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Science Quickly

Wildlife Tourism Could Be "Domesticating" Wild Animals

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2015

⏱️ 3 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Human tourism—no matter how well-intentioned—might desensitize wild animals to poachers and predators, affecting their odds of survival. Christopher Intagliata reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

J-P. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J-P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.6

This is Scientific American's 60-second science. I'm Christopher in Talata. Got a minute?

0:39.7

Wilderness protected areas get 8 billion visitors a year, and that's just on land.

0:45.4

Underwater reserves add millions more to the tally, which, considering these are protected areas,

0:51.3

seems like an insane number of people.

0:53.6

It is insane.

0:54.6

Dan Blumstein, a behavioral and conservation biologist at UCLA.

0:58.6

Now, remember, some of these might be local parks, but, you know, a lot of people are going

1:04.4

and seeking out natural areas annually around the world, and therefore the potential impact of this can be quite large.

1:14.7

And the potential impact, to put it bluntly,

1:17.3

does ecotourism make animals dumb?

1:19.7

Or in other words, could our presence disrupt and change the instincts of wild animals

1:24.0

and ultimately affect their survival?

1:27.1

Blumstein and his colleagues surveyed literature on human wildlife interactions all over the world,

1:32.2

from chimpanzee ecotourism in Uganda to elk and antelope gawking in the Grand Teton's,

1:38.5

and they concluded that human tourism, no matter how well-intentioned, might desensitize animals,

1:47.1

making them easier prey for poachers and predators.

1:52.2

Now, a couple mechanisms could be at play. There is what's called the human shield effect.

...

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