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https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/25/nobody-can-hold-a-candle-to-it-david-attenborough-backs-bbcs-nature-shows>
"Sir David Attenborough has said the BBC’s natural history programmes have
helped “world opinion change” about conservation, as his latest series,
Mammals, highlights the damage “overcrowded” game reserve tourism has on
cheetahs – which he says we are in danger of “loving to death”.
In the same way
Blue Planet II raised awareness of plastics, the six-part BBC
One programme is likely to prompt questions about safari holidays through
footage of large numbers of tourist-filled trucks chasing views of hunting
cheetahs making a kill – which can often result in the animals leaving the meat
and cubs dying.
Mammals, which comes 22 years after Attenborough’s acclaimed
Life of
Mammals, has the broadcaster explain: “With an estimated 69mn visitors to
protected sites in Africa each year” parts of it are “becoming overcrowded”.
As a hunting cheetah is chased by vehicles “there is pressure to get the best
view of the kill. As the predators start to hunt, so do the cars,” Attenborough
explains.
With more than 70 trucks encircling the cheetah after it has caught its prey,
Attenborough warns: “Wildlife experts studying the cheetah recommend that there
should be no more than five vehicles to each sighting.”
He says tourism is essential to fund protection of the animals and the reserves
they live in but “we are in danger of loving these cheetah to death” because
the huge number of vehicles “comes at a cost” as “more of the cheetah’s hunts
fail and more of their kills are abandoned”.
Attenborough adds: “In areas of high tourism, research has shown that the
survival of cubs is also greatly reduced. It must surely be possible to respect
the animals’ need for space and at the same time enable human visitors to have
a meaningful glimpse of the wild world. That is what must be achieved if
cheetah are to have a future on the African plains.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
