Gorilla trekking tourism has been central to saving mountain gorillas from extinction, but brings genuine welfare risks from disease transmission, habituation stress, and tourism pressure.
Gorilla ecotourism creates a genuine welfare paradox: the tourism revenue that funds gorilla survival also imposes welfare costs on individual animals. Disease transmission risk is the most acute welfare concern — respiratory infections introduced by tourists have killed gorillas, and the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the reality of this risk when tourism was suspended globally. Habituation itself changes gorilla behavior in ways that may reduce welfare: habituated groups move differently, may be more exposed to human activity zones, and experience repeated disturbance during the tourist season. Against this, habituated gorillas receive veterinary care unavailable to unhabituated groups, and the conservation funding their tourism generates maintains the protected areas that allow gorillas to exist at all. Welfare-conscious ecotourism rigorously enforces health protocols, limits visit duration and frequency, and monitors behavioral indicators.