In Sri Lanka’s national parks are watching leopards, elephants and other animals hunted rather than. Animal rights activists*criticize inside the.
you can See more on a photo than in a Safari in Sri Lanka: leopards photo: reuters
TISSAMAHARAMA taz | The Jeep careening at almost 80 miles an hour on the brown sandy soil. He swirls dust, fog, the occupants in the open-top car with exhaust fumes, making a racket. The six women and men in the car are surprised: What is this? Why distract the driver of the car, such as someone who is on the run, through this natural Park in Sri Lanka?
Thus, none of the six had imagined. The small group had booked a Safari through the Yala national Park, the oldest nature reserve of the island in the Indian ocean. The women and men had expected a good Tour and then the.
Kerstin Luck is one of the Insass*indoor and irritated: “We are not in a conservation area, I understand.” You ask: doesn’t it Bother the animals, if the car speeds through the area? Will not pollute the air unnecessarily? The German tourist, the experienced for the first Time on a Safari, will shake in the next few hours over your head again and try the driver to drive Slowly and to bring it to a Stop. However, do not follow the pleas of his passengers, but the Call of his colleagues in other Jeeps, the race through the 1,500-square-mile national Park.
The calls come every few minutes over the phone. And the Safari-guests want to see here, especially the leopard. As the promise of the brochures, which are available everywhere in the Hotels and guest houses. The cat is on the Red list of endangered species. In the Yala national Park 35 this animals life, this is one of the world’s densest leopard populations. The Chance to see one of the animals outside of a zoo, is favorable, the jeep driver to bring the Tourist*inside you.
But this leads to a kind of hunt. As soon as a driver discovered somewhere in a Bush or behind a tree, a tail, a paw or a piece of leopard’s head, he calls immediately to a colleague and by the location. The reports, in turn, the next time, the telephone chain works perfectly. Then a car speeds after the other, within a few minutes all the cars are driving to a place and forced to come close behind, and next to each other to a standstill. With the result that hardly anyone gets to see a pet – the cars are blocking the view.
Unfortunately, this is when most of the Safaris so, the veterinarian Daniela Schrudde of the world animal protection society in Berlin. She has worked in various nature parks and seen how Safaris work. Often it is a cycle: The Tourist*interior is promised by the tour providers a unique experience that many guests call and want to meet the Guides. This will do everything to meet the desires at least in approaches, and disregard, therefore, often the animal protection.
The Safari, the has booked, Kerstin Luck, starts in the morning. It is still dark, as the estimated 40 cars in front of the national Park in a long queue on the inlet wait. The sunrises and sunsets are considered to be the best of times, wild animals such as elephants, crocodiles, water Buffalo, warthogs, and to see leopards. Twice a day the car lawn columns through the Park. At these Tourist-hype of the animals had become accustomed, says the Jeep driver: “The young animals don’t even know no different, they grow up with it.”
The animal doctor is holding Schrudde for possible, but still not excusable. “May the animals, the day-to-day experience of cars and tourists, not stressed out, because they have become accustomed,” she says: “Now are habituated in the Park, many animals, which means they have understood, that you the people are not in danger, and not escape it.” On the other hand, is disregarded in the case of animals, such as antelopes, not infrequently, the instinct to Flee miss. “To be harassed, the animals of people or of cars circled, it means Stress”, says Schrudde.
In the Serengeti-Park in the lower Saxony town of Hodenhagen is not allowed. The number of cars and visitors*the interior is limited, the vehicles are not allowed to drive faster than 10 kilometres an hour, and the paved roads do not leave. No one is allowed to get out of the car, the animals must not be fed. With its 220 hectares and 1,500 exotic animals of the Serengeti-Park is much smaller than the one in Sri Lanka, but nonetheless, a peculiarity in Europe. There, people can meet wild animals are not caged like in a Zoo.
dealing with the animals is based on animal welfare. “An animal must always retain the right to be animals, to live undisturbed,” it says on the Homepage. It was “a matter of respect”. Respect for animals is expressed but also by the fact that the tour guides be able to read the “animals”, the animal welfare expert, it Schrudde expresses.
So you think that the driver should recognize when an animal is stressed, and the distance between himself and the people would like to have. In Sri Lanka, this philosophy seems to be largely undermined. It is estimated that up to 400 Jeeps lawn on some days through the Park and try to get as close as possible to the animals to approach. And yet, the least of all the occupants of the car to see leopards. It was also no wonder, white, an employee of the Serengeti-Park in Hodenhagen. The animals are disappearing, especially in the summer during the day in the shade of the trees.
animal protection organization Pro Wildlife indicates how distressing for animals, in principle, some of them are tourist attractions. These include elephant rides, Dolphin shows, the Caress of monkeys and tigers included. The frequent emphasis by providers of such attractions, that the animal was probably assured, is usually a “misnomer”.
such can not discover the tourist Luck in sri Lanka’s Yala national Park once more. It was much worse, she says: “There is, in my opinion, are guaranteed to be no Standards at all.” Similar to the leopard project of the “Wilderness and Wildlife Conservation Trust” (WWCT) in Sri Lanka. Anjali Watson, the WWCT-managing Director, says: “The long-term impact of the excessive and reckless tourism is still unclear.”
animal rights activist Nicola Schrudde says, protection standards should comply with the actually simple: more people than animals in the Park and the animals watching from afar. She says: “the opportunity to experience the animals actually in their natural behavior.” And the Tourist*the inside get to see what you want to see wild animals.
