Primates' behavioural responses to tourists: evidence for a tradeoff between potential risks and benefits

Marechal, Laetitia; MacLarnon, Ann; Majolo, Bonaventura; Semple, Stuart

Abstract

The presence of, and interactions with tourists can be both risky and beneficial for wild animals. In wildlife tourism settings, animals often experience elevated rates of aggression from conspecifics, and they may also be threatened or physically aggressed by the tourists themselves. However, tourist provisioning of wild animals provides them with highly desirable foods. In situations of conflicting motivations such as this, animals would be expected to respond using behavioural coping mechanisms. In the present study, we investigated how animals respond to tourist pressure, using wild adult Barbary macaques in the Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco, as a case study. We found evidence that these animals use a range of different behavioural coping mechanisms–physical avoidance, social support, affiliative, aggressive and displacement behaviours–to cope with the stress associated with tourists. The pattern of use of such behaviours appears to depend on a trade-off between perceived risks and potential benefits. We propose a framework to describe how animals respond to conflicting motivational situations, such as the presence of tourists, that present simultaneously risks and benefits.

Citation

Marechal, L., MacLarnon, A., Majolo, B., & Semple, S. (2016). Primates' behavioural responses to tourists: evidence for a tradeoff between potential risks and benefits. Scientific Reports, 6, Article 32465. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep32465

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 9, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Sep 15, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 15, 2016
• Deposit Date: Aug 23, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 28, 2018
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Article Number: 32465
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep32465