Utfodring av rovdjur i jakt- och viltturism : etiska och etologiska implikationer

Abstract: The feeding of wild animals has been done as a management strategy: supplementary feeding and diversionary feeding are used to make more ungulates to survive the winter in Sweden and to drive them away from agriculture and farmlands. Wildlife feeding has expanded in recent years and is now also used as a tourism attraction to see wild predators in their natural habitat. This feeding is neither supplementary nor diversionary but conducted for human interest of economics and tourism. The change of the movement pattern can indicate how the wildlife animals should be fed. The aim of this study was performed with interviews of various participants in the industry and considered in relation to ethics and ethological discussions in the literature written on the subject. Independent of who was interviewed they all thought that if the attraction was done correctly, didn’t hurt anyone and the society it was accepted, there should not be any problem to develop the wildlife tourism. The conclusion from this project is that the wildlife feeding tourism can expand in Sweden in the coming years, however we have to evaluate the effect on wildlife.