When you’re in Canada, please don’t feed the animals
Re: “The bear facts for tourists,” Editorial, Aug. 6.
As Alberta’s rating as a tourist destination continues to rise, we must expect to get more foreign tourists. Many of these people come with different cultural norms.
The group seen tossing meat to the bears was tourists from China. In China, it is common in zoos and national parks to find vendors who sell food to visitors for feeding the animals. In one mountain national park in China, at the base of the mountain, people rent 1.5-metre-long, four-centimetre-thick bamboo poles, to fend off over-fed but aggressive monkeys that have been habituated to the point of being dangerous.
In the well-run reserve for Siberian tigers in northeastern Harbin (with an outstanding breeding program and re-introduction program), you can buy a live duck to throw into a pond so you can watch a tiger leap into the water, catch and devour the duck.
We shouldn’t be surprised to find that Chinese tourists bring their habits with them. What we can expect, though, is that Parks Canada makes a concerted effort to educate tour guides and tour agencies as to our expectations for their clients’ behaviour. Such an education program could saturate the industry with helpful information at little cost, but at great benefit to our Canadian wildlife.
Thomas Bate, Calgary