Geladas are remarkable primates found only in Ethiopia's highland meadows. Their unique grass-based diet and complex social structure make their welfare inseparable from grassland ecosystem health.
Geladas face welfare pressures both from habitat loss and from human-wildlife conflict. As highland grasslands are converted to agriculture, geladas are pushed into smaller fragments and compete more directly with livestock for grass. Farmers increasingly kill geladas as crop and livestock pests, sometimes using poison or traps that cause painful deaths. The reduction in habitat forces larger bands into smaller areas, increasing within-group competition for food and resting sites. In captivity, geladas are challenging to maintain - their grass-heavy diet requires specialized provision and their complex social needs demand large group sizes. Their unique adaptations to Ethiopian highland ecology cannot be satisfied in most captive environments.