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It is difficult to assess the impact of human activities on populations of wildlife animals. Strict methodologies are necessary to interpret responses to anthropogenic impacts objectively. For the past 10 years there has been increasing interest in studying the effects of tourism activities on wildlife species (Constantine, 1999; Orams, 1999). However, most studies tend to examine only one aspect of wildlife-tourist engagements and therefore fail to capture complex interrelationships between variables. In the context of tourist interactions with marine mammals, for example, a critical challenge is understanding the relationship between acoustic communication and behavioural state (Lusseau and Higham, 2004). Furthermore, few studies have been developed to understand the long-term impacts associated with human disturbance of wildlife species. Most studies tend to be short term in focus and attempt to demonstrate wildlife responses to interactions with tourists.

Sports fans and sport fandoms offer a rich site of academic inquiry. If, as many suspect, sport has displaced religion as Marx's ‘opiate of the masses’, then this book promises intriguing insights ...

Can wildlife learn harmful and maladaptive behaviours from each other? If so, insights into social learning among animal populations in response to anthropogenic stimuli are of wide interest and applicability. Donaldson et al. (2012) address social learning in human–wildlife interactions involving food provision. ‘Food-conditioned’ animals are subject to operant conditioning in which learning about anthropogenic food arises from repeated exposure to human stimuli, behavioural responses to those stimuli and reinforcement of behavioural responses because of food reward (Whittaker & Knight, 1998; Samuels & Bejder, 2004). In this paper, Donaldson et al. carefully negotiate the asocial/social learning dichotomy. The former arises from individual responses to the availability of anthropogenic food (e.g. in species that receive limited maternal care and are solitary as juveniles and adults). However, responses to provisioning may also arise through social learning in cases where individual animals are repeatedly exposed to the feeding behaviours of conspecifics that exploit anthropogenic foods. Operant conditioning describes a learning process that may be acquired individually or socially (Sargeant & Mann, 2009). Social learning involving responses to anthropogenic food may then be facilitative or supplementary. The specific focus of this paper is the long-term illegal provisioning of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) by members of the recreational fishing community in Cockburn Sound, south-western Australia. Social learning is available in this case, as individual bottlenose dolphins exist within complex social structures that involve extended juvenile dependence and enduring relationships between animals (Connor et al., 2000; Lusseau, 2003; Sargeant & Mann, 2009). Two variables emerge from the analysis as predictors of individual animals learning to accept food from recreationists engaged in fishing; the use of areas with high densities of recreational boats and association with previously conditioned dolphins. The harmfulness of such learned behaviours may include increased wildlife morbidity/ mortality, interventions to address ‘problem’ wildlife (which may involve culling) and, therefore, compromised sustainability resulting in loss of economic opportunities. These findings highlight the facilitative function of social learning in determining the development of individual animal behaviour responses to anthropogenic stimuli. They should motivate others to explore how these findings may extend beyond food provision (to other anthropogenic stimuli) and into a range of applied fields. One important application of social learning in human–wildlife interactions is sustainable tourism management. Knight (2009: p. 180) observes that we now live ‘. . . in an age when our visual appetite for wildlife has never been greater’. Wildlife viewing has rapidly moved into the mainstream of commercial tourism (Knight, 2009). More social species, including cetaceans, have become the focus of global interest, as tourists seek to observe critical behaviours such as maternal care, feeding and social interactions between conspecifics in the wild. The International Fund for Animal Welfare estimates that the whale watching industry now exceeds $2.1 billion per annum, catering for 13 million whale watchers, and generating 13 000 jobs (O’Connor et al., 2010). Neves (2010) describes this evolution as one form of periodic transformation in the global capitalist economy, and it is a transition that also raises the likelihood of social learning among individual animals that are subject to human stimuli through intensive and prolonged interactions with commercial tourism business and their clients. The provisioning of wild dolphins in a tourism context is unusual but does occur (Orams, 1995). More broadly, the provisioning of wild animals, common in the past (e.g. bear feeding in Yellowstone National Park; Davis, Wellwood & Ciarniello, 2002) continues in some tourism contexts, both directly (e.g. use of food to attract pelagic birds, sharks) and indirectly (e.g. attraction to camp sites because of food storage and disposal, Knight, 2009). This raises questions of diminished behaviours and reduced ‘wildness’ associated with efforts (deliberate or otherwise) to make wildlife viewable (Knight, 2009). However, the relevance of social learning in human–wildlife interactions should extend beyond provisioning, to other forms of tourism (e.g. swimming with dolphins) and specific behaviours (e.g. bow riding – the behaviour of dolphins in which they swim or ‘ride’ the crests of waves formed from the front of moving boats) that may increase the bs_bs_banner

Rapid growth in demand for tourist interactions with cetaceans in the wild constitutes a challenge to management. Short-term animal behaviour changes can have long-term biological consequences for individual animals and populations. This paper reviews the whale-watching management context, describing the interplay of the macro (global), meso (national/regional) and micro-level (local/site specific) policy, planning and management settings. Here, an integrated and adaptive management model based largely upon the delineation and monitoring of limits of acceptable change (LAC) parameters is proposed to address current shortcomings in the long-term sustainable management of whale-watching activities. Although no integrated management framework currently exists, a comprehensive management approach must be developed and applied in the interests of the long-term sustainable management of tourist interactions with cetaceans in the wild. The proposed management model highlights the importance of integrating multiple stakeholder perspectives in a way that is both research-informed and adaptive. Beyond tourist interactions with cetaceans, this management framework could be applied to a wide range of wildlife management contexts.

Relatively little research attention has been dedicated to understanding aspects of the viewing platform from which animals are observed in the wild, and how it bears upon all elements of the wildlife tourism phenomenon. This paper adopts Duffus and Dearden’s (1990) conceptual framework as a basis to highlight an urgent need for empirical research into wildlife viewing platforms as they relate to site users, focal animals (both individuals and groups of animals) and the ecology of the sites where visitors observe animals in the wild. To date a lack of empirical research effort has focused on the viewing platform, or even incorporated the viewing platform into research design as an element of analysis. This paper reviews what is known about the viewing platform, much of it anecdotal. Recent research that provides insights into the human and ecological dimensions of wildlife viewing platforms is reviewed. A call for further research into the social and ecological dimensions of wildlife observation is then a...

Sagarmatha National Park (SNP) is an ACE (adventure, cultural and ecotourism) high altitude destination. Many researchers argue that tourism development in the region is not sustainable and does not comply with ecotourism concepts. They report that SNP suffers considerable environmental, sociocultural and economic impacts. Health issues, despite the number of ailments commonly experienced by tourists, remain neglected in tourism literature. This study aims to investigate the health consequences of visiting SNP. Seven hundred and fifty questionnaires were given out during three separate seasons in 1999, of which 448 completed usable questionnaires were returned giving a 59.7% response rate. The results showthat despite good travel preparation, the majority of tourists (89.4%) suffer some form of health ailment. The most common ailments are mountain sickness, musculoskeletal pain, diarrhoea and respiratory infection. The study also shows several significant relationships between the incidence of health ailm...