Introduction

While most would agree that gorilla conservation is a worthwhile endeavor, there is less agreement as to what gorilla conservation actually entails. Ultimately, the most successful conservation measures should provide animals with independence from escalating human intervention, enable them to live out their lives by their own means, and promote self-sustaining populations. Raising animals in captive situations, or in exotic habitats in which they do not naturally occur, engenders human dependency and entrusts their survival to the whims of human economic and sociopolitical concerns. Such rearing can not be justified as conservation unless it is a prelude to reintroduction of otherwise extinct animals into their past natural habitats, and leads to a de-escalation on human dependency.

Conservation, therefore, entails more than just the animal's protection, but also protection of future generations and of natural habitats that will support them. Short-term or “band aid” management, which over time escalates human intervention creating captive situations in what were once natural environments, must be avoided. Although veterinary care may seem especially appropriate when infirmities of free-ranging animals result from human causes, a zealousness to tackle results instead of causes can foster an unnatural dependency that may prove fatal unless human support continues. Fences and 24-hour armed security may protect animals from poachers and habitats from human trespass and exploitation; however, they are ineffective at stopping inbreeding depression, plagues, disease, water contamination, animal overuse and a multitude of other causes of habitat deterioration.