Mountain and eastern lowland gorillas living in and around protected areas face welfare challenges from habitat encroachment, disease, and the stress of living near humans.
Gorilla welfare in protected areas is shaped by the delicate balance between protection and disturbance. Tourist habituation that funds protection creates a paradox: habituated gorillas are protected by the revenue their viewing generates, but they also face increased disease exposure and behavioral stress from daily human presence. The conservation success of mountain gorillas demonstrates that intensive protection and welfare-conscious management can reverse decline — but it requires sustained investment and political stability that is difficult to guarantee in conflict-affected regions like the Virunga. Individual welfare events — snare injuries, respiratory disease outbreaks, infanticide — occur against this background of managed survival, and the veterinary intervention that is now routine for habituated groups represents a welfare benefit that wild, unhabituated populations lack entirely.