Chimpanzees are highly social great apes whose zoo welfare is critically dependent on complex social groupings and cognitively stimulating environments.
Chimpanzee welfare in captivity requires large, socially complex groups with access to naturalistic enclosures that challenge their intelligence and provide for social needs. Isolation or pair housing is inadequate for these highly social animals. Common welfare problems in substandard facilities include hair plucking, coprophagy, self-injury, and severe aggression. Best practice facilities provide outdoor access, complex foraging enrichment, social management that mirrors natural fission-fusion structure, and management plans that address the psychological needs of dominant and subordinate individuals. The ongoing captive chimpanzee population requires long-term management as research use declined.