The Impacts of Photography Wild Life Tourism/ Ethics/ Wildlife Conservation

Wild Life Tourism – Wild Life Tourism can be either a good thing or a bad thing it really matter the size and impact from the tourism on the ecosystem. Wild life tourism brings in a lot a lot of money to the areas that are around the ecosystem that is being toured. But tourism can have a disruptive effect on the ecosystem and this causes the ecosystem to depreciate. When I went to Belize and had the great opportunity to explore the coral reefs we were brief on how to swim around the coral and never to actually touch the coral because out hands have oils in them that kills the coral. This briefing is an example of a precaution to prevent the negative effects of deteriorating ecosystems from wild life tourism. I think that it is a good situation if the environment is not being hurt from the tourism income is being driven into the area from tourism. But if it hurts the wildlife habitat it is as bad as poaching animals in the environment.

Photography Ethics—The different ethics that photographers have toward nature photography ranges from the most conservative that refuse to disturb the wildlife completely at all to the photographers that are willing to peanut butter bait animals so that they can get a good photo. I think that it is important to find out where you are comfortable with disturbing the environment and stick with where that is. I usually disturb animals as least as possible to the point where I always shoot without a flash to avoid scaring the animal and making them waste energy that they could use for the winter. Of course this semester I got some great pictures of a woodpecker eating a nut ball that someone had put in the tree. I feel okay taking those pictures because I was not the one that set the bait.

Wildlife Conservation—We only have this one Earth to live on and it is important that we conserve the resources of the natural environment not only for ourselves, but also for future generations. Wildlife conservation is a huge business that creates jobs, sustains environments and sets a health relationship between the world and us. It is not impossible to make an animal go extinct from changing its habitat and that is one thing that I am incredibly opposed to is taking away an animals chance of survival for our own benefit.