Effects of wildlife tourism on white shark associative behaviour

While wildlife tourism may impact the animals it targets, it plays a
critical role in public education and conservation awareness.
Understanding changes in animal behaviour in response to tourism
activities can inform the trade-offs between negative impacts and
socioeconomic benefits. There are public claims that cage-diving
activities may condition white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias, to interact
with boats, thus potentially increasing the risk of shark bites. We
tracked the fine-scale movements of 73 white sharks in relation to
cage-diving boats using acoustic telemetry between 2018 and 2022 at
Neptune Islands, Australia, to investigate associative behaviour and
factors potentially influencing residency and time spent in proximity to
the cage-diving boats. White sharks spent gradually less time near
cage-diving boats throughout their residency at the tourism site. This
behaviour was consistent across individuals, years, sexes and sizes.
Sharks, however, resumed their natural behaviours (i.e., the initial
amount of time near the cage-diving boats) each time they returned to
Neptune Islands, suggesting that the observed habituation (i.e. loss of
response to the stimulus used to attract sharks) did not last for long
periods. These trends support the lack of long-term learnt behaviour of
white sharks increasingly interacting with boats. Our results indicate
that current management strategies such as regulating the number of days
the industry can operate at the site and the amount of food-based
attractant used, and reducing the amount of bait consumed can limit
associative behaviour between white sharks and boats while enabling
continued opportunities for white shark tourism. Understanding how
wildlife associate with humans can help ensure that best practices are in
place for both the targeted animals and the people involved, particularly
in the case of threatened and potentially dangerous species.

尽管野生动物旅游可能对其目标动物产生影响，但它在公众教育和保护意识提升方面发挥着关键作用。了解动物行为如何随旅游活动发生变化，可为权衡负面影响与社会经济效益提供依据。公众认为，笼式潜水活动可能使大白鲨（Carcharodon carcharias）形成与船只互动的条件反射，从而潜在增加鲨鱼咬伤风险。2018年至2022年间，我们在澳大利亚海王星群岛利用声学遥测技术（acoustic telemetry）追踪了73条大白鲨相对于笼式潜水船只的精细运动，以研究其关联行为及可能影响居留时间和在船只附近停留时长的因素。在旅游点停留期间，大白鲨在笼式潜水船只附近的停留时间逐渐减少。这种行为在不同个体、年份、性别和体型间具有一致性。然而，大白鲨每次返回海王星群岛时，都会恢复其自然行为（即最初在笼式潜水船只附近的停留时长），这表明观察到的习惯化（habituation，即对用于吸引鲨鱼的刺激物失去反应）并未长期持续。这些趋势支持了大白鲨未形成与船只互动增加的长期习得行为这一结论。我们的结果显示，当前的管理策略（如限制该行业在该地点的运营天数、规范食物类引诱剂的使用量以及减少饵料消耗量）可在限制大白鲨与船只关联行为的同时，为大白鲨旅游保留持续的机会。了解野生动物与人类的关联方式，有助于确保为目标动物和相关人员制定恰当的最佳实践，尤其是对于濒危且具有潜在危险的物种而言。