Chimpanzees have among the most complex social lives of any non-human animal. Meeting their social and cognitive needs in zoo settings requires exceptional investment and expertise.
Chimpanzee welfare in captivity requires confronting the fundamental incompatibility between their evolved social complexity and any captive environment. Even the best zoo settings cannot replicate the fission-fusion social dynamics, cognitive stimulation, and physical scope of wild chimpanzee life. Welfare assessment must be honest about this gap while working to minimize it. The cognitive sophistication of chimpanzees means they can suffer profoundly from inadequate social arrangements and behavioral restriction.