Mutual relationships between tourism and arctic fox conservation

Wildlife tourism can have both negative and positive effects on the animals. In Sweden the endangered Arctic fox is subject to an increasing tourist interest, with tour operators offering guided Arctic fox safari tours. Small... [ view full abstract ]

Wildlife tourism can have both negative and positive effects on the animals. In Sweden the endangered Arctic fox is subject to an increasing tourist interest, with tour operators offering guided Arctic fox safari tours. Small and/or endangered populations, like the arctic fox population in Sweden, are extra sensitive to disturbance. To investigate the effects of the tourism on the arctic foxes in order to make it sustainable and not reducing the arctic foxes fitness, five dens with various levels of disturbance from tourism was monitored with automatic wildlife cameras. In addition we did a survey to tourists on their knowledge of conservation and awareness. The results show that the tourism had an effect on the activity of individual arctic foxes. The foxes subjected to the highest level of disturbance changed their diurnal activity pattern, where the adult foxes increased their presence with the juveniles on the den during daytime, when the disturbance from tourism was highest. Of the five dens in the study, the two least disturbed dens were visited by golden eagles during the summer, indicating that a lower predator presence could be an important positive effect from the tourism on the foxes. The survey to tourists showed that the support for preserving the arctic fox in Sweden was very high among all responding groups and that the knowledge and awareness about the conservation of the arctic fox increased after participation in a safari tour. Along with the money raised for conservation those are important positive effects of the safari tours. The result from this study is a promising indicator that it could be possible to have both tourism and a viable arctic fox population in the same area and even use the tourism and safari tours as a tool in the conservation of the endangered arctic fox. A responsibly and sustainably managed tourism would also benefit other species that inhabits the same environments as well as the people living in the mountain regions.