The drill is one of the most endangered primates in Africa. Zoo populations play a conservation role while requiring careful welfare management of a complex, hierarchical species.
Drill welfare in captivity requires the same attention to social complexity as other Old World monkeys with hierarchical social structures. Group size must be sufficient for normal social dynamics including coalition formation, dominance display, and affiliative behaviour. Enclosure design must allow appropriate social distance management — subordinate animals must be able to withdraw from dominant individuals without conflict escalating. The conservation urgency for drills is genuine — wild populations are declining and the captive population provides genuine insurance. Managing captive drills well requires understanding of their social ecology and commitment to providing the group complexity their social intelligence requires. Conservation partnerships with in-range sanctuaries like CERCOPAN that work directly with wild population management add conservation value to captive programs.