Researchers are protecting great apes from diseases by studying the behavior and expectations of tourists who visit them.
September 5, 2022
Researchers are protecting great apes from diseases by studying the behavior and expectations of tourists who visit them.
Humans are great apes, and this close genetic link makes non-human great apes (bonobos, chimpanzees, eastern gorillas, western gorillas and orangutans) vulnerable to our infectious diseases.
In the new study, by an international team including the University of Exeter, NOVA University Lisbon and Ugandan NGO Conservation Through Public Health, almost 1,000 tourists or potential future tourists completed an online questionnaire.
Willingness to comply with disease prevention measures like wearing a facemask varied depending on factors such as nationality, expectations about the visitor experience and whether people thought specific disease-risk measures were effective.
The study was conducted in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the researchers also created the Protect Great Apes from Disease initiative.
“We have developed visitor education and guide-training materials for use in African sites of great ape tourism,” said lead author Dr. Ana Nuno, of NOVA University Lisbon and the University of Exeter.
“To do so, we first explored what factors seem to affect visitors’ compliance with disease mitigation measures.
