Nature-based tourism and prey vulnerability to predators: a reply to Fitzgerald and Stronza

In a recent review we developed a framework to identify potential ecological consequences of long-term benign interactions between humans and animals and to highlight potential deleterious effects of non-threatening wildlife viewing by tourists. Fitzgerald and Stronza questioned our hypothesis stating that ‘It sends a countervailing, mixed message to conservation stakeholders about the real importance of tourism for protecting wildlife’ and claimed that we focused on negative points while ecotourism could bring many more benefits than costs to endangered animals