Disclaimer: This project is not meant to criticize or blame the tourists, but to identify the companies and the kind of activities they offer, so hopefully they can change to a more responsible path.

Wildlife tourism in Peru is a big market, and the income it produces can help people change from unsustainable practices such as agriculture and cattle ranching to conservation and sustainable tourism. However, the interest in seeing wildlife sometimes doesn't discriminate between sustainable/responsible tourism and unsustainable/irresponsible practices.

For this project, irresponsible wildlife tourism is defined as tourism that benefits from exploiting wildlife or altering their natural behavior to generate easier income. Practices included are:

Feeders: Feeding wild animals is a hazard to their health, as their diet become altered. Depending on the food, the animals can also get sick. Feeding pollinators, such as hummingbirds, and fruit-eating seed dispersers, such as monkeys, alters their role in the ecosystem, and instead of pollinating or dispersing seeds of natural plants, they go for the artificial/non-native food that's given to them.

Wildlife selfies: Taking photos of animals in their natural habitat is great, but wildlife is not as easy to see or photograph as it's shown in some documentaries. Some tourists go for the easy option: captive animals. Most places with captive animals have no permit, and some of them even go as far as allowing tourists to handle and pose with the wild animals, for money. This practice finances wildlife trafficking, no matter what they tell you (the animals were rescued or just found, or whatever, it's probably a lie).

Irresponsible wildlife handling: I'd say this is a controversial one, but I myself consider this irresponsible tourism. Capturing wildlife (mostly snakes) to pose with them, is not so different than going to a place with captive animals to pose with them. Yes, the stress is less for the wild animal, but the fact that you're paying to pose with it is marketing for the "zoos" that allow tourists to pose with wildlife. Also, most people that do this probably don't even consider proper handling/disease transmissions. Capturing and releasing wildlife for research, however, can be beneficial, so proper context should be given if this is the case. menos ↑