Wildlife tourism

All about Wildlife Tourism, its effects in both good and bad ways illustrated with a video.

1. WILDLIFE TOURISM Presentation by Swastik Sen

2. What is Wildlife Tourism? Wildlife tourism refers to the observation and interaction with local animal and plant life in their natural habitats. It encompasses segments such as Eco-tourism, Safari tours and Mountain tourism among others.

3. Wildlife Tourism is an important part of the tourism industries in many countries including many African and South American countries , Australia , India , Indonesia , Canada , Bangladesh , Malaysia , Sri Lanka and Maldives among many.

4. How exhilarating can Wildlife Tourism be? Lets see through a quick video for a better experience.

5. Why is Wildlife Tourism important? Wildlife Tourism is quite important as it serves many causes such as, The fare collected via Wildlife Tourism is used for the maintenance of national parks and sanctuaries. It promotes awareness about flora and fauna species These tours bring people closer to the nature and make them understand the ecological importance of wildlife and goes on.

6. Does Wildlife Tourism affect the environment? The answer is YES. It affects the environment in both positive and negative ways. They are as follows...

7. NEGATIVE IMPACTS Direct impact Disturbing Breeding Patterns Disturbing Feeding Patterns Disruption of Parent-offspring Bond Increased Vulnerability to Predators and Competitors Increased Mortality, Vanity hunts and Poaching

8. Direct Impact When tourists activities occur during sensitive times of the life cycle (for example, during nesting season ), and when they involve close approaches to wildlife for the purpose of identification or photography, the potential for disturbance is high.

9. Disturbing Breeding Patterns The pressures of tourists searching out wildlife to photograph or hunt can adversely affect hunting and feeding patterns, and the breeding success of some species. Some may even have long-term implications for behavioral and ecological relationships. For example, an increase in boat traffic has disturbed the feeding of giant otters in Manú National Park , Peru . The disturbance caused by human intervention may prevent species from their regular breeding and feeding activities.

10. Disturbing Feeding Patterns Artificial feeding of wildlife by tourists can have severe consequences for social behavior patterns. Artificial feeding by tourists caused a breakdown of the territorial breeding system. Artificial feeding can also result in a complete loss of normal feeding behaviors. In the Galápagos Islands , overfeeding by tourists was so extreme that, when stopped, some animals were unable to locate their natural food sources.

11. Disruption of Parent-offspring Bond Wildlife tourism also causes disruption to intra-specific relationships. Attendance by female harp seals to their pups declined when tourists were present and those females remaining with their pups spent significantly less time nursing and more time watching the tourists. There is also a risk of the young not being recognized, and being more exposed to predator attacks.

12. Increased Vulnerability to Predators and Competitors The viewing of certain species by wildlife tourists makes the species more vulnerable to predators. Evidence of this phenomenon has been recorded in birds, reptiles and mammals. Problems have occurred in breeding colonies of pelicans .

13. Increased Mortality, Vanity hunts and Poaching Vanity hunts (also called canned hunts ) tend to breed their animals for specific desirable features without regard for the genetic health of the population. Breeding efforts can incorporate elements of inbreeding as specific features are aggressively sought. Inbreeding not only reinforces the presence of desirable features but brings with it the risk of inbreeding depression , which can reduce population fitness . Poaching , similarly to vanity hunting, selects strongly for animal phenotypes deemed desirable by hunters. This “harvest selection” (sometimes termed “unnatural selection”) for specific human-desired features depletes natural populations of alleles which confer those desirable phenotypes. This selection changes population structure over time, and can lead to a decrease in the wild-condition fitness of the population as it is forced to adapt around hunting-condition pressures.

14. POSITIVE IMPACTS Habitat Restoration Eco-lodges and other Tourism Operations Conservation Breeding Financial Donations Quality Interpretation Culls and Population Maintenance Conservation Hunting/Harvest Anti-poaching v

15. Habitat Restoration Eco-lodges and other Tourism Operations Many owners of eco-accommodation or wildlife attractions preserve and restore native habitats on their properties. In a large way, the tourists and travellers visiting the wildlife destinations contribute to the conservation and improvement of the conditions for the animals. The flow of the people keeps the poachers at bay from killing the valuable animals. The local tribes have a decent living as the tourism flourishes as it provides opportunities of improved livelihood.

16. Conservation Breeding Many wildlife parks (e.g. David Fleay Wildlife Park, Gold Coast, Australia ) and zoos breed rare and endangered species as a part of their activities, and release the progeny when possible into suitable habitat.

17. Financial Donations Some wildlife tourism contributes monetary donations to conservation efforts e.g. Dreamworld , Gold Coast , has a display of Sumatran tigers , and money from visitor donations and from their ' tiger walk ' goes to Sumatra to assist in-situ conservation of wild tigers.

18. Quality Interpretation A good wildlife guide will impart a deeper understanding of the local wildlife and its ecological needs, which may give visitors a more informed base on which to subsequently modify their behaviour (e.g. not throw out plastic bags that may be eaten by turtles ) and decide what political moves to support.

19. Culls and Population Maintenance In order to provide for less invasive wildlife tourism features and maintain ecosystem health, wild populations occasionally require maintenance measures. These measures can include the aforementioned conservation breeding programs to bolster population numbers, or culls to reduce population numbers. Population reduction via culls occurs not only through the obvious means of direct (fatal) removal of individuals, but by implementing an additional selective pressure upon the population. This “harvest selection” can alter allelic frequency (a measure of genetic diversity , and thus related to genetic health) within a population, allowing the hunters to shape future generations by hunting the current.

20. Conservation Hunting/Harvest "Well monitored trophy hunting is inherently self-regulating, because modest off-take is required to ensure high trophy quality and thus marketability of the area and future seasons". For example in Zimbabwe trophy hunting was largely responsible for the conversion of 27,000 km2 of livestock ranches to game ranching and a subsequent quadrupling of wildlife populations. In South Africa there are approximately 5000 game ranches and 4000 mixed livestock/game ranches with a population of >1.7 million wild animals, presently 15-25% of ranches are used for wildlife production.

21. Anti-poaching Bringing tourists regularly into some areas may make it more difficult for poachers of large animals or those who collect smaller species for the black market. Some examples of tourism having a positive effect towards anti-poaching, are that of non-consumptive wildlife tourism services which in turn provide for economic benefit of rural communities, and also by providing these same local communities with game meat harvested through tourist activities such as hunting. Barrett and Arcese (1998) show that generating money sources from these non-consumptive practices of tourism generate a positive income effect and decrease game meat consumption while lowering illegal hunting (poaching).