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Cited by 286

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 38 of the 38 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Lack of Rule-Adherence During Mountain Gorilla Tourism Encounters in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, Places Gorillas at Risk From Human Disease

Open access
Weber, Annalisa, Kalema-Zikusoka, Gladys, Stevens, Nancy J.·2020·Frontiers in Public Health
DOI 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00001
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Abstract

Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are an endangered primate species, with approximately 40% of the 1000 individuals that remain on the planet today residing in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP) in southwestern Uganda. These primates are at the heart of a growing tourism industry that has incentivized their continued protection, but close proximity between humans and gorillas during such encounters presents well-documented risks for disease transmission. The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has developed rules to help protect the health of the gorillas, limiting each habituated gorilla group to a single 60 minute visit each day by a group of no more than 8 tourists, and emphasizing that humans maintain a >7 m distance from gorillas at all times. A number of studies have documented that not all tour groups respect these rules. This project assesses rule-adherence during gorilla tourism encounters at BINP using both observational and survey-based data collected during the tourism high season between May-August, 2014. Observational data from 53 treks reveal that groups of 2-10 tourists engaged in gorilla viewing encounters between 46-98 minutes in duration. Although 96% of pre-trek briefings conducted by park wardens emphasized the need to maintain > 7 m human-gorilla spacing, the 7 m distance rule was violated in over 98% (52 out of 53) of tours examined in this study. During the encounters, observational data were collected at two minute intervals, documenting the nearest distance between any tourist and a gorilla (n=1604), of which 1094 observations (68.2%) took place at a distance less than or equal to 7 m. Importantly, the 7 m rule was violated in visits to all of the gorilla groups habituated at the time of the study. In 224 observations, human-gorilla spacing was 3 m or less. Survey data (n=243) revealed promising opportunities to improve tourist understanding of and adherence to park rules, with 73.6% of respondents indicating that they would be willing to utilize a precautionary measure of wearing a facemask during encounters to protect gorilla health.

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Citations

Cites

Show all 38 references

Research works printed but not linked: 24

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  15. Sleeman, 1998, Preventive medicine programme for the mountain gorillas (Gorilla gorilla beringei) of Rwanda: a model for other endangered primate populations, 127
  16. Sandbrook, 2006, The rules and reality of mountain gorilla Gorilla berengei beringei tracking: how close do tourists get?, Oryx., 40, 428, 10.1017/S0030605306001323 · doi:10.1017/s0030605306001323
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  24. Hamilton, 2000, Conservation in a region of political instability: Bwindi impenetrable forest, Uganda, Conserv Biol., 14, 1722, 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2000.99452.x · doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2000.99452.x

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Metadata

Authors
Weber, A., Kalema-Zikusoka, G., & Stevens, N. J.
Venue
Frontiers in Public Health
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2020-02-13
Volume
8
Pages
1-1
ISSN
2296-2565 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpubh.2020.00001
OpenAlex
W3005641731
Cited by
286
References
38
FWCI
64.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
gold
Licence
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor)
Funders
Ohio University

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Lack of Rule-Adherence During Mountain Gorilla Tourism Encounters in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, Places Gorillas at Risk From Human Disease. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00001
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Weber, A., Kalema-Zikusoka, G., & Stevens, N. J. (2020). Lack of Rule-Adherence During Mountain Gorilla Tourism Encounters in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, Places Gorillas at Risk From Human Disease. Frontiers in Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00001

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