Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives and face threats from habitat loss, hunting, and disease. Their welfare encompasses both conservation of wild populations and care of individuals in sanctuaries.
Wild chimpanzee welfare spans both population-level conservation threats and individual suffering from hunting, disease, and habitat loss. Orphaned chimps from bushmeat hunting require decades of sanctuary care as they cannot be reintroduced once they have lost natural foraging and social skills. Sanctuary welfare for chimps requires complex multi-individual social groups, large forest or naturalistic enclosures, and expert long-term management. Conservation interventions including habitat protection, community engagement, and law enforcement reduce population-level threats. The complexity of chimpanzee social and cognitive needs makes their welfare one of the most demanding to address adequately in any captive setting.