Mountain gorillas are the only great ape with an increasing wild population. Their conservation success offers lessons for protecting other critically endangered primates.
Mountain gorilla welfare is inextricably linked to conservation success. Individual gorillas benefit from veterinary interventions — treating snare injuries, respiratory disease, and parasite loads — that would be impossible without the habituated, individually known population that ecotourism monitoring has created. Disease surveillance protects individual gorillas while also protecting the population. The welfare of individual gorillas and the survival of the species are aligned in this case: every intervention that keeps individuals healthy contributes to population recovery. The mountain gorilla story demonstrates what sustained, well-funded, politically supported conservation effort can achieve for critically endangered primates.