People who have very little experience with being near wildlife do not necessarily know how to behave around it. People are often frightened, naive, or aggressively bold. Frightened tourists will send a "frightened" message to the animals. The naive or bold tourist might get too close to the animal, thinking it is safe. They might hurt the animal with the food they feed it, or the tourist could be seriously injured. Too many tourists do not realize that when they are in nature...there is the possibility of danger. The tour company cannot guarantee perfect safety from the forces of nature and the behavior of animals, even if it is a good tour company.

Many nature tourists do not have the right equipment for the experience. They try to take photos of dangerous animals with small disposable cameras and therefore, want to move in too close. They should be using cameras with longer lenses (at least 200mm), and be carrying binoculars, and a field guide to help identify the species that they see.

Mostly, we just make to much noise and scare the animals away. Inexperienced wildlife watchers are always talking!! Maybe they are smoking, wearing perfume, wearing clothing with contrasting patterns, or honking the horn of the vehicle to make an animal look up for a photograph. Poor animals!

Watching wildlife comes with a responsibility: to observe wild animals without interrupting and disturbing them while they are hunting, eating, resting, or are trying to mate. Tourists must remember that this disturbance happens to these animals 365 days a year, morning to night...by other inexperienced nature tourists and by driver/guides who want to please their customers.