Gorillas are highly intelligent great apes whose zoo welfare depends on complex social groups, cognitive enrichment, appropriate diet, and management that respects their sophisticated social and emotional lives.
Gorilla welfare in modern zoological collections represents one of the successes of applied welfare science — practices have changed substantially based on understanding of gorilla social complexity, cognitive needs, and health. Social housing in family groups with stable relationships, regular positive reinforcement training, complex foraging enrichment that occupies the majority of active time, and health monitoring including cardiac screening all contribute to significantly better welfare than historical bare-cage approaches. Cardiac disease remains a significant welfare challenge in captive gorillas; the association with stress suggests that chronic psychological welfare compromise may be contributing to this leading cause of premature death. High-fibre, low-calorie diets that replicate the folivore component of natural gorilla diet are associated with better metabolic health than fruit-heavy captive diets. Gorillas that are managed through positive reinforcement training for health monitoring procedures show lower stress indicators than those requiring physical restraint. The conservation value of zoo gorilla populations, which contribute to studbook management of critically endangered populations, gives their welfare management particular importance.