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Impacts of Penguin Tourism

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Ecotourism’s Promise and Peril

Abstract

The world loves penguins. Their toddler-like, bipedal gait and general demeanor endear them to humans. When watching them struggling across rocky shorelines with their stumpy little legs, you want to reach out and help them. But penguins don’t need such help, quite the opposite in fact. Several penguin species are adversely affected by human visitation. Unmanaged ecotourism can lead to reproductive failure and even death, ultimately affecting breeding populations. Disturbance effects from well-meaning visitors add to the considerable threats from pollution, fisheries, habitat degradation, and climate change. Fortunately, compared to such other threats, impacts from ecotourism are relatively easy to minimize. Local efforts will yield local rewards. Based on detailed site- and species-specific research, effective guidelines for visitor management can be and have been developed and implemented. Ecotourism, if well managed, can provide great incentives for wildlife conservation and can be an important driver for the protection of vital habitat for penguins and other wildlife on land and at sea.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

    Ursula Ellenberg

Authors
  1. Ursula Ellenberg
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Correspondence to Ursula Ellenberg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and The Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Daniel T. Blumstein

  2. Ifremer, UMR MARBEC, Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservation, Laboratory of Adaptation and Adaptability of Animals and Systems, Palavas-les-Flots, France

    Benjamin Geffroy

  3. Department of Ecology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Diogo S. M. Samia

  4. Graduate Program in Ecology, and Life and Earth Sciences Department, University of Brasília, Brasilia, Brazil

    Eduardo Bessa

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Ellenberg, U. (2017). Impacts of Penguin Tourism. In: Blumstein, D., Geffroy, B., Samia, D., Bessa, E. (eds) Ecotourism’s Promise and Peril. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58331-0_8

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