Float with sea turtles in perfect tranquility in VR (Virtual Reality) - via Herp Digest

(Yes this is an advertisement, but if you want to swim attached to a sea turtle, next to a whale or dolphin, or any other eco-experience, which stresses the animal or in general harms the environment, (eco-tourism) I guess VR is the best way?

Barbara Vandenburgh, USA TODAY NETWORK Published 2:27 p.m. ET Jan. 7, 2017

From the USA TODAY NETWORK and YouTube, it’s VRtually There, a weekly adventure with three cool VR experiences. USA TODAY NETWORK

Sea turtles aren’t just beautiful creatures – they’re history. Sea turtles have existed for 150 million years; to give you some perspective, dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. And they’re worth keeping around for 150 million years more.

Enter VRtually There, a weekly video series from the USA TODAY network. Using some of the latest state-of-the-art virtual reality technology, they’re giving us a 360 degree first-hand view of the life of sea turtles off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands.

They float tranquilly in turquoise waters, but only one in 1,000 turtle hatchlings reaches adulthood. Of the seven species of sea turtles, six are now threatened or endangered, mostly due to human activity or habitat loss.

Check out the full video below, which also includes an Arizona canyoneering adventure with killer views. To get the epic 360 degree experience, download the USA TODAY app and search for the video in the “Virtual Reality” section, or view the video below in your phone’s YouTube app. Subscribe to VRtually There on YouTube for future episodes.

Is the eco-tourism boom putting wildlife in a new kind of danger?

Date:October 9, 2015

Source:Cell Press

Many tourists today are drawn to the idea of vacationing in far-flung places around the globe where their dollars can make a positive impact on local people and local wildlife. But researchers writing in Trends in Ecology & Evolution on Oct. 9 say that all of those interactions between wild animals and friendly ecotourists eager to snap their pictures may inadvertently put animals at greater risk of being eaten.

It's clear that the ecotourism business is booming. "Recent data showed that protected areas around the globe receive 8 billion visitors per year; that's like each human on Earth visited a protected area once a year, and then some!" said Daniel Blumstein of the University of California, Los Angeles. "This massive amount of nature-based and eco-tourism can be added to the long list of drivers of human-induced rapid environmental change."

Blumstein says the new report sets out "a new way of thinking about possible long-term effects of nature-based tourism and encourages scientists and reserve managers to take into account these deleterious impacts to assess the sustainability of a type of tourism, which typically aims to enhance, not deplete, biodiversity."

The basic premise of the report is this--human presence changes the way animals act and those changes might spill over into other parts of their lives. Those changes in behavior and activity may put animals at risk in ways that aren't immediately obvious.

Continued ...

Wild Orangutans Stressed by Eco-Tourists, but Not for Long, Study out of North Borneo Finds

ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2012) — Wild orangutans that have come into contact with eco-tourists over a period of years show an immediate stress response but no signs of chronic stress, unlike other species in which permanent alterations in stress responses have been documented, new research from an Indiana University anthropologist has found. 

IU anthropologist Michael P. Muehlenbein can't say yet what makes the wild orangutans of Borneo deal with stress differently than other species in other locations, but an analysis of orangutan stress hormone levels recorded before, during and after the apes interacted in the wild with eco-tourists found evidence of acute elevation of the stress hormone cortisol the day of an interaction, with levels then returning to baseline afterward.

By analyzing fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (fGM) levels of orangutans in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, Malaysia, the team led by Muehlenbein was looking to, among other things, gather evidence about levels of disturbance on wildlife exposed to eco-tourism, a multi-billion-dollar-a-year industry that is growing annually. Red Ape Encounters, a community-owned and -operated eco-tourism program in Sabah that assisted with the research, facilitates the only trekking program for wild orangutans in the world.

Read on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120315225536.htm

Home of Chinese 'Bigfoot' seeks to boost eco-tourism

BEIJING - Shennongjia, a forest region and long rumored home of the elusive Bigfoot-like apeman in the central province of Hubei, wants eco-tourism there to boost the underdevelopedregion's economy.

Less than two months after the Shennongjia Nature Reserve was named a national 5A-Class Scenic Spot by the National Tourism Administration, the region has teamed up with Beijing,seeking the Chinese capital's help to develop its tourism.

The Shennongjia Forest Region and Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development signed an agreement earlier this week, according to which Beijing will help Shennongjia promote tourism.

Travel agencies in Beijing will launch several "Beijing + Shennongjia" tour programs, said QianYuankun, Party chief of the forest region.

Beijing has also agreed to provide training for tourism professionals in the poor region, Qiansaid.

Beijing may also send chartered flights or trains to Shennongjia during peak seasons as getting to the mountainous region sometimes is challenging, said Qu Hao, an official with the state-owned Shennong Tourism Company.

Qian is expecting an eco-tourism boom in the coming years with Shennongjia's first airport expected to be completed next year.

Meanwhile, its new title of national 5A-Class Scenic Spot, the country's highest official rankingof scenery spot which means both charming sceneries and high-quality services, will draw moretourists, according to Qian.

Located deep in the remote mountains in Hubei, Shennongjia Nature Reserve has long beenrumored to be the home of the elusive creature known in China as the "Yeren," or "Wildman" inEnglish. It is also referred to as "Bigfoot" after the legendary North American ape-man.

More than 400 people have claimed sighting Bigfoot in the Shennongjia area since last century,but no hard evidence has been found to prove the creatures' existence.

The region is also dubbed "Noah's Arc" for animals and plants in the glacial period, as itprovided shelter for animals and plants from glacier activities that were prevalent elsewhereduring the Quaternary Period some 2.5 million years ago. It has preserved an array of plantsthat existed in the Tertiary Period and is widely called a home of living plant fossils.

With abundant rain and water resources and a middle-latitude location, Shennongjia is home to more than 3,700 species of plants and at least 1,050 kinds of animals. At least 40 plant species and 70 animal species are under key state protection.

The place is also home to the rare golden monkeys, which are on the verge of extinction andwere first spotted in Shennongjia in the 1960s.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) put Shennongjia on its World Network of Biosphere Reserves list in 1990.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2012-03/08/content_14790573.htm