Close encounters of the dolphin kind: Contrasting tourist support for feeding based interactions with concern for dolphin welfare

Abstract

The tourism demand for close interactions with wildlife has increased in the last few decades. At the same time, public concern for animal welfare has also increased. Tourists are drawn to the thrill of close encounters with charismatic wildlife in their natural setting which depend on the reliability of wildlife being in a certain place at a given time. Food provisioning is a form of operant conditioning that uses food rewards to attract wildlife, promoting spatially and temporally reliable wildlife encounters that satisfy the desire for close encounters with wildlife. However, a range of effects counter to wildlife welfare and conservation may result from both the provisioning and close encounters. Our study examines visitors’ attitude and support towards regulated provisioning and identifies a gap between visitors’ desire for close-up encounters, their concern for dolphin welfare and the documented negative impacts of close encounters and food-provisioning.