Humane Nature

Ep 1: What is Animal Tourism, Wildlife Tourism, and Ethical Tourism?

September 15, 2021 Stacia Season 1 Episode 1
Humane Nature
Ep 1: What is Animal Tourism, Wildlife Tourism, and Ethical Tourism?
Show Notes Transcript

This episode is the shorter, introductory episode to Humane Nature! We discuss what animal tourism and wildlife tourism is, and how to determine whether an animal or wildlife tourism destination is ethical.

Stumble Safari Ethical Animal Tourism Article
https://stumblesafari.com/aza-and-roadside-zoos-whats-the-difference/

World Nomads Travel Insurance
https://www.worldnomads.com/Turnstile/AffiliateLink?partnerCode=stmblsfri&source=link&utm_source=stmblsfri&utm_content=link&path=//www.worldnomads.com/travel-insurance/

Sources:

Callos, Nick. Redefining Wildlife Tourism: Ethically Interacting with Animals Abroad.
      Volunteer Forever. 9 November 2019.
       https://www.volunteerforever.com/article_post/redefining-wildlife-tourism-ethically-      interacting-with-animals-abroad/

Christa. How to Recognize (Un)Ethical Animal Tourism. Expedition Wildlife. 2 October 2020.
      https://www.expeditionwildlife.com/what-is-unethical-animal-tourism/

Salyer, Aaron. Animal Tourism: What you need to know. The Dharma Travels. 14 October
     2020. https://thedharmatrails.com/be-aware-of-animal-tourism/

Winter, Caroline. A review of research into animal ethics in tourism: Launching the annals of
      tourism research curated collection on animal ethics in tourism. Annals of Animal Tourism
     V84.
September 2020.
      https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016073832030133X

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0:00  
Humane nature is an animal tourism podcast with discussions about animal abuse, injury and medicine. Listener discretion is advised. Hello, welcome to human nature. My name is Stacia. I am so excited for you guys to join me on this journey. I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I was a veterinary technician for six years working mostly in ER, I studied animal psychology and animal behavior while I was in school, I actually have my BA in animal psychology bio, or bio psychology and animal behavior. And my goal originally in life was to go to veterinary school. I decided not to, I didn't have you know, $600,000 to throw away. And eventually I realized that working in a hospital setting just wasn't for me. However, I became a travel blogger, which was totally out of left field from what I was studying. So I kind of combined my two biggest interests, which was animal behavior and psychology, travel and made a blog. And now I'm new. And now I'm making a podcast as well. So, you know, that's me. And I thought we'd start with just the basics today. What is animal tourism? What is ethical tourism? What is wildlife tourism? So let's get to it. So the first recorded, monetized animal tourism actually began in the Roman Colosseum. And that is only the first recorded so it could have gone, it could have been dated much further back than that. But the very first emperor, the very first Roman Emperor Augustus, it has been recorded that he had over 3500 African animals killed in 26, death battles in the Coliseum. So the Coliseum was no joke. They had gladiators fighting animals, animals fighting animals, and deathmatches and death battles. And it was their form of entertainment at the time. And during that Romans noticed elephants' intelligence in the African elephants that they had brought over. And they had actually begun training them to do tricks, in addition to fighting in these in these battles. So elephants doing tricks for people have dated back, you know, all the way back to ancient Rome guys, not great, we haven't exactly changed very much have we. So this was considered like the first circus when elephants began doing tricks, and began serving people in ways other than fighting in in these battles with each other. And from then on, they began training, you know, similar to what we have today, bears doing tricks, monkeys dressing up and doing doing tricks, doing performances. They have recorded monkeys dressing up as soldiers, or as little gladiators riding in the carts, you know, the ancient Roman carts and be pulled by goats instead of by horses so that everything was to scale. And they loved it at the time. So when the fall of Rome happened, these makeshift circuses became mobile. And they quickly began traveling through Europe. And that's where we get, you know, our oldest, you know, European... I mean, I know Italy's in in Europe, but the other European circuses throughout the UK, throughout Spain, throughout France, Germany, all of that. And then moving over to the Americas in the 1700s. In addition to that, early safaris, were mostly hunting trips. We didn't have the safaris up until the mid 1900s. We didn't have the safaris that we have today, where we go, and we actually, you know, admire the animals. We see them in their element and we admire them for their beauty and pretty much leave them alone. These were huge hunting trips.

4:47  
And actually Theodore Roosevelt, yes, our president in the US Theodore Roosevelt attended a huge African safari hunting trip where he brought back 1000s and 1000s, up to 12,000 different specimens for what is now the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington DC. And I don't know about you guys, I absolutely love that museum. And that kind of breaks my heart. I shouldn't be surprised that that is how those specimen came to be there. They do have lots of animals, lots of, you know, stuffed animals on display that they used for you guys here that (car honks) Sorry, I live in the city. And there are buses that stop right outside my door. So I don't know, at some of my apartments. I don't know if you guys can hear that. But I, it breaks my heart a little bit that, you know, they were collected in this huge hunting trip in Africa. But at least they were used mostly for, you know, research. And they've had mostly the same specimen since the early 1900s when Theodore Roosevelt went out. So, you know, good news and bad news with that. And then, dolphin shows, what we know today is, you know, dolphin shows, you think of SeaWorld and the dolphin and whale performances that they do there, or at least did there. Those began in Florida, hey, Florida, in 1938, when a local zoo, had some bottlenose dolphins on display, and they began to notice how playful they were, and how they would jump out of the water to catch fish or chase feathers that had landed in the water, and they would chase them around, bring them to their caretakers, and the caretakers would almost play fetch. And that slowly became them playing with the balls, jumping through hoops doing those different kinds of tricks, because dolphins... dolphins are very easily trained. Because they are so highly intelligent, which is a bummer. But, you know, these kinds of training actually led to a lot of, you know, scientific discoveries about dolphins and about, you know, sea mammals and everything like that. So, you know, there is a silver lining to all of this, I promise, this dark, dark history of what animal tourism has been. And what is there's always a little bit of a silver lining. So I don't want this podcast to be too too dark, you know. So that kind of brings us to present day because the dolphin shows began in 1938. So, you know, that was still, gosh, I want to say 70 years ago, but 70 years from 1938 would have been 2008. So I feel old. That was 80 plus years ago, it's 2021 right now, I can't math, it's fine. So 80 plus years ago, and until very recently, animal ethics in tourism, that research has been widely ignored, even though there has been substantial work, and substantial research conducted within other disciplines. And what that means is we have conducted all this research on animal ethics animal welfare, animal behavior in, in laboratories in AZA, zoos, AZA, we will talk about that in a future Podcast Episode. What an AZA zoo is compared to a roadside attraction. And within, you know, farm animals and working animals and things like that, but in the animal tourism industry, it had been widely ignored up until fairly recently. And animal tourism's approach to animal welfare is kind of isolationist, then what that means is they look at individual animals rather than, in the animal tourism as a whole the species as a whole within animal tourism, and all of that, so they kind of don't look at the big picture, instead focusing on individuals, if that makes sense.

9:31  
So animal tourism, and non consumptive wildlife tourism, which basically means non hunting animal tourism, so we're excluding hunting tourism,  accounts for between 20 and 40% of all international tourism. Guys, that's crazy. Think about that. 20 to 40% of all tourism worldwide is in relation to wildlife tourism. And that's not including hunting. That's crazy. And within this, we have some numbers here. 2.6 million animals in zoos and aquariums across 80 countries. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. We'll talk about Zoos and Aquariums later in another episode I definitely have some strong opinions and some, some science backing up my opinions on, you know, good Zoos and Aquariums, there are definitely those bad ones out there that give them a bad name, but we will talk about that in a later episode. This is not... this 2.6 million animals is not including animals used in other human industries. That could be lab work, farm animals, domesticated pets, things like that. These are just animals in zoos and aquariums. That's a lot. That's a lot. So let's talk about what exactly is animal tourism, I threw all these numbers out at you. Let's compare animal tourism, wildlife tourism and what ethical tourism within animal and wildlife tourism is. So you will often hear me kind of using animal and wildlife tourism interchangeably. And that is because animal tourism, the word itself has gotten a bad rap. You know, because when you think animal tourism, you think elephant riding, tiger selfies, dolphin shows, things like that. But down to the wire, like to the actual definition of animal tourism. It's just tourism involving animals. That could be going birdwatching at your local park, that could be going to a great Zoo that could be going on an African Safari, you know, animal tourism is just tourists going to look at animals, pretty much. Wildlife tourism is essentially the same thing. But with wildlife. So instead of, you know, going to a circus or to a zoo, maybe wildlife tourism, you that would you know would actually be walking in the park to look at, you know, wild birds going on that African Safari and seeing animals that aren't in captivity. So wildlife tourism is pretty much the same as animal tourism, but people kind of like to go and say that they're participating in wildlife tourism more because it implicates that these animals are not in captivity, if that makes sense. And then we will talk about ethical tourism. Right after this, I will give you some guides on how to determine whether a destination is ethical, what things to avoid what things you know, to actually look for to determine whether something is ethical and we will talk about that right after this. *AD* When you travel, you should be protected, especially if you enjoy adventurous activities or wildlife tourism. That's where travel insurance comes in. I personally use world nomads because their coverage makes the most sense for me. They cover injuries or illnesses, lost luggage, canceled flights, and even damaged electronics. Protect yourself and your trip with World nomads travel insurance. Check if their coverage is right for you using the link in the description. *AD* Today's first episode is sponsored by my blog, stumble Safari. If you're enjoying this podcast so far, check out stumblesafari.com for general travel advice, tips and tricks, and of course, animal tourism guides that stumblessafari.com

14:15  
welcome back. Thanks for hanging in there with me. So let's talk about how to determine whether a destination or an animal tourism experience is ethical or not. And this can be very sticky. This is a very difficult thing that I even still struggle with everyone is going to struggle with this at one point or another. And you will probably go somewhere that ends up not being an ethical place and you leave and you're like, Oh crap, I shouldn't have given them my money. I shouldn't have gone there. I shouldn't you know it's going to happen. And the biggest thing is not to beat yourself up, if you accidentally visit somewhere that gives you that icky feeling, you know, it's going to happen, it still happens to me, even with all the research, it's, you know, it's going to happen, and that's okay. In that case, if you ended up leaving somewhere, and it sucked, it was awful. You didn't feel right about it, post a review. post pictures, tell people try to keep other people from making the same mistake as you. But here are some things to look out for. So try to visit destinations that have strict regulations to keep their animals safe. This could be an AZA accredited zoo, something that is sponsored or not sponsored, but something that has the AZA certification, have to follow extremely strict guidelines that are constantly changing and constantly being updated in order to keep the animals safe and happy. So visit destinations that follow strict regulations like that. Avoid interactions with animals that allow you to hold them or feed them, or swim with them, or ride them.

16:26  
If it is not directly helping that animal. So for example, you don't want to go somewhere where you snuggle a sloth. That's a No, no,

16:41  
there's nothing in that interaction that is helping the animal. But if you are volunteering somewhere, and you're caring for, let's say, injured wildlife, and caring for that wildlife requires you to handle them, whether they, you know, need help eating, or getting moved to a different enclosure or have injuries and you're helping them with the injuries. That's different, but that is directly helping the animals. And that's okay. (siren in background) Oh, goodness, there's a siren again, sorry, guys. Avoid destinations that encourage unnatural behaviors with the animals. So that could be you know, bears walking on their hind feet. Monkeys dancing around or elephants carrying people, you know, with the elephant rides, things like that. You want to try to visit places that the animals are exhibiting as much of their natural behavior as possible. Because when an animal's behavior is affected, often their well being is being affected as well. Avoid destinations that prioritize profits over conservation and education. So if you're going somewhere that is offering these different interactions with animals for money, in order to raise money, even if they say it's for an educational purpose, that's putting profits over conservation and education. You want to visit somewhere where basically all their profits are going back into research going back into the animals' care, at, at the park at the zoo, wherever back into education to educate other people about this species. Always, always, always read reviews, and investigate the facility as best you can. So if you see multiple reviews, saying, you know, something didn't feel right, even like even something vague, like something didn't feel right about this place, or I wasn't sure after I left if this was ethical. Listen to those. Always read reviews. And you know, Google is your biggest tool here Google and research and investigate the facility as much as you can. And if you see any of these red flags avoid it, look for international scientific and welfare certificates. And some examples of these are the blue flag certificate for marine tourism destinations, fair trade tourism for good ethical practices, or an AZA Zoos and Aquariums certificate. You also want to look for hard numbers and data that backs conservation claims. So a lot of these not so great places will still say that they're helping conservation and education and they'll throw these words out but they have no info. They have no hard numbers, they have no data to back their claims that they are contributing to conservation and contributing to education or research. So those are, you know, the really big points. If you happen to visit a destination, that's not so great, write those reviews! tell people! tell people that it's not great, because those reviews are working, as proven by, you know, the closure of these circuses that have proved like that had people go in and see that their animals were not being treated very well. circuses are closing. dolphin and whale exhibits are closing. other harmful tourist destinations, Tiger selfies animal, right, or elephant riding, all of these places, they're closing, tourist destinations cannot ignore a public outcry over poor treatment forever. You know, word gets around social media, and the internet is a very powerful tool in these situations. However, as interest in animal welfare arises, these destinations are getting clever, I'm not gonna lie, they're getting clever. And they will try to market towards people who have more interest in animal welfare, and they will try to hide things. And this is how situations like Tiger selfies arose.

21:34  
Animal selfie tourism is really huge, because it gives people that, you know, close interaction with animals that they want. People want to experience wildlife and experience animals up close and personal, and they want to interact with them. And the whole animal selfie thing, is a direct result of that. Humans are very visual creatures, and animal tourism.... animal tourism allows them to create bonds and shape relationships with animals, nature and wildlife. Think about it. If you go on a hike, and you see even a deer. If you've seen a deer a million times, but you see it in their home, you're gonna feel a bond to that animal. At least I do. Maybe it shouldn't be speaking for you guys. But most travelers especially that I know, will feel that connection from interacting with these animals and tourist companies are preying on that they they will prey on your desires to want to get close and feel close to these animals and feel like you're doing something good and supporting something good. Even if it's not. So places, destinations are getting clever and trying to hide that, just try to follow those rules that I laid out. If you wanted more information on that I did write an article on you know how to kind of distinguish an ethical, an ethical animal tourism experience between an unethical one. And I will link that below in the show notes. I will link that blog article for you guys to check out as well. But one of the biggest mistakes that we make as humans when it involves animals is anthropomorphism. And anthropomorphism is basically just a big word That means putting human attributes associating human attributes and emotions to non human things like it could be an animal, it can be an item, it could be a piece of furniture, it could be a stuffed animal. We all did that as kids where we anthropomorphized our stuffed animals and thought that, you know, they were these living creatures and our babies and we would carry them around. But anthropomorphism is a big pit, a big black pit that everyone falls into myself included, on how we treat animals and expecting them to behave like us to behave like humans. And that's not right. They're not humans. And we think of what an animal wants in regards to what we would want if we were in their place. However, they're not humans, and we always have to remind, remind ourselves of that they're not human. So people talking about how that animal didn't choose to be in captivity, that animal didn't choose to be there. That that is a great example of anthropomorphism. They wouldn't choose to be in captivity, so they assume that that animal is unhappy being there. Well, that's not always necessarily the case. If an animal's needs are being met, mentally, physically, I want to say emotionally But that may be anthropomorphism right there as well. That animal is going to be happy, and animals going to be thriving in whatever location that is. So we want to avoid mistaking human emotions in animals' expressions and behaviors as well. A really good example of this is pictures of monkeys, with all their teeth bared, and what looks like a giant human smile. And our immediate reaction is to say, hey, that monkey's super happy he's smiling at me. But once you start studying, like chimp, especially chimp behavior, that is a sign of aggression in chimps, and and other monkeys and I know a chimp's not a monkey chimp i s an ape, but in other apes and monkeys, baring teeth and showing all your teeth is not a sign of happiness like it is, in humans, it's a sign of aggression. And that that's a really great example. We don't want to mistake human emotions in animals, we want to focus and study animal behaviors, animal that that specific species characteristics and try to focus on those.

26:16  
So now that we have talked about what animal tourism and wildlife tourism is, how to make sure that what we're going to see is ethical. What we're we're going to visit is ethical. Let's talk about the pros and cons of ecotourism. So eco tourism is, you know, kind of that wildlife tourism where you're actually going to the, oh gosh, here's another siren, we are going to that animal's home in nature to to see them which by and large is the most like the most ethical. Usually, I want to say usually not every time but usually the most ethical, animal and wildlife tourism experiences that we can have. However, every ecotourism and wildlife tourism destination has pros and cons. And it's up to us, it's up to the the tourists, the travelers, to weigh them and decide whether we should participate in that destination. So there are always risks involved whenever we when we push wildlife and humans together. And those risks can be increased risk of disease. We can't there are zoonotic diseases out there, which COVID-19 COVID-19 was a great example of that zoonotic disease is a disease that can be passed from animal to person and from person to animal. So there's a risk of disease both for the humans and for the animals, but we're focusing on the animals in this case, humans in their home can cause behavioral changes. And these behavioral changes can range from them not wanting to eat in certain locations, avoiding water sources, or even not breeding when they should be. So that can cause a decline in population just from us being around them and just being nearby and not necessarily you know, interacting directly with them. The increase of tourism in these areas will always result in increased human traffic increased building in the areas building hotels, building roads, pollution, and vegetation damage with all these things. So with us coming in, even if we are trying to do it in the most ethical way, companies are going to follow tourist companies, hotels, restaurants are gonna are going to follow where the people are going. And they're going to continue to build which will cause you know, habitat destruction, which is like the number one reason that animals are rehomed and end up in these sanctuaries. So it's kind of, you know, double ended right there. With the increase of people, there's also the potential for increased hunting in the area, and as well as risks to locals and indigenous populations that live in the area as well. You know, more especially Western, the majority of animal tourism, tourists are from Western countries. I think, specifically from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the UK are the biggest, the biggest sources of of tourists in these areas. However, there are benefits there are huge benefits to these, you know, ethical eco tourism destinations. These raise money and awareness for the species, you know, people pay money to see this species specifically. And it raises awareness to maybe population decline, or how, you know, global warming is affecting their their living area, things like that, it increases awareness and it increases money, we always need money for more research for more to help them, you know, we need money with more people also increases protection. With the money we can hire, you know, guards, guards, and, you know, build build those fences around these protected areas we can we can build protected areas and protect, protect these animals from these poachers and from hunters. We can use applied research from from these destinations from people's experience. And

31:13  
in addition to raising money for the species, it also increases income for locals and indigenous populations who are participating. So that's always a good thing as well. So you always kind of want to weigh the pros and cons before visiting any ecotourism destination. How much damage can potentially be doing, how much good or can you be doing by visiting that destination? And are there any other potentially better destinations for you to visit to see that animal that you want to see? You know, there's a lot of research that goes into this. And some destinations know that people either don't do the research or don't necessarily know how to do the research, and they will prey on that. So it's really really important for you guys either if you if you know how to do you know peer reviewed research to do that and find these good gems of places that protect the animals, protect wildlife, protect the vegetation, even in the area and protect indigenous tribes that may live nearby, rather than visiting somewhere that puts on a front and tries to trick you into spending your money there. Thank you so much for listening today. Everyone, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at stumble Safari, visit my website stumblesafari.com. And guys, let me know what you guys want to hear. I'm more than happy to cover popular animal tourism destinations, specific destinations or specific activities. I would be super interested in reviewing shows such as Tiger King, which I haven't actually watched yet, or blackfin and review that for you guys. Let me know reach out to me, follow me and I will see you in two weeks.

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All sources for today's show can be found in the show notes at the bottom of the page. Thanks for listening