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Ecotourism Project Brief
Impact of Feeding Wildlife by Tourists
How do tourists affect wildlife? Is attraction of wildlife by supplemental feeding of animals by tourists "good" or "bad?" How do these feedings affect troop dynamics, territorysize, conflicts between neighboring troops, and the diet of the animalsunder study? These were some of the questions asked bythe principal researcher, Dr. Alison Jolly, on her Earthwatch missions at Berenty Reserve in Madagascar. Eight troops of ringtail lemurs (Lemurcatta) were studied simultaneously by Earthwatch volunteers (Dr. Lash participated) to identify troop territories (see above trail map), countconfrontations between troops at the territorial lines, quantify wild foodversus supplemented diet(bananas) eaten, quantify activity levels and distancetraveled, and note competition between troops for tourist handouts. Tourists, acting as "walking
banana trees,"were located along the main trail shown on the left side of
the map, wherecompetition and confrontations between troops was determined
to be extremelyhigh. Troops with territories further away received little
or nobananas, and had more stable territories and less confrontations with
neighbors. This study indicated that competition for tourists' bananas was
causinggreater travel distances, conflicts between neighbors, and fights over"banana
territory." This study helped managers institute a "no-feeding"policy for
this Reserve.
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