Animals in wildlife tourism are subjected to various degrees of stress no matter how indirect the interaction with tourists is. Seventy-five percent of animal tourism activities negatively impact animals, but most tourists don’t even realize it.

Death

Death is the worst effect of wildlife tourism and it occurs as a byproduct of the industry. Animals are often taken from nature as babies. But since packs tend to protect their young, hunters must kill the adults first. So even animals outside of the industry feel its deadly effects. These practices are especially used on elephants because of their strong familial bonds that cause them to aggressively protect one another.

Abuse

Animal abuse is one of the more publicized effects of wildlife tourism. Animals expected to directly interact with tourists are tortured in some of the following ways:

• Elephants are starved, beaten, and psychologically tormented into submission through a process labeled The Crush so that they can be trained to paint, do handstands, and give rides.
• Lions and tigers are rumored to be drugged before tourists can pet or sit on them for pictures.
• Snakes mouths are sewn shut by street show performers to prevent them from biting.

Anxiety and Distress

Captive animals that never directly interact with individuals are also subject to mistreatment. While modern zoos often fund conservation efforts, the wellbeing of animals within the zoo are sometimes sacrificed. Species increasingly exhibit signs of emotional distress like inactivity, pacing, or aggression as the number of visitors rise. Yet zoos do not decrease the number of tickets offered each day to address this issue.

Conscientious travelers who believe they are participating in low impact animal tourism can still cause irreparable harm to the animals. Dolphin tours cause extreme stress when as many as 30 boats at a time invade one pod of dolphins. This stress can lead dolphins to migrate away from good habitats, or even cause local extinction of the species. And gorilla trekking, a popular conservation education activity, can kill gorillas by introducing them to human diseases through improper disposal of human or medical waste.

Photo by Caustic Soda Podcast

Photo by National Geographic