small-group housing causes depression, aggression and stereotypic behaviour. High-quality chimpanzee care requires large complex habitats with outdoor access, diverse enrichment programs and skilled keeper relationships. The research and entertainment industries have left legacies of traumatised chimpanzees requiring specialist sanctuary care. Conservation value of zoo populations must be weighed against the welfare costs of captivity for these cognitively sophisticated animals.