Jungle not jail for our closest cousins

31/07/2025

Powerful new Born Free report exposes the plight of captive great apes in zoos.

An orangutan sits on the concrete floor of its enclosure at Dudley Zoo

An orangutan at Dudley Zoo (c) Aaron Gekoski

Launched today, Born Free’s compelling new report Our Captive Cousins: The Plight of Great Apes in Zoos delivers a damning indictment of the ethical, scientific, and practical claims made by those seeking to justify the keeping of great apes, which include gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, in zoos across the UK and Europe. 

Backed by world renowned experts, conservationists and celebrities, we’re calling for an urgent, humane phase-out of great apes in zoos, and are urging the public not to visit attractions which exploit our closest cousins for profit.

READ THE REPORT PLEDGE TO OPPOSE GREAT APE CAPTIVITY WATCH OUR POWERFUL VIDEO

Shockingly, in Europe alone there are more than 1,500 of these highly intelligent, profoundly social creatures held in zoos, including more than 300 in 21 establishments across the UK and Channel Islands. Drawing on decades of observation, scientific literature, and powerful case studies, the compelling new report exposes the suffering endured by great apes in environments that will never meet their complex physical, emotional, and social needs.

Great apes are our closest living relatives, with immense capacity for learning. Despite this, we continue to incarcerate them in zoos where they are denied choice over fundamental aspects of their lives – how they live, who they live with, who they mate with, or how to escape conflict. As our report reveals, the results are catastrophic for both the animals and, all too often, for the humans who look after them or who visit the facilities where they are held.

Key findings from the report include:

A chimpanzee sitting on a platform at Chester Zoo © Aaron Gekoski

Captive great apes suffer from chronic stress, obesity, heart disease, and poor mental health.
Great apes in zoos experience traumatic births, high rates of stillbirths, maternal rejection, and instances of infanticide.
Zoo guidelines recommend medicating great apes with antidepressants to alleviate stress caused by living in groupings and enclosures so far removed from their natural habitats.
Instances where a great ape’s inability to escape conflict, due to enclosures which lack the space and complexity of wild environments, has resulted in serious injury or death.
Occasions where great apes have escaped their zoo enclosures, and humans have been injured – typically the animals pay with their lives.
European breeding programmes have produced an excess of male great apes, and these ‘surplus’ individuals face a deeply uncertain future.

The comprehensive report also questions claims by zoos that the keeping and breeding of great apes in captivity is important for their conservation. Zoo-bred great apes are genetically and behaviourally unsuitable for release into the wild, and releasing zoo-bred apes poses serious risks to wild populations, as confirmed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

We conclude that the keeping of great apes in zoos should be humanely and compassionately phased out across the UK, Europe and ultimately the world. National governments, regulators, national and regional zoo associations and NGOs must work together to bring this archaic, unethical, and damaging practice to an end. Will you stand with us?

TAKE ACTION

We’re calling for members of the public to public to stand with our closest living relatives, not stare at them behind bars and to bring an end to the suffering of great apes, imprisoned for show.

A gorilla at Twycross Zoo (c) Aaron Gekoski

The power lies with society; Zoos and tourist attractions only continue to operate because people keep paying entry fees, carparking and souvenirs.

Please vote with your feet, and to pledge not to visit places that keep great apes captive.

MAKE THE PLEDGE

If you feel strongly about great apes no longer suffering in captivity, you can also write to any of the UK zoos currently keeping great apes, and let them know it’s time for change, using our template letter.

WRITE TO A ZOO

WATCH: JUNGLE NOT JAIL FOR OUR CAPTIVE COUSINS

Our report is backed by leading experts and celebrities

Dame Virginia McKenna sitting with hands clasped, smiling at the camera

Dame Virginia McKenna, Born Free’s Co-Founder and Trustee

“When I see a great ape looking at me from behind the bars or reinforced glass in a zoo, something in me falters. Their eyes reflect a depth of feeling we instinctively recognise, connect and empathise with. We share their sense of a loss of freedom, of purpose, of self. These intelligent, feeling beings do not belong in cages. We must find the courage simply to say: the keeping of our closest cousins in captivity for our entertainment must end.” 

Will Travers OBE, Born Free’s Co-Founder & Executive President

“Wild great apes and the places they live in around the world are crying out for help. Their conservation is not enhanced by keeping thousands locked up in zoos. That teaches us nothing.

Treating them as living commodities, to be stared at rather than admired and celebrated, shows us that, while humans may dominate this planet of the apes, we know the price of everything but the value of nothing.” 

Ian Redmond, Born Free Advisor & World-renowned Great Ape Expert

“Having had the privilege of spending time with great apes in their natural habitat, where they take their own decisions in life, I find it increasingly uncomfortable seeing their lives in captivity.  And having surveyed apes in UK zoos 35 years ago, I know some individuals who have faced the same daily routine for nearly four decades.  The zoo industry and the Government must take note of changing public attitudes and, based on scientific evidence of ape cognition and ecology, heed the recommendations in Born Free’s new report.” 

Nicky Campbell, Broadcaster and Born Free Patron

“When we look into the eyes of Great Apes in captivity for our entertainment we see something painfully familiar – sadness, frustration, a yearning for a life in the wild as nature intended. Our closest cousins, caged and gazed at, reduced to exhibits when they were meant to roam forests and feel the rain on their backs. We can tell ourselves it’s education, conservation but deep down, many of us feel the unease. If that feeling, that empathy, means anything, then we must choose not to visit zoos that keep them in captivity” 

Kirsty Gallacher, Broadcaster & Born Free Patron

“When we see great apes in captivity, we’re not seeing education or conservation in action – we’re seeing confinement. These remarkable, intelligent beings deserve forests, family, and freedom, not glass walls and man-made environments. We share a deep connection with them, and with that comes a responsibility to do better. If you care, choose not to visit zoos that keep great apes in captivity. Let’s stand up for their right to live wild and free.” 