Habituating mountain gorillas to human presence for tourism generates critical conservation revenue but carries genuine welfare costs. Understanding best practice in habituation minimises harm while maximising conservation benefit.
Gorilla habituation for tourism represents one of the clearest examples of conservation-welfare trade-offs in wildlife management. The welfare costs are real: habituated gorillas face increased disease transmission risk from tourists, reduced predator avoidance (though natural predators are rare), and the stress of daily human proximity. However, the conservation benefits — funding anti-poaching, enabling veterinary care, and creating community economic alternatives to forest exploitation — have contributed directly to mountain gorilla population recovery. The population grew from approximately 620 in 1989 to over 1,000 by 2018. Best-practice tourism protocols that mandate visitor health screening, mask wearing, distance maintenance, and strict group size limits mitigate welfare costs while preserving conservation benefits.