Gorillas are among the most cognitively complex primates and present significant welfare challenges in captivity. Social housing, cognitive enrichment, and appropriate habitat design are essential to their wellbeing.
Gorillas in well-managed zoos with appropriate social groups, large complex habitats, and extensive enrichment programmes can have reasonable welfare. However, gorillas in poor conditions, particularly those housed singly or in small barren enclosures, show severe psychological distress manifested as stereotypies, aggression, and self-injurious behaviour. The bar for adequate gorilla welfare is high given their cognitive complexity, and institutions that cannot meet it should not hold this species. Gorilla welfare improvements also benefit conservation by enabling successful breeding programmes.