Walking in Each Other’s Footsteps: Do Animal Trail Makers Confer Resilience against Trampling Tourists?

Abstract

Modern humans, and other hominins before them, have walked across the landscapes of most continents for many millennia. They shared these landscapes with other large animals, especially mammalian herbivores and their predators, whose footsteps defined trails through the vegetation. Most of the diversity in the wild species is now concentrated in protected areas and visited by large numbers of tourists who may walk amongst them. This review examines the literature about medium-large animal and tourist trampling impacts to uncover any marriage between animal ecology and nature-based tourism research. Methodology is comparable. Animal ecology has focused on the propagation of grazing and trampling effects from a point source (usually water). Tourism research has focused on trail structure (formal/informal, hardened, wide/narrow) and the propagation of effects (especially weeds) into the hinterland and along the trail. There is little research to substantiate an evolutionary view of trampling impacts. At least tourists venturing off formed trails may reduce impacts by following animal trails with caveats, such as risk of encounters with dangerous animals and disruption of animal behavior. This is an under-studied topic but a fertile ground for research, aided by modern tools like trail cameras and geographically enabled devices borne by tourists.

Preface: Special Issue on Environmental Impact of Nature-Based Tourism

“…Therefore, they recommend that managers concentrate walking trails in lowland grasslands, and also recommend their methods as a time-saving procedure for similar studies in other regions. Croft [2] also discusses the problems of vegetation trampling and explores the possibility of moderating the effects of human walkers by following the trails created by large animals in Australia, Africa, and Europe, including advice on where this may not be appropriate, such as in locations where large predators await herbivores along trails. Bartoletti et al [3] discuss results of stakeholder questionnaires on the impacts of trampling and other issues, such as waste disposal by adventure racers in Brazil.…”

Efficacy of Combining Education and Site Management in Reducing Off-Trail Travel in a Fragile Biotic Community, Acadia National Park

“…For protected natural landscapes with high visitation, the effects of recreation foot traffic and associated trampling impacts can be acute as even low levels of foot traffic can degrade vegetation and soils (Cole, 1995b; Croft, 2019; Liddle, 1997; Marion et al, 2016). Visitors traveling off-trail often create and expand informal (visitor-created) trails that may alter the cover and composition of native plant communities, trample sensitive or rare species, or introduce and spread nonnative and invasive species (Barros & Pickering, 2017; Hill & Pickering, 2006; Johnson & Vande Kamp, 1996; Potito & Beatty, 2005; Schwartz et al, 2018).…”