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The topic of animal ethics has advanced in tourism studies since its inception in 2000, based on a diverse range of studies on species involvement, types of uses and contexts, level of engagement, states of animals, and theoretical perspectives. While there is still considerable scope to amplify research on animal-based tourism, a gap exists in tourism pedagogy amidst the field's emphasis on a new expanding consciousness platform. We review the depth of existing scholarship on animal ethics in tourism and develop an agenda for advancing animal ethics pedagogy for the future. Our intent is to issue a call to action for curriculum committees, programme administrators, and educators to recognise and act on this critical moral domain in tourism education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Illegal trade in big cat (Panthera spp.) body parts is a prominent topic in scientific and public discourses concerning wildlife conservation. While illegal trade is generally acknowledged as a threat to big cat species, we suggest that two enabling factors have, to date, been under‐considered. To that end, we discuss the roles of human‐felid conflict, and "local" use in illegal trade in big cat body parts. Drawing examples from across species and regions, we look at generalities, contextual subtleties, ambiguities, and definitional complexities. We caution against underestimating the extent of "local" use of big cats and highlight the potential of conflict killings to supply body parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scant existent literature on the link between wildlife tourism and consumption relies on case studies and does not directly measure attitudes towards wildlife tourism or consumption. This paper uses empirical survey data (N = 12,378) from 12 countries in Europe, Asia, and the Americas to examine the links between wildlife tourism and wildlife consumption, with a particular focus on evaluating forms of wildlife tourism typically considered "non-consumptive." The first set of analyses looked at the full sample and examined the relationships between wildlife tourism participation and (a) acceptability of wildlife consumption and (b) wildlife consumption behavior. The second set of analyses divided the sample by country and by location of the wildlife tourism activity (abroad or at home) and focused on the associations between participation in live animal encounters and wildlife consumption behavior. Models were built for two forms of wildlife consumption: eating/drinking wildlife and purchasing products/souvenirs made from animal parts. The results indicate that participation in entertainment-based live animal encounters is a strong correlate of increased wildlife consumption. Implications for wildlife tourism policies, wildlife consumption research, and wildlife crime prevention are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fereydunkenar county hosts millions of migratory birds in the southern parts of the Caspian Sea in the second half of every year. Despite the global prevalence of environmental crime, there is still a dearth of large-scale, empirical analyses of environmental crime in the Middle East. This study compared two well-established criminological frameworks rooted in social learning (neutralization theory and differential association theory) to compare four environmental crimes in Iran: illegal bird hunting, fishing without a license, water pollution, and soil pollution. We surveyed male villagers (N = 400) in the county of Fereydunkenar, which is located in the Mazandaran Province of Iran and hosts millions of migratory birds every year. Variables from neutralization theory (condemnation of the condemners, denial of victim and injury, and appeal to higher loyalty) and differential association theory (frequency of differential association with family and friends, and intensity of differential association) were measured. Approximately 75% of respondents had engaged in illegal bird hunting and nearly 53% of respondents had engaged in fishing without a license. However, water and soil pollution behaviors among the respondents were at low levels. The independent variables explained ∼53, 20, and 18% of the variance in the variables of water/soil pollution, illegal bird hunting, and illegal fishing, respectively. The frequency of differential association with family and intensity of differential association had the largest influences on illegal bird hunting and illegal fishing. The intensity of differential association, appeal to higher loyalty, and condemnation of the condemners had significant positive effects on water and soil pollution behaviors. Based on our models, we concluded that, compared to neutralization variables, differential association variables had greater effects on numerous environmental crimes in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that indigenous people and local communities can effectively prevent conservation crime rests upon the assumption that they are informal guardians of natural resources. Although informal guardianship is a concept typically applied to "traditional" crimes, urban contexts, and the global North, it has great potential to be combined with formal guardianship (such as ranger patrols) to better protect wildlife, incentivize community participation in conservation, and address the limitations of formal enforcement in the global South. Proactive crime prevention is especially important for illegal snare hunting, a practice that has led to pernicious defaunation and which has proved difficult to control due to its broad scope. This paper uses interview data with community members in protected areas in Viet Nam where illegal snare hunting is commonplace to 1) analyze the conditions for informal guardianship in the study locations; 2) explore how community members can become more effective informal guardians; and 3) examine how formal and informal guardianship mechanisms can be linked to maximize deterrence and limit displacement of illegal snaring. Results indicate that conditions for informal guardianship exist but that respondent willingness to intervene depends upon the location, offender activity, and type of offender (outsider versus community member). While respondents generated numerous strategies for wildlife crime prevention, they also listed crime displacement mechanism offenders used to avoid detection. We discuss how informal guardianship can be integrated with formal guardianship into an overall model of situational crime prevention to protect wildlife and incentivize community-led deterrence of illegal snaring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroscientists have recently asserted that human and nonhuman animals share comparable brain structures and processes that govern cognition, emotion, and consciousness. This unitary, species-common model of trans-species neuropsychology compels a transformation from the current model of wildlife conservation to wildlife self-determination. Self-determination supports wildlife agency and resilience at the individual and population levels and is based on principles of positive assistance and supportive intervention, parallel sovereignty, and fair terms of cooperation in wildlife-human interactions. The case of Asian elephants (Elephus maximus) in Thailand illustrates how wildlife capture and domination-based captivity, even when intended to conserve animals, can impede self-determination by producing psychophysiologically traumatized wildlife. This article integrates concepts germane to individual animals (agency and trauma recovery) with characteristics of wildlife populations and species (self-determination). It contends that psychosocial data on the mental, emotional, and social functioning of wildlife societies and their members should be included in wildlife assessments and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]