Abstract
Nature-based tourism can generate important revenue to support conservation of biodiversity. However, constant exposure to tourists and subsequent chronic activation of stress responses can produce pathological effects, including impaired cognition, growth, reproduction, and immunity in the same animals we are interested in protecting. Utilizing fecal samples (N = 53) from 2 wild habituated orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus morio) (in addition to 26 fecal samples from 4 wild unhabituated orangutans) in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, we predicted that i) fecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentrations would be elevated on the day after tourist visitation (indicative of normal stress response to exposure to tourists on the previous day) compared to samples taken before or during tourist visitation in wild, habituated orangutans, and ii) that samples collected from habituated animals would have lower fecal glucocorticoid metabolites than unhabituated animals not used for tourism. Among the habituated animals used for tourism, fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels were significantly elevated in samples collected the day after tourist visitation (indicative of elevated cortisol production on the previous day during tourist visitation). Fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels were also lower in the habituated animals compared to their age-matched unhabituated counterparts. We conclude that the habituated animals used for this singular ecotourism project are not chronically stressed, unlike other species/populations with documented permanent alterations in stress responses. Animal temperament, species, the presence of coping/escape mechanisms, social confounders, and variation in amount of tourism may explain differences among previous experiments. Acute alterations in glucocorticoid measures in wildlife exposed to tourism must be interpreted conservatively. While permanently altered stress responses can be detrimental, preliminary results in these wild habituated orangutans suggest that low levels of predictable disturbance can likely result in low physiological impact on these animals.
Highlights
Tourism generates more than 9% of the global gross domestic product [1], and may account for almost half of the GDP in developing countries with biodiversity-rich ecotourism draws [2]
The present study proposed to evaluate the effects of tourist exposure on fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGM) levels of wild habituated orangutans
Populations of black howlers (Alouatta pigra) in Belize regularly visited by tourists have significantly higher fGM values than other study groups not visited by tourists [73]. fGM levels were elevated in Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) in Morocco only following ‘aggressive’ human behavior towards the animals, self-scratching in males was related directly to rates of all tourist-macaque interactions [74]
Summary
Tourism generates more than 9% of the global gross domestic product [1], and may account for almost half of the GDP in developing countries with biodiversity-rich ecotourism draws [2]. Ecotourism accounts for a significant proportion of all international tourism and contributes billions of dollars to the national income of various countries [5]. Such revenue could enhance economic opportunities for local residents, support environmental education, and protect the natural and cultural heritage of the area, including the conservation of biodiversity and improvement of local facilities [6,7,8]. Habituation of animals to human presence can increase the likelihood that animals will actively seek out contact with humans, in the form of crop raiding and invasion of garbage pits and latrines. Habituation may make animals more vulnerable to poaching because of their loss of fear of humans
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