Using behavior indices and vital rates to determine the conservation impact of wildlife tourism: Guided sea turtle watch programs in Florida

Abstract

Recent rapid growth in wildlife tourism necessitates understanding its biologically-significant impacts on targeted species. To evaluate these effects, we studied how loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) responded to public sea turtle watch programs on a nesting beach in southeast Florida. We introduced two new measures of behavior in addition to other well-known behavior parameters, by which to measure behavioral responses of turtles during the nesting process. Five of ten behavior parameters we measured were significantly influenced by the presence of a turtle watch group. However, we found no relationship between observed changes in nesting behavior and measures of reproductive success (estimated clutch size, hatching success, and hatchling emergence success). We conclude that either the measured behavioral changes did not affect the outcome of reproduction, or their effect was undetectable. This study highlights the importance of pairing behavioral and demographic variables when evaluating the conservation impact of wildlife tourism programs. When wildlife tourism programs prioritize animal welfare and are periodically evaluated for their biological impact on target species, they are an effective tool for educating the general public and promoting conservation and environmental stewardship.

Keywords

• Wildlife tourism
• Animal behavior
• Management
• Conservation
• Florida
• Loggerhead sea turtle