Chimpanzees are humans' closest living relatives; their profound social and cognitive complexity makes captive welfare one of the most demanding challenges in zoo animal care.
Chimpanzee welfare in captivity is fundamentally about social complexity. Individuals need not just companionship but the ability to form alliances, resolve conflicts, reconcile after disagreements, engage in cooperative foraging, and participate in the full range of social behavior that characterizes wild community life. Enclosures should provide multiple indoor and outdoor spaces allowing group members to choose proximity or distance. Cognitive enrichment through tool use opportunities, puzzle feeders, painting, and keeper-directed training sessions supports their extraordinary intelligence. Former biomedical research chimpanzees often carry significant psychological trauma and require specialized rehabilitation. Chimpanzee use in biomedical research ended in the US in 2015 — a landmark welfare advance.