#StopAnimalSelfies
In this first picture, we see a tourist named Taylor taking a selfie with the sloth. She thinks it would look super cool to post it on her instagram story so that her friends can see how close she got to a sloth. Do you know what's wrong with this? Yes that's right, NO ANIMAL SELFIES, and that includes Sloths. We are disrupting their natural habitat and it gives the wrong idea to social media. This attracts people just to go see animals because it’s “cool”.
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In this second picture, we see the same tourist take a picture of the sloth. However, that's not enough! After the picture it is important to post an informative caption so people don’t get the wrong idea. For example, you should say this sloth was sadly injured and brought to KSTR to have a second chance of life. There is permanent damage in our nerves and joints so this sanctuary will continue to help the sloth every day and try their best to make it seem like the sloth is in the wild. It is always important to not take selfies and take pictures of the animal with an informative message.
You might have read this hashtag on a conservation post or maybe even seen a poster about it in parks, but it is so much more than just stopping selfies. Social media has driven people to go to places and do things in mass demand because 'it was a really cool post or 'my friend got to be so close to a WILD animal'. In truth, we think going to visit these national parks is only benefiting these beautiful animals, but if we intend to get as close as possible for a cool photo op you're actually more of a detriment. Many parks have now made it illegal to feed the wildlife. People would feed them to get closer and it 'was so cute' when the monkey took food from my hand. But what this behavior actually does is teach them to rely on people and even become aggressive towards people when they snatch your stuff and people go to grab it back.
Along with negatively influencing the animals' behavior and feeding them food potentially detrimental to their diet, the animal selfie trend has led to illegally owned animals. Tigers are a huge example of this, people will spend hundreds to a couple thousand getting a picture with a cute tiger cub or grown tiger. Meanwhile, these animals are chained there all day, taken away from their mothers too early, and more than likely drugged to be around people 'safely'. The animal selfie trend also funds the illegal owning of elephants. This includes elephant rides where they are worked all day and are socially isolated from other animals. These practices can cause animals to be extremely neglected.
It is important to understand the ripple effect of the social media craze to take pictures with animals. It not only puts these animals in danger, but it also supports a tourist market behind the illegal owning and exploitation of these animals.
When going to visit wildlife try to observe from afar. Support local ecotourism through safe and conservation driven guided tours. You can even help today for free by spreading the word and educating your family and friends, even make social media posts. All wildlife species need us to be more aware of our effect on their habitats, and for the sake of humanity so do we.