Report Warns Against Selfies with Animals in Amazon

 

Visitors to the Amazon rain forest in South America face different rules for how they can interact¹ with wild animals.

A new report issued by the animal rights group World Animal Protection says that animals suffer when they are kept in captivity² so that tourists can touch and photograph them. The report is called “A close up on cruelty: The harmful impacts of wildlife selfies in the Amazon.”

The group’s wildlife adviser³, Neil D’Cruze, told the Associated Press, “We want tourists visiting the Amazon to know that if they care about wildlife, they should not use animals as photo props⁵ on their vacation.”

Animals presented to visitors for photographs are often taken from their natural environments and kept in poor conditions, D’Cruze says. He added that animals that are touched and handled by many visitors each day can be harmed and experience stress.

Educating for prevention

D’Cruze says a solution to the problem is to better educate travelers.

He supports programs like Instagram’s new campaign against “selfie” photographs with wild animals. Instagram users that search for hashtags such as #slothselfie now see the warning: “You are searching for a hashtag that may be associated with posts that encourage harmful behavior to animals or the environment.”

The travel website TripAdvisor last year stopped organizing tours in which travelers have physical contact with captive⁷ or wild animals.

National Geographic⁸ reporter Natasha Daly traveled to the Amazon earlier this year. She found that officials in Manaus, Brazil, have been actively⁹ preventing the use of wildlife as props for tourists.

She said, “By the time I was there in mid-August, a lot of tour operators had stopped going to locations where the animals are brought out.”

But she found that such practices continue in Puerto Alegria, Peru. Tourists beginning their Amazon trips from nearby Leticia, Colombia, often spend time in Puerto Alegria. Daly said she saw 20 kinds of animals brought out for tourists there in three days.

Daly said visitors likely would not get a chance to see the Amazon’s famous, elusive¹⁰ wildlife without guides showing them captive animals. Day trips where sloths⁶, snakes and other animals are presented to tourists for photos make it easier for visitors to see them.

But she said educating travelers about these issues may change their behaviors, especially among animal lovers who may not realize the harm in touching¹¹ and photographing creatures.

“As soon as an activity crosses the line from observation to interaction, it’s probably going to be bad for the animal.”

Many national parks in the Brazilian Amazon have policies for how tourists and guides can interact with animals. For example, the Anavilhanas National Park has rules that limit contact with the area’s famous freshwater dolphins.

Te Batista has been a guide on the Rio Negro, which passes through the park, for 20 years. He says he feels there is a difference between observing animals in the wild and in captivity.

“When tourists tell me, ‘I want to take the kinds of pictures I’ve seen on social media,’ I tell them they have to understand that those were taken with animals in captivity,” he said.

Sometimes, he said, he might pull a caiman crocodile out of the water for a few minutes to show it up close.

“Within 10 minutes it will be back in the water,” he said. “It’s a different thing if that caiman is in captivity.”

A developing country with needs

Some Brazilian officials say outside organizations should not be able to tell local tourism organizations how to operate.

Vinicius Lummertz is president of Embratur, Brazil’s tourism board. He said it would be impossible to observe and control tourists’ contact with animals across such a large territory.

Brazil is larger than the mainland United States. The Amazon basin makes up about 60 percent of Brazil’s territory.

Lummertz said, “This is a developing country that needs resources for education, health care, and then the world expects us to police the touching of a caiman on the head in an area about 60 percent [the] size of the United States? It’s not possible.”

I’m Phil Dierking.

Words in This Story

tourists - n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure?

captivity - n. the state of being kept in a place (such as a prison or a cage) and not being able to leave or be free?

selfie - n. a picture that you take of yourself especially by using the camera on your smartphone?

interact - v. to talk or do things with other people?

prop⁴ - n. an object that is used by a performer or actor or that is used to create a desired effect in a scene on a stage, in a movie, etc.

encourage - v. to make (someone) more likely to do something?

basin - n. the area of land around a large river and the small rivers that flow into it

1 interact   

vi.相互作用，相互影响，互通信息

参考例句：

• All things are interrelated and interact on each other.一切事物互相联系并相互作用。
• The policeman advised the criminal to interact with the police.警察劝罪犯与警方合作。

2 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

3 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

4 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

5 props   

小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The government props up the prices of farm products to support farmers' incomes. 政府保持农产品价格不变以保障农民们的收入。

6 sloths   

懒散( sloth的名词复数 )； 懒惰； 树獭； （经济）停滞。

参考例句：

• Mummies of pleistocene ground sloths, with original skin, hair, tendons and claws have been found. 还发现了保存原有皮肤，毛发，腱和爪的更新世时期地面树懒的木乃伊。
• He was inspired by fossils of armadillos and sloths. 犰狳和树懒化石让他获得了灵感。

7 captive   

adj.被俘虏的，不得自由行动的，被监禁的

参考例句：

• They led him captive.他们将他活捉。
• The rock star had a captive audience.那位摇滚歌星倾倒了许多观众。

8 geographic   

adj.地理学的，地理的

参考例句：

• The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

9 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

10 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

11 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。