The wildlife tourism industry has experienced dramatic growth over recent years, with the adventure it offers being a siren call to many.
However, wildlife tourism poses significant risks to wildlife (and to tourists who can't follow directions), including the exploitation of animals, stressful human-wildlife interactions, and hypocrisy.
TikTok user Christine Midlife Traveler (@midlifetraveler) made a video while on one of these wildlife tours that put the industry's hypocrisy on full display.
@midlifetraveler One of the world's most elusive and human-shy animals, surrounded by 20 jeeps racing for the perfect shot 😅 The irony of "wildlife tourism" at its finest 🐆✨ #safari #tourist ♬ suara asli - Noven Atulolon
The video shows a long line of safari tour jeeps all vying for the perfect shot of a snow leopard. In the caption, they wrote: "One of the world's most elusive and human-shy animals, surrounded by 20 jeeps racing for the perfect shot. The irony of 'wildlife tourism' at its finest."
A caravan of jeeps full of people would likely stress out any animal in its path, but for an animal extremely wary of humans, such as a snow leopard, the experience would likely be terrifying.
Interactions like this can create all kinds of problems for wildlife, though, beyond fear.
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Overly stressful interactions can alter wildlife's natural behavior or disrupt animals' socialization. Human-wildlife interactions can be dangerous, too, not only for humans but also for the animals involved.
If the snow leopard had bolted off in the wrong direction or become frightened enough to run at one of the vehicles, it could have been hit by a vehicle and injured. Any humans in the vehicles could have suffered injuries as well.
Even if everyone came out unscathed, the wild animal could still be harmed, as wildlife officials often euthanize wildlife that attacks, whether humans provoked the animal into the attack or not.
Another problem that can arise on wildlife tours is tourists feeding wildlife. This behavior can leave animals dependent on humans for food, which increases the risk of human-wildlife interactions and the risk of attack.
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If you're going to engage with wildlife tourism of any kind, research first to ensure you're engaging only with ethical businesses that focus on conservation and don't encourage these sorts of human-wildlife interactions.
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