Tourism accounts for 9% of global GDP and comprises 1.1 billion tourist arrivals per annum. Visits to wildlife tourist attractions (WTAs) may account for 20–40% of global tourism, but no studies have audited the diversity of WTAs and their impacts on the conservation status and welfare of subject animals. We scored these impacts for 24 types of WTA, visited by 3.6–6 million tourists per year, and compared our scores to tourists’ feedback on TripAdvisor. Six WTA types (impacting 1,500–13,000 individual animals) had net positive conservation/welfare impacts, but 14 (120,000–340,000 individuals) had negative conservation impacts and 18 (230,000–550,000 individuals) had negative welfare impacts. Despite these figures only 7.8% of all tourist feedback on these WTAs was negative due to conservation/welfare concerns. We demonstrate that WTAs have substantial negative effects that are unrecognised by the majority of tourists, suggesting an urgent need for tourist education and regulation of WTAs worldwide.

In a series of dawn-to-dusk studies, we examined the nature and accessibility of nectar rewards for pollinating insects by monitoring insect visits and the secretion rate and standing crop of nectar in the British native plant species Salvia pratensis , Stachys palustris , S. officinalis , Lythrum salicaria , Linaria vulgaris , the non-native Calendula officinalis , Petunia  ×  hybrida , Salvia splendens , and the possibly introduced Saponaria officinalis . We also compared single with double variants of Lotus corniculatus , Saponaria officinalis , Petunia  ×  hybrida and Calendula officinalis . All the British species studied are nectar-rich and are recommended for pollinator-friendly gardens. They showed maximal secretion rates of about 10–90 μg sugar per flower h −1 , and most had mean standing crops of about 5–60 μg sugar per flower. In all British species studied, the corolla was deep enough for the relatively long-tongued bumblebee Bombus pascuorum , but the shallower flowers of Lythrum salicaria were also much visited by shorter-tongued bees and hoverflies, as well as by butterflies. The exotic Salvia splendens , presumably coevolved with hummingbirds in the Neotropics, has such deep flowers that British bees cannot reach the nectar except by crawling down the corolla. With a secretion rate approaching 300 μg sugar per flower h −1 and little depletion by insects, S. splendens accumulated high standing crops of nectar. S. splendens , and single and double flowers of the two probably moth-pollinated species Petunia  ×  hybrida and Saponaria officinalis , received few daytime visits despite abundant nectar but Calendula was well visited by hoverflies and bees. We compared single and double variants of Lotus corniculatus , Petunia  ×  hybrida and Calendula officinalis , and also Saponaria officinalis , the last being probably introduced in Britain (Stace, 1997 New flora of the British Isles. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). In Petunia , Saponaria and Lotus , double flowers secreted little or no nectar. In Calendula , where doubling involved a change in the proportion of disc and ray florets rather than modification of individual flower structure, double and single capitula had similar standing crops of nectar. Except in Calendula , exotic or double flowers were little exploited by insect visitors. In the exotics, this was probably due to the absence or scarcity of coevolved pollinators, coupled, in double flowers, with the absence of nectar. Copyright 2001 Annals of Botany Company

The global wildlife trade is a growing threat to biodiversity, species conservation and animal welfare. A major driver is consumer demand for exotic pets, and there have been calls for information campaigns to combat this. We created a novel, online survey to assess whether such campaigns could be effective. Our website "matched' individuals with an exotic pet, and asked them to rate how likely they were to purchase one. We manipulated the information shown about each pet, giving either a "control" statement, describing the species' diet, or one of four types of "treatment" statement describing zoonotic disease, animal welfare, legal or species conservation consequences. Respondents shown disease or legality information had a 39% reduced probability of selecting higher purchase likelihoods. Information on welfare and conservation impacts did not significantly lower purchase likelihoods. Information campaigns may reduce demand for exotic pets, particularly if focused on zoonotic disease and legal consequences.

Wildlife tourism is a huge global market, the revenue from which can promote local livelihoods and tourist education, enact conservation and improve animal welfare. Such benefits arise if wildlife tourist attractions (WTAs) prioritise ethical deliverables above financial profit, but recent work has shown that the majority of WTAs have substantial negative animal welfare and conservation impacts. In the absence of global regulatory authorities, tourist revenue has become the ultimate arbiter of what constitutes acceptable use of animals in WTAs. Tourists, however, are not adequate assessors of WTAs' animal welfare and conservation impacts: they lack the specialist knowledge required and are subject to a number of psychological biases that obscure the ethical dimensions of decisions to attend particular WTAs. This inadequacy is evidenced, and compounded, by overwhelmingly positive reviews on TripAdvisor (the industry-leading review site), even for WTAs with objectively poor ethical standards. Our suggested solution is to empower tourists by presenting unequivocal assessments of WTAs animal welfare and conservation impacts, hosted in the fora that tourists already use to make their travel decisions. We would thereby promote a subjective norm: that tourists should consider and limit their individual negative impacts when choosing which WTAs to visit.

Although residential areas are often unfavourable for wildlife, some species can take advantage of the available shelter and anthropogenic sources of food such as supplementary feeding. The European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is increasingly associated with gardens and villages and less so with arable farmland. Suggested drivers for this include the following: hedgehogs' attraction to higher food densities, including natural prey and anthropogenic sources, a greater range of day nest sites and warmer microclimates in rural villages, coupled with decreased risk of predation by badgers (Meles meles). We investigated the contribution of these drivers by radio-tracking hedgehogs on four arable sites, two with badgers present. Seventy-eight hedgehogs were tracked, 32 yielding enough data to calculate home range sizes. At the home range and landscape scales, gardens and buildings were the highest ranked habitats compared with their availability. Woodland and arable land were the lowest ranked compared with their availability. Villages were the most selected habitat for nesting. When hedgehogs were found closer to buildings, their ranges were smaller and we speculate this is due to increased food availability in villages. Where badgers were present hedgehogs remained closer to cover and their home ranges were on average 12.2 ha smaller. On badger-occupied sites, 50% fewer radio-tracking fixes were on arable land. We conclude that resource availability coupled with nest site selection and badger presence drives hedgehogs' selection of rural villages. We found no effect of ambient temperature on habitat use. We recommend focusing conservation efforts on maintaining hedgehog populations in rural villages.