> Also, if they're capable of learning then they're sapient by definition which means we have some moral obligations to them rather than being disinterested observers

It's because we have moral obligations to them that researchers try not to interfere.

> Perhaps we should start considering them as different species of people rather than mere livestock.

If we considered them livestock they'd be in cages. These researches are treating them as we treat many uncontacted tribes of humans.

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It's fine if you disagree with the option, but this approach has nothing to do with being callous or indifferent, it's just a different point of view on how best to protect them. And in my opinion, it's a reaction to the full contact approach that was already tried in the 60s/70s, and frankly didn't go well for either side.

Training them to disarm traps could cause more harm than good. Training them to avoid traps would maybe be better. If poachers learn that their prey are hanging around the traps all day disarming them they become lures. We also don't want an arms race between poachers and trained disarmers because the poachers are at a massive advantage. Once they know a significant number of their traps will be disarmed they will just develop traps that are more difficult to disarm or even traps that hurt the animal attempting to disarm them at which point we've trained Gorillas to walk right into their traps.

From the article, the poachers are not directly hunting for gorillas or other monkeys. When they find them in the traps, they leave them there to die.