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Tourism, captive wildlife, and social media: ethological discussions of ethics and conservation

Authors:

Abstract

The opportunities for tourists to be entertained by wild animals, to have a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience, is a worldwide phenomenon. In many cases, visitors to zoos, aquaria, and sanctuaries have the opportunity to interact directly with wild animals through feeding, touching, or washing. These wild animals may be kept in captivity and bred only for this purpose to facilitate tourist encounters. This ‘hands-on’ contact with wild animals generates various problems related to environmental ethics and animal welfare, as well as the health-linked risks of human-wild animal contact such as zoonoses. Furthermore, it may contribute to a loss of ‘respect for nature,’ in which the wild animals encountered are presented in unnatural environments, ‘Disneyfied’, or portrayed as domesticated. The sharing of photos and videos of tourists’ wildlife experiences on social networks (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube) can lead to detrimental welfare impacts which are usually minimized by coverage in the media on wildlife tourism. One could argue that social media contributes to the exploitation of wild animals in captivity in exchange for a desirable ‘wildlife selfie’, while it may also be directly or indirectly promoting the illegal wildlife trade. As widely documented in the scholarship, the image of ‘humanized’ wild animals, such that they are portrayed as pets and/or in unnatural environments, can have serious impacts on our perception of wildlife. This includes our potential underestimation of conservation issues, the threat of endangerment many wild animals face, and an increasing desire to keep wild animals as pets. Therefore, increasing consumer awareness of these issues is integral to improcing wild animal welfare and conservation. Informed choices as tourists seeking animal entertainment at sites of wildlife tourism such as zoos, aquaria, and other animal experiences can help to decrease the desirability for expolitative encounters, even when they are masked as ‘ethical.’
1° Congresso Nazionale di Etologia, Eca e Conservazione 
Associazione ETICOSCIENZA – www.ecoscienza.it 
1° Congresso di Etologia, Etica e Conservazione
Tourism, captive wildlife, and social media: ethological discussions of ethics
and conservation
C. LENZI1*, C. GRASSO1, S. SPEIRAN2
1 Associazione ETICOSCIENZA, Turin, Italy
2 The Lives of Animals Research Group, School of Environmental Studies,
Queen's University, 99 University Ave, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6
*christianlenzi.eticoscienza@gmail.com
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