Ethical animal encounters in Australia are as abundant as Australia’s wonderful wildlife – not quite, but you get the idea: it’s easy to find ethically operated zoos, wildlife parks, and marine- and wildlife watching experiences all over Australia. There’s no need to giddily grab the first cute furry creature you spot in the wild as a recent foreign tourist did, an act that has outraged Australians. We thought it timely to share a guide to responsible wildlife tourism in Australia.
You’d have to be living under a rock – as many of our cute critters do here in Australia – to have missed the recent media coverage on the horrendous behaviour ofAmerican tourist and ‘hunting influencer’ Sam Jones, who traumatised a baby wombat and mother wombat, from whom she’d kidnapped the joey. Better known as a baby kangaroo, the term ‘joey’ applies to any young marsupial raised in and protected by their mum’s pouch, as wombats are.
If you missed the sorry saga you were lucky. My mother and I were in tears as we watched the awful footage on the news, which essentially amounts to animal abuse: a clearly-delighted young woman is giddy with excitement as her boyfriend in the car films her, spotlighted to illuminate the road – normally pitch black dark in the dead of night in the bush, where there are no streetlight – the whole act seemingly planned to generate ‘content’.
“I caught a baby wombat,” American tourist Sam Jones says, smiling and laughing as she hurries toward the camera carrying the struggling joey, which moments earlier had been waddling by the road with mum, minding their own business, but now swings uncomfortably, hissing and squealing, distraught at being taken from mum and mishandled. Poor mama gives ‘chase’, as fast as a chubby squat 40-kilo wombat can move. Shame she didn’t catch up. A wombat’s teeth and claws can do serious damage.
Ethical Animal Encounters in Australia – Responsible Wildlife Tourism Guide
Continue to watch and you’ll see that the young American tourist deplorably takes pleasure in the pain of the traumatic separation of mother and baby wombat. She smiles as she replies to her boyfriend, who laughs as he says “Look at the mother, it’s chasing after her!”
Embarrassingly, the boyfriend sounds Australian, so he really should know better. The American influencer, Sam Jones, observes that the mother wombat is “pissed”. Note: unlike in Australia, where ‘pissed’ means drunk, in the USA ‘pissed’ means ‘angry’.
I’d be ‘pissed’ and petrified, too, if I was bubba and mamma wombat. Sam Jones identifies as an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” on her social media channels, which she made private soon after the footage circulated and story broke.
Similar content creators are known for exploiting animals to stage ‘rescues’ depicting them as ‘heroes’ to generate clicks and dollars – so well known that a Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) monitor, report and educate on the subject.
If this is new to you, it’s worth reading this page on animal cruelty content, which categories the kinds of content that creators produce for ‘entertainment’ to generate clicks, likes and income. This includes using animals as performers and entertainers; keeping wild animals as pets and sharing their ‘antics’; causing and prolonging animal deaths; deliberate psychological and physical torture (with a whole horrific cat sub-genre); ‘fake outrage’ and ‘fake rescue’ videos that put animals in harms way, distress and endanger them; hunting videos, and more.
Incidentally, according to the SMACC, the five steps to stopping online cruelty content is to be aware, don’t watch, don’t engage, don’t share, and report. So the next time you think about forwarding that ‘cute’ cat video to a friend, perhaps don’t. Please donate to the SMACC, instead, as they’re doing amazing work.
The young content creator, who claimed she was “concerned” about the wombats safety, no doubt expected her audience to share her amusement at their distress, and praise her for ‘rescuing’ the wombat.
Sam Jones claims she was shocked at the outrage of Australians, many of whom know to leave wild animals alone. Unless the wombats were attempting to cross a busy road, and in that case, we’d stop the traffic and let the animals cross rather than carry them away from ‘danger’.
Nobody expressed the fury that most Australians felt more than our incensed Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who, when questioned about the incident during a media conference, suggested the woman “…might try some other Australian animals. Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there. Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother. See how you go there.” (Hence our choice of image.)
If there’s some good to come of this, there are two things: the reminder that behind those ‘cute’ animal videos on social media that many of us scroll when we can’t sleep, are those social media influencers creating animal cruelty content, who are distressing, endangering and, at worse, torturing animals for clicks, likes and dollars.
It’s also a reminder when you travel not to go near and not to touch animals in the wild, if given the chance – especially don’t pick up wild animals, don’t separate them from their mothers (who might reject the baby as a result), and don’t run, laugh and swing the creature, whether for your family and friends back home, or for your fans and social media engagement.
There are plenty of ethical animal encounters in Australia at ethically managed zoos and wildlife parks, as well as loads of marine- and wildlife watching experiences in Australia that allow you to get close to our cute critters – and when you can’t get close, use a long lens to document that once-in-a-lifetime wildlife encounter.
We’ve visited zoos and wildlife parks and tested out wildlife experiences all over Australia during our years working as travel guidebook writers – and Terence also shooting images – as we updated and authored Australia guidebooks for Lonely Planet, Dorling Kindersley and Rough Guides.
We’ve also encountered animals in the wild, as we criss-crossed Australia in 4WDs for those books. That included having an encounter with a kangaroo while driving at dusk – when we knew we shouldn’t have been on the road, but sometimes these things can’t be helped. The kangaroo got out of it better than our vehicle did!
So here’s our mini guide to responsible wildlife tourism in Australia with tips to having ethical animal encounters based on our years of experience as Australia experts.
How to Have Ethical Animal Encounters in Australia
Travel around Australia and once you get out of the cities and large towns it won’t be long before you spot birdlife overhead and on the ground begin to encounter kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, echidnas, wombats, emus, lizards, snakes, and even crocodiles.
Australia’s native wildlife is unique and many of the animals are incredibly adorable – koalas obviously, but also quokkas and wombats. If you get up close and personal, which can often be delightfully unexpected, it might be very tempted for some animal lovers to reach out for a pat or share your lunch. Don’t!
Not only could it be dangerous for yourself – many of those cute creatures have sharp teeth and long claws for climbing, killing and eating – but it can also be distressing and dangerous for the wildlife, especially young animals. And there’s really no need to take the risk when there are so many places and opportunities for ethical animal encounters in Australia.
We’ll share more on ethically operated zoos, wildlife parks, animal sanctuaries, and wildlife watching experiences in Australia in another post, all tried and tested. This is our mini guide to being responsible wildlife tourists in Australia and how to have an ethical animal encounter when you’re travelling around Australia.
Be Satisfied with Wildlife Watching
It’s very tempting to cuddle a koala. I know from personal experience. I confess to having cuddled a koala and I admit to absolutely loving it. I’d like to say I’m a lot more educated now than I was then. But it was less than a decade ago…
It was at a very reputable wildlife sanctuary in Queensland, and I’d already travelled around Australia a few times, with my parents as a child and a teen, and with Terence researching and updating travel guidebooks, so I should have known better. But I couldn’t resist the chance, so I get it.
These days, the thinking is a lot different: any animal encounters with native fauna that involves holding, touching or feeding the wild animals are considered unethical as they encroach on the animals’ space and disrupt their natural behaviour. The situations are also potentially dangerous.
A much more ethical animal encounter calls for keeping your distance and simply taking the opportunity to enjoy watching wildlife, as you would on an African safari. Wildlife spotting is the way to go these days and is a much more responsible travel experience.
Visit Ethically Operated Zoos and Wildlife Parks
You’ll get loads of opportunities to watch wildlife from your own vehicle if you’re doing a road trip around Australia. Trust us on this: we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve stopped to watch echidnas, emus, wallabies and kangaroos.
Terence will vouch that I have a good eye for detecting wildlife, wherever they may be, even spotting koalas high in trees as we’ve whizzed by in our trusty 4WD. There’s been many a time that we’ve turned around to drive back for a closer look that Terence has shaken his head in disbelief at how I spotted the well-camouflaged animals.
If you’re unlucky, you can always visit ethically operated zoos, wildlife parks and sanctuaries around Australia, which offer responsible ways of encountering native animals. A big advantage is that you’ll get to do so in some context and get an education. Another is that your entry fees will go to supporting education, conservation efforts, and programmes for breeding endangered wildlife.
So how do you know which Australian zoos and wildlife parks are ethically operated? Well, you can safely assume that most zoos and wildlife parks in Australia are wildlife-first with a focus on animal welfare, animal conservation, and sustainable practices.
If you’re not sure, check the Zoo and Aquarium Association Australasia, which is the organisation responsible for accreditation. They review accreditation every three years and they have a list of accredited members on their site.
Do Ethical Wildlife Experiences
Finding ethical wildlife experiences, which include guided encounters, tours and cruises to see native animals in the wild, is a bit trickier. While you could assume that any animal encounters offered by accredited members of the Zoo and Aquarium Association Australasia would be ethically operated, what about cruises and tours operated by commercial operators?
For instance, we’ve tested out countless guided tours and cruises ran by private companies into national parks. We’ve also skipped some that are hugely popular tourist activities. One of the first that comes to mind is the jumping crocodile cruises in the Northern Territory.
We’ve sometimes had to include those activities in guidebooks, as our role has been to inform rather than judge readers – something we still believe in – but when it comes to guiding readers as to what animal encounters are ethical, and what animal encounters are not, we recommend considering this…
Are you watching a presentation or a performance? If you’re going on a hike, drive or cruise with a guide who pauses when spotting a bird, kangaroo or crocodile, points out their location, and offers an explanation, then I’d categorise that style of guiding as a presentation.
But if you’re doing a cruise on a boat, which stops, and the guide offers food to draw the animal closer, and, in the case of the jumping crocodiles, lures them out of the water to jump into the ear, then we’re talking about demonstrations.
This is a form of entertainment rather than education, which encourages the animal to behave in a way that it wouldn’t normally. Changing an animal’s behaviour isn’t such a good idea, placing both the animal and you in danger.
Avoid Wildlife Selfie Opportunities
I can’t think of any wildlife selfie opportunities in Australia, but do let us know if you’re aware of any in the comments below. But I’m including this as there may well be some at smaller private zoos that I’m not aware of, and what I’m talking about are animal attractions that exist purely to offer wildlife selfie opportunities for a price.
I can think of many in my adopted home of Southeast Asia, although fortunately not in Cambodia, which offers some of the best ethical encounters that we’ve ever experienced. But one of its regional neighbours… not so much… and it’s time that authorities crack down on these kinds of unethical wildlife experiences.
Animal attractions built solely around wildlife selfie opportunities where you get to sit and pat a tiger, hug a bear or have a snake wrapped around your shoulders are some of the most unethical animal encounters around.
The wild animals are typically drugged for long hours to ensure your safety, their teeth have probably been ground down or pulled, and their claws removed, and they are usually kept in appalling conditions – all for commercial reasons, to make the owners of the attraction rich. Stay clear.
Donate to Wildlife Protection Organisations
There are loads of reputable registered organisations in Australia protecting wombats and other wildlife, which animal lovers can donate to and support their conservation efforts, including the Wombat Protection Society of Australia (which has a list of other wombat protection organisations and wombat sanctuaries at the bottom of its home page); the Australian Wildlife Society; and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has a global mission.
