Feeding Wildlife

Food provision is a common way to make wild animals accessible to tourists and is used with both terrestrial and marine wildlife. The practice creates greater tourist satisfaction as animals can be experienced up close. Apart from that, wildlife feeding can have negative effects on the species being provisioned, which include feeding non-suitable food to animals, a reliance on the food resource and large numbers of individuals gathering at one feeding site. This can also have an impact on tourist safety as provisioned animals tend to lose their wariness towards humans and may become aggressive, which should be taken into consideration when participating in these activities.