Using the Welfare Quality® framework to develop a welfare assessment protocol for captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) (2025)

Gill, N. M., Bueno, M., Anderson, N. E.

Abstract

Good welfare is of inherent value to all captive animals and promotes species conservation objectives. Concern for animal welfare is growing globally, and research shows that animal welfare is a top priority for zoo visitors. There is, therefore, an urgent need for zoos to develop and validate species-specific welfare assessment tools with a shift in focus away from avoiding negative affective states, and towards promoting positive ones. This shift in emphasis requires the development of comprehensive and robust welfare assessment protocols incorporating species-specific indicators. This study aimed to identify and propose welfare indicators for captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) that could be used to adapt the EU Welfare Quality® protocol for this species. A literature review was carried out according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and the authors followed the principles of a systematic review to identify a comprehensive set of welfare indicators for this species. Overall, 14 animal-based and 16 resource-based indicators are proposed to assess the 12 criteria and four principles of Welfare Quality®. This study represents the first effort to adapt the EU Welfare Quality® protocol to assess captive chimpanzee welfare and illustrates how this protocol can be adapted to develop a taxon-specific welfare assessment tool once species-specific natural history and biology are considered.