Clinchy, Michael

Macdonald, David

Mugerwa, Badru

Zanette, Liana Y.

English

Scholarship@Western

Western University Scholarship@Western Community, Equity, Gender Western Heads East 11-15-2017 Ecotourists Don’t Bug Wildlife: Good News for a Premier African Protected Area Badru Mugerwa Michael Clinchy David Macdonald Liana Y. Zanette Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/wheceg ECOTOURISTS DON’T BUG WILDLIFE: GOOD NEWS FOR A PREMIER AFRICAN PROTECTED AREABadru Mugerwa1,2,3*, Michael Clinchy1, David Macdonald2, Liana Y. Zanette1Background: Does Wildlife Perceive All Humans as Predators? Methods: Filmed Reactions of Wildlife to Audio Playbacks• Animals know their enemies and flee to sounds of their predators.• We compared reactions of wildlife to known predators (poaching dogs and leopards), humans and insects.• We conducted this research in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Bwindi)  a premier African  protected area for mountain gorilla ecotourism and main source of  Uganda’s ecotourism revenue.Motion sensorCameratrapWaterproofspeakerhConclusion: No Ecological Downsides to Ecotourism Revenue  • Bwindi wildlife did not perceive ecotourists as a threat, which is good news for gorilla ecotourism revenue and the Uganda Wildlife Authority.• Bwindi wildlife perceive dogs as a threat consistent with their use for poaching. The fear of dogs is bad for wildlife and wildlife management.• Bwindi wildlife most feared their native predator, the leopard even though its been extinct in the park for over 40 years.Affiliations & Acknowledgements1 Department of Biology, Western University, 2 Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU), University of Oxford, 3 Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Mbarara University of Science and Technology*E-mail: bmugerwa@uwo.ca• Fear of predators is a bad thing as it can dramatically reduce the reproduction and survival of wildlife, and cause cascading effects through ecosystems and down food webs (Zanette et al. 2011, Science 334:1398).• Humans are a “super-predator” who kills wildlife disproportionately (Darimont et al. 2015, Science 349: 858).• Ecotourists are assumed to be benign, but can have potentially averse effects if wildlife perceive ecotourists aspredators. Ecotourists add value to wildlife Poachers reduce value to wildlifeGorilla ecotourismDiane Fossey with a poached gorilla  Bwindi is home to half of the world’s Mountain gorillasBwindih√Results: Bwindi  Wildlife  Did NOT Perceive Ecotourists as PredatorsWe filmed 14 species including elephantsBlack-fronted duikerGenetAfrican golden catYellow-backed duikerInsect(control)DogPlayback treatment-0.6-0.4-0.20.08Leopardo4*3‘Repeat’exposureboutsHuman7NSFearIndexExtinctPredatorElephant Mountain gorillaFearIndexInsect(control)DogPlayback treatment16-0.8-0.6-0.4-0.20.00.210**13*‘First’exposures15NSHuman Leopard(Extinct Predator)Wildlife feared dogs and leopards but NOT ecotourists.Wildlife habituated to ecotourists but NOT dogs and leopards.FearIndexInsect(control)DogPlayback treatment16-0.8-0.6-0.4-0.20.00.210**13*‘First’exposures15NSHuman Leopard(Extinct Predator)FearIndexInsect(control)DogPlayback treatment16-0.8-0.6-0.4-0.20.00.210**13*‘First’exposures15NSHuman Leopard(Extinct Predator)FearIndexInsect(control)DogPlayback treatment16-0.8-0.6-0.4-0.20.00.210**13*‘First’exposures15NSHuman Leopard(Extinct Predator)FearIndexInsect(control)DogPlayback treatment16-0.8-0.6-0.4-0.20.00.210**13*‘First’exposures15NSHuman Leopard(Extinct Predator)

Ecotourists Don’t Bug Wildlife: Good News for a Premier African Protected Area

https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&amp;context=wheceg

Ecotourists Don’t Bug Wildlife: Good News for a Premier African Protected Area

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