Gorillas are highly intelligent great apes with profound social needs. Their welfare in zoo settings requires appropriate group structures, complex environments, and expert management of their social dynamics.
Gorilla welfare is inextricably linked to social structure quality. Bachelor groups, harem groups, and mixed age-sex groups each present different management challenges; no single formula suits all individuals. The long developmental arc of gorilla social learning means that hand-reared or poorly socialised individuals may never achieve full behavioural competence. Heart disease — the leading cause of death in captive male gorillas — may be linked to chronic psychological stress, creating an urgent case for welfare-improving management. Naturalistic substrate diversity, complex foraging environments, and appropriate group composition that allows normal dominance, affiliation, and reproductive behaviour are welfare essentials that good zoos continuously work to optimise.