Departamento de Ecología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
J Environ Manage. 2011 Jun;92(6):1564-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.01.006. Epub 2011 Feb 4.
Organized tours to watch wildlife are popular recreational and educational activities, in which the visitor expectative (to observe as many and as diverse animals as possible) runs parallel to conservation purposes. However, the presence of visitors may cause negative impacts on wildlife, which makes recreation difficult to manage. Thus, restricting visitor's load to minimize impacts on fauna may be advisable, but too much restriction may end up disappointing the public. We analysed how visitors' group size influences the number and variety of birds observed during an educational activity directed to scholars, in a forested area where public access is otherwise restricted. We observed fewer birds, but not fewer species, as the size of scholars' groups increased. Such effect was apparently mediated by a few species demonstrating reduced tolerance to increased group size. Our results support the idea that reducing the size of visitors' groups not only helps to minimize the negative impacts on wildlife derived from leisure activities, but also allows visitors to watch more wildlife. Therefore, organizing visitors in small numbers is recommended in the design of activities directed to groups of people visiting natural areas.
观看野生动物的有组织旅游是一种受欢迎的娱乐和教育活动，游客的期望（尽可能多地观察到不同种类的动物）与保护目的并行。然而，游客的存在可能会对野生动物造成负面影响，这使得娱乐活动难以管理。因此，限制游客的数量以最大程度地减少对动物的影响可能是明智的，但过多的限制可能会让公众感到失望。我们分析了在一个受限制的森林地区，游客群体的规模如何影响教育活动中观察到的鸟类数量和种类，该活动针对学者。随着学者群体规模的增加，我们观察到的鸟类数量减少，但物种数量没有减少。这种影响显然是由一些对群体规模增加容忍度降低的物种介导的。我们的结果支持这样一种观点，即减少游客群体的规模不仅有助于最小化休闲活动对野生动物的负面影响，还可以让游客看到更多的野生动物。因此，在设计面向自然保护区游客的活动时，建议将游客分组，每组人数较少。
