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| A silverback gorilla |
Many people opt
for having monkeys as pets, and owners are sometimes worried about their
animals transmitting many diseases to their families, such as tuberculosis and herpes-B negative. But do we humans
worry about the diseases we can transmit to monkeys?
This is the
case of gorillas. Gorillas cannot be adopted as pets, but ecotourism–tourism involving travel
to areas of natural or ecological interest–may be the reason why these animals get some human
diseases. Scientists wrote in a journal of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention that in two parks Africa, where humans have direct contact with many of
the remaining mountain gorillas, that there has been an important increase in
respiratory-disease outbreaks among the apes. The death of two gorillas in this
park led to a deep study that showed that a human virus was directly associated
with their deaths.
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| Human diseases can be easily transmited to gorillas through sneezing |
Ecotourism
seems to have some pros and cons. Scientists said that for gorillas’
conservation human proximity is essential, but at the same time it is important
to minimize the transmission of respiratory pathogens from humans to great
apes.
Ecotourism can be a lot of fun, but most humans are not aware of the risks that this activity may
have for themselves and for the animals they visit. Anyway, ecotourism is not the
only activity that may be dangerous for animals: when humans visit zoos, farms,
etc., people can transmit human diseases to them too.
In only a few
words, a simple human sneeze can kill a gorilla. Were you aware of this? How do
you think that ecotourism can fight against this situation?
