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Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity
A perennial criticism of provisioning ecotourism is that it alters the natural behavior and ecology of the target species by providing an artificial food source. Here we evaluate its impact on the long-term site fidelity patterns of tiger sharks in French Polynesia. We hypothesized that a significan...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10183044/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37179390 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34446-8 |
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author | Séguigne, Clémentine Bègue, Michel Meyer, Carl Mourier, Johann Clua, Éric |
author_facet | Séguigne, Clémentine Bègue, Michel Meyer, Carl Mourier, Johann Clua, Éric |
author_sort | Séguigne, Clémentine |
collection | PubMed |
description | A perennial criticism of provisioning ecotourism is that it alters the natural behavior and ecology of the target species by providing an artificial food source. Here we evaluate its impact on the long-term site fidelity patterns of tiger sharks in French Polynesia. We hypothesized that a significant impact of provisioning would lead to (1) increases in individual site fidelity over time, and (2) an increase in the number of resident individuals over time. Of 53 individuals photo-identified and monitored during > 500 dives over five years, 10 individuals accounted for > 75% of all sightings, whereas 35 sharks were sighted very infrequently. Even the most frequently observed tiger sharks exhibited overall low fidelity at the site and showed no increase in site fidelity over time. Furthermore, the number of tiger sharks sighted during each dive did not increase. The observed patterns of tiger shark sightings were best explained by natural movements, including general roaming within home ranges along the coastline and seasonal migrations. Despite the apparent lack of impact of provisioning ecotourism on tiger shark ecology in Tahitian waters, it would be prudent to implement a strict code of conduct during any future provisioning activities to maximize the safety of participants and animals involved. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10183044 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-101830442023-05-15 Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity Séguigne, Clémentine Bègue, Michel Meyer, Carl Mourier, Johann Clua, Éric Sci Rep Article A perennial criticism of provisioning ecotourism is that it alters the natural behavior and ecology of the target species by providing an artificial food source. Here we evaluate its impact on the long-term site fidelity patterns of tiger sharks in French Polynesia. We hypothesized that a significant impact of provisioning would lead to (1) increases in individual site fidelity over time, and (2) an increase in the number of resident individuals over time. Of 53 individuals photo-identified and monitored during > 500 dives over five years, 10 individuals accounted for > 75% of all sightings, whereas 35 sharks were sighted very infrequently. Even the most frequently observed tiger sharks exhibited overall low fidelity at the site and showed no increase in site fidelity over time. Furthermore, the number of tiger sharks sighted during each dive did not increase. The observed patterns of tiger shark sightings were best explained by natural movements, including general roaming within home ranges along the coastline and seasonal migrations. Despite the apparent lack of impact of provisioning ecotourism on tiger shark ecology in Tahitian waters, it would be prudent to implement a strict code of conduct during any future provisioning activities to maximize the safety of participants and animals involved. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10183044/ /pubmed/37179390 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34446-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Séguigne, Clémentine Bègue, Michel Meyer, Carl Mourier, Johann Clua, Éric Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity |
title | Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity |
title_full | Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity |
title_fullStr | Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity |
title_full_unstemmed | Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity |
title_short | Provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity |
title_sort | provisioning ecotourism does not increase tiger shark site fidelity |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10183044/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37179390 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34446-8 |
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