.png)
Have you ever traveled to see wildlife?
Have you ever traveled for the sole purpose of seeing birds? Are plants and wild animals the highlight of your time outdoors? Do you travel to specifically visit National Parks, wildlife refuges, or nature preserves? For this project, we want to hear from you! We're surveying people who take part in Eco-Tourism or those nature lovers who love to seek out specific wildlife such as birders. What we want to know is how far people are willing to travel or have traveled for the sake of seeing certain plants, animals, or even ecosystems.
What is Eco Tourism?
Ecotourism is a form of sustainable tourism that focuses on preserving natural environments and wildlife while providing educational and recreational experiences for visitors. This type of tourism has numerous benefits, including promoting conservation efforts, supporting local economies, and providing unique and memorable experiences for travelers. Many popular hobbies such as birding or herping (searching for reptiles and amphibians) go hand in hand with Eco-Tourism. Studies have shown that Eco-Tourism has been rapidly developing since the early 2000s and is becoming a widespread way to provide both ecological and economic incentive for some rural communities to support local conservation efforts.
Every year Toledo, Ohio receives a bump in tourism during the annual Spring Migration of Songbirds that stops through Northwest Ohio. Birders travel from all over to Toledo of all places simply because during its peak in the first half of May it is a major hotspot for seeing specifically warblers, such as this Black-Throated Blue Warbler (Photo provided by Travis Altman)
So why are we doing this?
There have been many general surveys and studies done on how many people on average travel for the sake of birding, herping, or other wildlife-focused hobbies. What we want to know specifically is the typical distance people are willing to travel for said hobbies. With this data, we could gain a better understanding of how strong seeking wildlife really is compared to other travel motivations.
​
For more info on related research
