Animal Attraction
With the help of forward-thinking operators—and major online platforms such as Airbnb and TripAdvisor—traveling families will now find it much easier to track down and book an ethical animal experience.
“All our raptors have special powers,” says Ingrid Albion as she introduces me to Patchy, a one-eyed Tasmanian masked owl endemic to Australia’s island state. “Patchy’s is hearing—he can hear mice running under the snow.”
Patchy is one of the resident birds of prey at Tasmania’s Raptor Refuge ( raptorrefuge .com.au), an eight-hectare rehabilitation and conservation center established in 2001 by local veterinary nurse Craig Webb. Webb and his team take in wounded eagles, goshawks, falcons, and owls and nurse them back to health before returning them to the wild; Patchy was injured when he flew into a power line. Thanks to volunteers like Albion, an environmental educator with the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service,
Webb now welcomes visitors to the center. But we’re not here to pet or feed the raptors, or to watch them perform tricks. We’ve come to learn about the threats—habitat loss, pollution, collision with man-made objects—to their existence, and just maybe become part of the solution.
Raptor Refuge is a terrific place to bring kids. Alas, the same cannot be said for many wildlife attractions around the globe, where captive animals are mistreated for the amusement of tourists. But today’s heightened levels of scrutiny toward exploitative operations reflects a wider trend in the travel industry, which has finally recognized the value of supporting ethical animal encounters. It’s hugely important given that wildlife tourism is worth US$343.6 billion globally and accounts for 4.5 million jobs in the Asia-Pacific region alone. In response, tourism companies are stepping in to make it easier for parents to identify responsible and educational animal activities for their kids with just a few clicks.
Take Airbnb Animal Experiences ( airbnb.com/ animals), launched last October as the latest arm of Airbnb Experiences, a division of the online home rental platform dedicated to unique activities designed by locals in any given destination. All listed offerings must now comply with strict animal welfare guidelines set out by nonprofit organization World Animal Protection, with hosts expected to deliver enriching experiences that also benefit animals: ensuring they are treated with respect and protected from both physical and mental abuse.
Accordingly, the group’s charter for Airbnb prohibits direct contact with wild animals—no petting, feeding, riding—and also establishes regulations for working animals: only one rider on a horse or camel at a time, for example, with sufficient space provided to roam and bountiful food and water. And then there is the slew of prohibited interactions, like bathing with elephants, taking selfies with big cats, and swimming with captive dolphins. Hosts who don’t meet these criteria are taken off the site; those who comply are given a World Animal Protection badge, with a helpful link to Airbnb’s complete animal welfare policy shown alongside so users feel confident about booking
a tour. For local hosts of all kinds—NGOs, rescue centers, scientists, vets, photographers, conservationists—Airbnb also serves as a valuable platform for raising awareness among visitors, who return home with a better appreciation and understanding of wildlife.
Of the 1,000 Airbnb Animal Experiences currently available—lasting anywhere from an hour to a couple of days—100 are listed as Social Impact Experiences, with all proceeds channeled back into non-profit organizations focused on conservation, animal rescue, and providing veterinary care. Southern Thailand’s Gibbon Rehabilitation Project ( gibbonproject.org) is one such offering. The small apes were poached to near extinction around Phuket just four years ago; today, they’re being reintroduced back into the wild. Thanaphat Payakkaporn—secretary general of the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation—and a team of researchers guide visitors around the facility, highlighting how rescued animals are cared for and studied before being released.
In South Australia’s Port Lincoln region, another Airbnb Animal Experience allows you to swim with sea lions. The passionate husband-and-wife team behind Adventure Bay Charters ( adventurebaycharters .com.au) takes families into the waters off the Eyre Peninsula, providing a close-up look at the playful creatures.
Airbnb is by no means the first in the industry to take this firm ethical stance. In 2014, Intrepid Travel ( intrepid .com) announced a blanket ban on elephant rides—and dropped all tour activities that encouraged tourists to pet or walk with wild animals, a move echoed by TripAdvisor
( tripadvisor.com) in 2016. Last year, the online travel company went a step further, banning ticket sales of activities related to captive marine life.
While these companies make picking ethical animal experiences easy, you can also go straight to the source. Chiang Rai’s Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation
( helpingelephants.org) was established in cooperation with the Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and the Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle to take travelers on daily walks with rescued elephants, while providing the pachyderms with shelter, medical care, and a forest environment in which to roam. Also in Thailand, Wildlife Friends Foundation ( wttf.org)
in Hua Hin offers half- and fullday family experiences to learn about the 600 animals that call its center home; you can even stay overnight at the adorably named I-Love-Phants Lodge
( ilovephants.org).
Over in Malaysia, Borneo Eco Tours ( borneoecotours .com) offers a range of environmentally sensitive
In Donsol, local diving outfits follow rules limiting the number of swimmers allowed to interact with any one of the area’s whale sharks; visitors are prohibited from feeding and touching the animals.
and family-friendly wildlife experiences across Sabah and Sarawak, with some itineraries including stays at the company’s recently renovated Sukau Rainforest Lodge. Meanwhile in the Philippines, local diving outfits in Donsol, an eco-tourism hotspot in southeastern Luzon, have been heralded for their sustainable approach to wildlife encounters. Donsol Eco Tour ( donsolecotour.com), among others, follows strict rules limiting the number of swimmers allowed to interact with any one of the area’s resident whale sharks; needless to say, visitors are prohibited from feeding and touching the animals. The same guidelines apply in Tonga, one of the few places where you can snorkel with humpback whales in their migratory feeding grounds, thanks to companies like Humpback Swims
( humpbackswims.com).
These are the kinds of operators with which forwardthinking adventure travel experts like World Expeditions ( worldexpeditions.com) and Intrepid Travel associate. The former’s family-friendly itineraries in India and Thailand are approved by World Animal Protection, while Intrepid has banned any activities that encourage tourists to exploit both wild and domestic animals, whether it may be elephant riding in Thailand or dolphin shows in Indonesia. “We believe animals should be viewed—with no contact or interaction—doing what they do best: living in the wild,” the company says.