Mountain gorillas have recovered remarkably through intensive conservation efforts, but gorilla trekking tourism creates ongoing disease transmission risks and behavioral disruption that require careful welfare management.
Mountain gorillas that have been habituated to human presence accept visitor proximity, but this acceptance is not indicative of welfare neutrality. Respiratory disease transmission from human visitors has caused illness and deaths in habituated groups — viral respiratory infections in gorilla groups are frequently traced to tourist contact. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated this vulnerability sharply, with gorilla groups testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Tourism revenue is genuinely critical to mountain gorilla conservation — it funds anti-poaching, ranger salaries, and community benefits that protect habitat. The welfare calculus involves balancing disease transmission risk (reduced by strict protocols) against the conservation funding that protects the population. Well-managed gorilla tourism with strict health protocols represents a defensible welfare tradeoff.