Wild chimpanzees face habitat loss, disease, and hunting pressure. Their welfare as individuals within social communities adds moral dimension to conservation that goes beyond population metrics.
Wild chimpanzee welfare has an individual dimension that conservation science often abstracts into population statistics. Research at long-term field sites has revealed the lives of individual chimpanzees — their personalities, relationships, family histories, and experiences of loss, injury, and aging — in ways that make their welfare as individuals morally immediate. A chimpanzee who loses her infant to a predator, or who is attacked and injured by a neighboring community, suffers in ways that those who know her recognize as genuine. Conservation programs that protect chimpanzee habitat and reduce disease transmission serve both population conservation goals and the welfare of individual animals whose experiences matter morally in their own right.