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March 08, 2012
On the top of many people’s list of things to do when on a holiday to Africa, safaris are a controversial issue. Some believe that they are great for protecting endangered species; others believe they are just an extension of the zoo.
A few hundred years ago, when western explorers came back from their travels in the most distant corners of the Earth they started to bring back exotic and extraordinary animals. This ranged from a small number of large animals to a large collection of small animals. By the end of the 19th century some of these collections were massive; one example of this is Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild’s huge collection of species, both dead and alive, which he left to the public, currently in the form of Tring Natural History Museum.
However, private collections quickly grew into commercial enterprises, London Zoological Gardens, currently known as London Zoo, opened its gates to the public in 1847, after originally being a private collection, used for scientific research.
After the growth and initial love of zoos, people began to wonder about the ethics, was keeping these large animals locked up in small places right? Some argued that the protection of endangered species was more important than if the animals were truly free but people kept paying to come to zoos and so the industry continued to grow.
As the destruction of animals habitat continued and increased during the twentieth century, even more amazing and strange animals’ survival were being put at risk. A new concept needed to be invented. Around sixty years ago the first safaris were started as a business. Previously, like in Western Europe, wealthy land owners had kept collections of animals, but it was around this time that the great Savannahs of Africa were opened to the public with the intention of watching animals.
This was much better in terms of ethics but was also much more expensive and not generally a viable financial option for most of the members of the public. However with the growth of world travel and the increase in safety and choice of flights to Africa, Safaris have become more accessible. It is the best chance of spotting a lion, cheetah or elephant in its natural habitat.
Or so it would seem. With acres of space to roam, it is easy to think that it is the same environment as the animals’ natural habitat but some studies have shown that the regular contact with humans can affect the animals’ behavior.
Nevertheless, the protection of the habitat, protection of endangered species and revenue for many developing countries could be seen to outweigh the slight negatives of the possibility that the frequent presence of humans could affect the animal’s well being, with long term affects.
But this is forgetting about the sheer beauty of Safari, no other experience could get that amount of people that close to such special animals. All in all, most of the scientific community, politicians and animal experts agree that safaris are a brilliant idea.
Labels: Africa, Family Vacation
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