Wild chimpanzees face multiple welfare threats from habitat destruction to hunting and disease, with their close cognitive and social similarity to humans intensifying moral concern.
Wild chimpanzee welfare deserves particularly serious moral consideration given the overwhelming evidence for rich emotional and social lives in these animals. Chimpanzees experience grief, form long-term social bonds, use tools culturally, and exhibit self-awareness — a combination of capacities that makes their welfare experiences morally significant in ways that parallel human welfare in important respects. The welfare threats they face — habitat destruction, disease epidemics, and hunting — cause suffering that includes both physical harm and social disruption as communities are fragmented. Conservation of wild chimpanzee populations is simultaneously a welfare imperative at both individual and population levels. Sanctuaries for orphaned chimpanzees provide welfare care for individuals who cannot return to wild populations.