Ecotourism Threat: Dampens Wildlife Survival Instincts, Influences Evolution
By fueling ecotourism to fund wildlife conservation, humans are modulating animal behavior that could cause evolution of undesirable traits in various species, a new study warns.
IB Times reports researchers analyzing past studies to determine how human interaction changes animal behavior in the wild. They found that human interaction may cause animals to let their guard down and become vulnerable to threats including those from predators and poachers. Alternatively, some animals may also derive protection from being around humans, which could disturb ecological balance in the area. The researchers warn of future consequences by stating that such changed animal behavior may be passed down.
Protected areas around the world are said to receive in excess of 8 billion visits every year.
"This massive amount of nature-based and ecotourism can be added to the long list of drivers of human-induced rapid environmental change," said Daniel Blumstein, study's senior author in a press release.
Some examples cited in the study include fewer predatory encounters between leopards and Vervet Monkeys, and elk and pronghorns grazing while being less alert in human presence.
"If individuals selectively habituate to humans - particularly tourists - and if invasive tourism practices enhance this habituation, we might be selecting for or creating traits or syndromes that have unintended consequences, such as increased predation risk," researchers wrote in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
"Even a small human-induced perturbation could affect the behavior or population biology of a species and influence the species' function in its community," they warn.
