Is certainly adrenalin provoking.
It is not only bears and big cats which can provide an adventurous wildlife watching experience through the element of risk. The same also applies for a number of the larger primates , and indeed also for baboons and many of the smaller monkeys. Most powerful amongst the primates are of course the gorillas , notably the lowland gorilla of the Congo and the mountain gorillas of Uganda , Rwanda , and Burundi. The habituated mountain gorillas of Bwindi and Mgahinga National Parks in the Virunga Mountains are particularly well known, and the encounters have been described b y a number of authors. Approach is made on foot, in a small group led by several experienced trackers who follow the gorillas’ trail from the previous day in order to locate the troop. Once the gorillas are sighted, the group approaches very gradually under the guides’ careful directions, and can then watch for up to I hour before retracing their steps. There is a set minimum approach distance, and if the gorillas move towards the tourists, the tourists must move back. No loud noises or flash photography are permitted. The adventure derives from scrambling through the forest for several hours; from the tense moments of first contact when the guides have to assess the gorillas’ mood and behavior; and of course, from the knowledge that the gorillas are extremely powerful and could easily attack their visitors if they chose so.
One of the critical reasons why close but tightly managed encounters such as those with the mountain gorillas or with Big Five and other wildlife in private reserves can take place safely is that the animals concerned have never learnt to associate humans with the presence of food. Where individual animals have learnt that can obtain food from humans by begins or stealing it interactions may rapidly become aggressive. This can often occur, for example, in unpatrolled national parks’ picnic grounds where visitors may feed wildlife either intentionally or inadvertently. In Fraser Island National Park, a world Heritage Area in Australia, for example, a dingo once stole a family size bar of chocolate from a picnic table where I was sitting and ran off before we could pursue it. In Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania, I and two colleagues were once involved in a minor punch-up with a baboon which managed to hurl all our food and camera equipment into the dirt before retreating. Aggressive interactions may also be provoked by territorial behavior. Many vears ago I was attacked by a troop of monkeys which assembled suddenly when I climbed up onto a ruined building in a forest in northern Thailand, presumably because this was their own favourite vantage point.
There are other close-range wildlife interactions where the animals might potentially see the humans themselves as food. In addition to the various interactions with bears and big cats as outlined above, there are a number of places worldwide where one can watch large and potentially dangerous reptiles, but only from a safe or protected vantage point. Examples include: alligator in the southeastern states of the USA; saltweter crocodile in northern Australia, papua new guinea, and nearby areas; large crocodiles, known as muggers, in India; cayman in south America; and komodo dragon in Indonesia. Some of these can be seen from bridges and riverbanks, some from national parks’ boardwalks and lookouts, and some by boat. The so-called jumping crocodile tours in Australia’s northern Territory, where crocodiles leap partly out of the water to grab food dangled from a stick, have become a well-known tourist attraction in the region. Historically at least {Buckley, 2003a}, there have been tours by dugout canoe on the upper tributaries of the Amazon River in Brazil, where one can catch the thin-snouted cayman by hand at night, using only a stick and a piece of string. This is definitely not something one would attempt with any of the broad-jawed crocodiles or alligators. Likewise, whilst it is possible to catch monitor lizards and pythons by hand if they are not too large, do have extremely sharp teeth if one is not quite enough. Perhaps unsurprisingly, such activities are not generally offered as a component of commercial tours.
A number of commercial dive and snorkeling tours also involve relatively close-range encounters with large wildlife, in this case marine. Most controversial of these are cage dives, or in some cases even free dives, with large and potentially aggressive shark species. More common are dives with more docile shark species, such as the gray nurse or ragged-tooth shark. There are also dive and snorkel tours where one has a good chance to encounter stingrays, eagle rays, or manta rays in significant numbers; and there are various places where one can dive or snorkel with whale sharks at particular times of the year. In some areas, there are also opportunities to dive with a variety of whale species. Tonga, for example, is particularly known for its whale diving tours. In some of these cases, it is possible for divers or snorkellers to approach the marine animals quite closely either because the animals are resting, as in the case of ragged-tooth sharks in south Africa; or because they are so large that they essentially pay no attention at all to individual divers, as in the case of whales and whale sharks.
The tours outlined above all rely on finding particular wildlife species, often-known individuals, in a relatively well-defined location. The animals are wild, in the sense that they maintain their own territories, find their own food and mates, and fight or flee from each other as occasion demands. They are, however, all habituated to the presence of humans and do not expect either to be fed or shot at. They are not confined as in a zoo, but their whereabouts are followed or tracked, so that guided day-to-day at least approximately, so that guides can take tourists to see them with a high degree of confidence.
Is certainly adrenalin provoking.
It is not only bears and big cats which can provide an adventurous wildlife watching experience through the element of risk. The same also applies for a number of the larger primates , and indeed also for baboons and many of the smaller monkeys. Most powerful amongst the primates are of course the gorillas , notably the lowland gorilla of the Congo and the mountain gorillas of Uganda , Rwanda , and Burundi. The habituated mountain gorillas of Bwindi and Mgahinga National Parks in the Virunga Mountains are particularly well known, and the encounters have been described b y a number of authors. Approach is made on foot, in a small group led by several experienced trackers who follow the gorillas’ trail from the previous day in order to locate the troop. Once the gorillas are sighted, the group approaches very gradually under the guides’ careful directions, and can then watch for up to I hour before retracing their steps. There is a set minimum approach distance, and if the gorillas move towards the tourists, the tourists must move back. No loud noises or flash photography are permitted. The adventure derives from scrambling through the forest for several hours; from the tense moments of first contact when the guides have to assess the gorillas’ mood and behavior; and of course, from the knowledge that the gorillas are extremely powerful and could easily attack their visitors if they chose so.
One of the critical reasons why close but tightly managed encounters such as those with the mountain gorillas or with Big Five and other wildlife in private reserves can take place safely is that the animals concerned have never learnt to associate humans with the presence of food. Where individual animals have learnt that can obtain food from humans by begins or stealing it interactions may rapidly become aggressive. This can often occur, for example, in unpatrolled national parks’ picnic grounds where visitors may feed wildlife either intentionally or inadvertently. In Fraser Island National Park, a world Heritage Area in Australia, for example, a dingo once stole a family size bar of chocolate from a picnic table where I was sitting and ran off before we could pursue it. In Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania, I and two colleagues were once involved in a minor punch-up with a baboon which managed to hurl all our food and camera equipment into the dirt before retreating. Aggressive interactions may also be provoked by territorial behavior. Many vears ago I was attacked by a troop of monkeys which assembled suddenly when I climbed up onto a ruined building in a forest in northern Thailand, presumably because this was their own favourite vantage point.
There are other close-range wildlife interactions where the animals might potentially see the humans themselves as food. In addition to the various interactions with bears and big cats as outlined above, there are a number of places worldwide where one can watch large and potentially dangerous reptiles, but only from a safe or protected vantage point. Examples include: alligator in the southeastern states of the USA; saltweter crocodile in northern Australia, papua new guinea, and nearby areas; large crocodiles, known as muggers, in India; cayman in south America; and komodo dragon in Indonesia. Some of these can be seen from bridges and riverbanks, some from national parks’ boardwalks and lookouts, and some by boat. The so-called jumping crocodile tours in Australia’s northern Territory, where crocodiles leap partly out of the water to grab food dangled from a stick, have become a well-known tourist attraction in the region. Historically at least {Buckley, 2003a}, there have been tours by dugout canoe on the upper tributaries of the Amazon River in Brazil, where one can catch the thin-snouted cayman by hand at night, using only a stick and a piece of string. This is definitely not something one would attempt with any of the broad-jawed crocodiles or alligators. Likewise, whilst it is possible to catch monitor lizards and pythons by hand if they are not too large, do have extremely sharp teeth if one is not quite enough. Perhaps unsurprisingly, such activities are not generally offered as a component of commercial tours.
A number of commercial dive and snorkeling tours also involve relatively close-range encounters with large wildlife, in this case marine. Most controversial of these are cage dives, or in some cases even free dives, with large and potentially aggressive shark species. More common are dives with more docile shark species, such as the gray nurse or ragged-tooth shark. There are also dive and snorkel tours where one has a good chance to encounter stingrays, eagle rays, or manta rays in significant numbers; and there are various places where one can dive or snorkel with whale sharks at particular times of the year. In some areas, there are also opportunities to dive with a variety of whale species. Tonga, for example, is particularly known for its whale diving tours. In some of these cases, it is possible for divers or snorkellers to approach the marine animals quite closely either because the animals are resting, as in the case of ragged-tooth sharks in south Africa; or because they are so large that they essentially pay no attention at all to individual divers, as in the case of whales and whale sharks.
The tours outlined above all rely on finding particular wildlife species, often-known individuals, in a relatively well-defined location. The animals are wild, in the sense that they maintain their own territories, find their own food and mates, and fight or flee from each other as occasion demands. They are, however, all habituated to the presence of humans and do not expect either to be fed or shot at. They are not confined as in a zoo, but their whereabouts are followed or tracked, so that guided day-to-day at least approximately, so that guides can take tourists to see them with a high degree of confidence.
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