Western lowland gorillas are highly social primates whose welfare in captivity is fundamentally determined by the quality of their social group and the spaces available for complex social interaction.
Gorilla welfare in captivity hinges on social quality. A gorilla in a physically adequate enclosure with a dysfunctional social group - perhaps a dominant silverback preventing access to food by subordinates, or a socially isolated individual - has poor welfare despite good physical provisions. Managing gorilla social groups requires expert knowledge of individual personalities, relationship histories, and the complex dynamics of primate social hierarchies. The increasing use of bachelor groups for surplus males represents welfare progress - males who cannot be integrated into breeding groups are given appropriate social housing rather than isolation. Visitor management is an underappreciated welfare factor - gorillas that cannot retreat from human gaze experience a specific form of involuntary exposure.