Beyond the Photo Ops: The Hidden Dangers of Wildlife Tourist Traps

As many of us make travel plans for the summer, we want to help ensure that you don’t fall into the seemingly harmless wildlife tourist traps that can be dangerous—and sometimes even deadly—for the animals and humans involved.

Wildlife Are Commonly Used in Tourist Activities

Many popular wildlife tourist attractions involve the exploitation and mistreatment of wild animals, with some of the most common and harmful experiences including riding/bathing elephants, swimming with dolphins, taking selfies with tigers, walking with lions, and posing for photo ops with primates or birds. These activities often involve animals being subjected to cruel training methods, spending most of their lives in extremely restrictive confinement, and in a highly stressful state, which can all permanently impact their well-being. Research from a 2016 World Animal Protection report found that three out of four wildlife tourist attractions involve some form of animal abuse or conservation concerns, and up to 550,000 wild animals are suffering in venues around the world.

The Animals Suffer Greatly

Elephants are often “broken” and forced to carry heavy loads for many tourist experiences, which can cause irreversible physical and psychological harm. The “breaking” process is widely condemned by animal rights groups but still occurs regularly for popular tourist experiences. To start the “breaking” process, baby elephants are prematurely separated from their mothers and other herd members, then placed in a small cage or stall where they are unable to move freely. Then, to create a state of terror and dependence on their human handlers, elephants are subjected to practices intended to “crush” or “break” their spirit, like starvation, sleep deprivation, and physical abuse. Many zoos around the world (even accredited facilities) also use a bullhook (a stick with a sharp, curved metal tip) to scare or hurt an elephant enough to control their movements.

These Attractions Put People at Risk

Even with the use of these abusive training methods, elephants remain dangerous to people in all circumstances; we have documented over 168 dangerous incidents in North America alone directly involving elephants in our Exotic Animal Incident Database from 1990-2017. Over half of these incidents (58%) occurred at zoos. Of the total, 53 of these incidents resulted in a human injury, 17 resulted in a human death, 19 resulted in an animal injury, and 12 resulted in an animal death.

This year, in January 2025, a Spanish tourist was killed by an elephant attack during a bathing experience at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre in southern Thailand. The elephant handler was charged with negligence causing death. The tourist sustained a head injury after being shoved by the 45-year-old female elephant named Phang Somboon while she was bathing the animal. The woman later died in the hospital. After the attack, experts argued that the elephant was likely stressed due to the forced interaction with tourists. According to World Animal Protection, there are nearly 3,000 elephants held in tourist attractions like this across Thailand.

Similarly, in 2017, an elephant camp owner and a handler were charged with recklessness causing death and injuries after an elephant killed a Chinese tour guide and injured two tourists in the Thai beach town, Pattaya. In 2013, a 27-year-old elephant had their tusks cut off after attacking and killing a woman.

In June 2025, an Indian tourist was attacked by a tiger at Tiger Kingdom in Phuket, Thailand, while attempting to pose for a photo inside the animal’s enclosure. Multiple sources have stated that the tourist was encouraged to take a selfie with the big cat, and while getting closer, the tiger reacted and mauled the man.

Tourist Interaction with Wild Animals also Endangers the Animals

These tourist experiences don’t only harm humans; in Cambodia in 2016, public outrage ensued after an adult female elephant collapsed and died after working for 45 minutes and walking 1.2 miles in a 104-degree heatwave. She was ferrying tourists to the famous Angkor Wat temple complex at the time of her collapse. Veterinarians concluded that her death was caused by working in such hot temperatures, which ultimately led to stress, shock, high blood pressure, and a heart attack. After this incident, thousands of people signed a petition asking authorities in the Angkor region to ban elephant riding outright, which happily led to the official end of elephant rides in that region for good in 2020.

In 2019, more than half of the tigers (86 of the original 147) rescued from a Buddhist temple in Thailand where tourists could feed and pose for photos with them died of disease. The tigers were especially vulnerable to illness because of the high instance of inbreeding that occurred at the temple, which led to the tigers suffering from laryngeal paralysis and respiratory failure. The DNA of all 147 confiscated tigers could be traced to just six tigers who were the original breeding animals. When they raided the temple, police found tiger skins and teeth, at least 1,500 amulets made from tiger bones, and 60 cub carcasses stuffed in freezers and formaldehyde in jars.

How to Avoid Animal Exploitation while on Vacation

To ensure that you don’t unwittingly become involved in any dangerous or unethical wildlife tourism experiences, always ensure that the facility does not permit humans to touch, feed, bathe, paint, or closely interact with animals in any way. Any facility that breeds animals in captivity, captures healthy animals from the wild, or offers interaction experiences for profit is not a reputable sanctuary, and may keep their animals in far worse conditions behind the scenes than those you see. Additionally, any self-proclaimed wildlife ‘sanctuary’ is not a place of refuge and puts the lives of countless tourists and animals in critical danger if they participate in any of these nefarious practices.

Please read and share this blog with your friends and family so they know what NOT to do on future trips and help speak out for our wild friends! And, click here to read more about the problem of animal exploitation in tourism.

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Devan