Mountain gorilla populations have grown to over 1,000 individuals — a conservation success — but remaining individuals face welfare threats from human disease transmission, snares, and habitat pressure.
Wild mountain gorilla welfare is relatively well-protected compared to other great apes, due to intensive conservation management, but significant welfare threats persist. Snare injuries causing limb loss or infection are treated by dedicated veterinary teams that can anaesthetise wild gorillas for treatment — a remarkable direct welfare intervention. Human respiratory disease transmission from tourists or rangers causes deaths that could be prevented with stricter health protocols. Infant poaching causes acute and severe trauma: mothers and protecting adults are killed, and surviving infants experience social deprivation and psychological trauma that affects behaviour permanently. The Gorilla Doctors organisation provides direct veterinary welfare services to wild mountain gorillas.