Mountain gorilla conservation is a success story — populations have recovered from the brink of extinction but welfare challenges persist.
Individual mountain gorillas face welfare threats from multiple sources — disease exposure from habituated groups, habitat disturbance and the trauma of poaching-related infant orphaning. Orphaned gorillas require intensive socialization care before integration into groups. Conservation success has improved population-level prospects, but individual welfare remains vulnerable. The close human management required for conservation has its own welfare costs that must be minimized.