Tourism can be deleterious for wildlife because it triggers behavioral changes in individuals with cascading effects on populations and communities. Among these behavioral changes, animals around humans often reduce their fearfulness and antipredator responses towards humans. A straightforward prediction is that habituation to humans associated with tourism would negatively influence reaction to predators. This could happen indirectly, where human presence decreases the number of natural predators and thus prey become less wary, or directly, where human-habituated individuals become bolder and thus more vulnerable to predation. Building on ideas from the study of traits associated with domestication and urbanization, we develop a framework to understand how behavioral changes associated with nature-based tourism can impact individual fitness, and thus the demographic trajectory of a population.

https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/pdf/S0169-5347(15)00246-3.pdf

How Nature-Based Tourism Might Increase Prey Vulnerability to Predators

Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are an endangered primate species, with approximately 40% of the 1000 individuals that remain on the planet today residing in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) in southwestern Uganda. These primates are at the heart of a growing tourism industry that has incentivized their continued protection, but close proximity between humans and gorillas during such encounters presents well-documented risks for disease transmission. The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has developed rules to help protect the health of the gorillas, limiting each habituated gorilla group to a single 60 minute visit each day by a group of no more than 8 tourists, and emphasizing that humans maintain a >7 m distance from gorillas at all times. A number of studies have documented that not all tour groups respect these rules. This project assesses rule-adherence during gorilla tourism encounters at BINP using both observational and survey-based data collected during the tourism high season between May-August, 2014. Observational data from 53 treks reveal that groups of 2-10 tourists engaged in gorilla viewing encounters between 46-98 minutes in duration. Although 96% of pre-trek briefings conducted by park wardens emphasized the need to maintain > 7 m human-gorilla spacing, the 7 m distance rule was violated in over 98% (52 out of 53) of tours examined in this study. During the encounters, observational data were collected at two minute intervals, documenting the nearest distance between any tourist and a gorilla (n=1604), of which 1094 observations (68.2%) took place at a distance less than or equal to 7 m. Importantly, the 7 m rule was violated in visits to all of the gorilla groups habituated at the time of the study. In 224 observations, human-gorilla spacing was 3 m or less. Survey data (n=243) revealed promising opportunities to improve tourist understanding of and adherence to park rules, with 73.6% of respondents indicating that they would be willing to utilize a precautionary measure of wearing a facemask during encounters to protect gorilla health.

Lack of Rule-Adherence During Mountain Gorilla Tourism Encounters in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, Places Gorillas at Risk From Human Disease.

The next step for stress research in primates: To identify relationships between glucocorticoid secretion and fitness.

Most of the human pandemics reported to date can be classified as zoonoses. Among these, there is a long history of infectious diseases that have spread from non-human primates (NHP) to humans. For millennia, indigenous groups that depend on wildlife for their survival were exposed to the risk of NHP pathogens' transmission through animal hunting and wild meat consumption. Usually, exposure is of no consequence or is limited to mild infections. In rare situations, it can be more severe or even become a real public health concern. Since the emergence of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), nobody can ignore that an emerging infectious diseases (EID) might spread from NHP into the human population. In large parts of the Central Africa and Asia, wildlife still remains the primary source of meat and income for millions of people living in rural areas. However, in the past decades the risk of exposure to an NHP pathogen has taken a new dimension. Unprecedented breaking down of natural barriers between NHP and humans has increased exposure to health risks for a much larger population including people living in urban areas. There are several reasons to this: (i) due to road development and massive destruction of ecosystems for agricultural needs, wildlife and humans come more frequently into contact; (ii) due to the ecological awareness, many long distance travelers are in search of wildlife discovery, with a particular fascination for African great apes; (iii) due to attraction for ancient temples and mystical practices, others travelers visit Asian places colonized by NHP. In each case, there is a risk of pathogen transmission through bite or another route of infection. Beside the individual risk to contracting a pathogen, there is also a possibility of starting a new pandemic. This article reviews the known cases of NHP pathogens' transmission to humans whether they are hunters, travelers, ecotourists, veterinarians or scientists working on NHP. Although pathogen transmission is supposed to be a rare outcome, some pathogens including Rabies virus, Herpes B virus, Monkeypox virus, Ebola virus, or Yellow fever virus are of greater concern and require quick countermeasures from healthcare professionals.

/pdf/infectious-disease-risk-across-the-growing-human-non-human-41m770zqk1.pdf

Infectious Disease Risk Across the Growing Human-Non Human Primate Interface: A Review of the Evidence.

All six great ape species are listed as endangered or critically endangered by the IUCN and experiencing decreasing population trends. One of the threats to these non-human primates is the transmission of pathogens from humans. We conducted a literature review on occurrences of pathogen transmission from humans to great apes to highlight this often underappreciated issue. In total, we found 33 individual occurrences of probable or confirmed pathogen transmission from humans to great apes: 23 involved both pathogen and disease transmission, 7 pathogen transmission only, 2 positive antibody titers to zoonotic pathogens, and 1 pathogen transmission with probable disease. Great ape populations were categorized into captive, semi-free-living, and free-living conditions. The majority of occurrences involved chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) (n = 23) or mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) (n = 8). These findings have implications for conservation efforts and management of endangered great ape populations. Future efforts should focus on monitoring and addressing zoonotic pathogen and disease transmission between humans, great ape species, and other taxa to ensure the health of humans, wild and domestic animals, and the ecosystems we share.

Pathogen Transmission from Humans to Great Apes is a Growing Threat to Primate Conservation

Effects of habituation, research and ecotourism on faecal glucocorticoid metabolites in wild western lowland gorillas : implications for conservation management.

Pneumoviruses have been identified as causative agents in several respiratory disease outbreaks in habituated wild great apes. Based on phylogenetic evidence, transmission from humans is likely. However, the pathogens have never been detected in the local human population prior to or at the same time as an outbreak. Here, we report the first simultaneous detection of a human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) infection in western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and in the local human population at a field program in the Central African Republic. A total of 15 gorilla and 15 human fecal samples and 80 human throat swabs were tested for HRSV, human metapneumovirus, and other respiratory viruses. We were able to obtain identical sequences for HRSV A from four gorillas and four humans. In contrast, we did not detect HRSV or any other classic human respiratory virus in gorilla fecal samples in two other outbreaks in the same field program. Enterovirus sequences were detected but the implication of these viruses in the etiology of these outbreaks remains speculative. Our findings of HRSV in wild but human-habituated gorillas underline, once again, the risk of interspecies transmission from humans to endangered great apes.

/pdf/codetection-of-respiratory-syncytial-virus-in-habituated-4ogzk0hg7m.pdf

Codetection of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Habituated Wild Western Lowland Gorillas and Humans During a Respiratory Disease Outbreak

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Effects of habituation, research and ecotourism on faecal glucocorticoid metabolites in wild western lowland gorillas : implications for conservation management.

Codetection of Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Habituated Wild Western Lowland Gorillas and Humans During a Respiratory Disease Outbreak