@aubrie_sisk
Staff Photographer

I grew up loving animals. I’m not sure how it started but now I can’t even drive past an animal shelter without going in to play with the puppies. It is totally ridiculous but it is me.

So when I got into photography I thought that it would be amazing if I could travel and be a worldwide wildlife photographer. I got a taste of the experience last summer. And it was not what I expected. It was a complete shock.

Last summer I visited Tanzania, Africa with my family for a church mission trip. Along with visiting orphanages and volunteering at a local preschool, I hiked down Ndoro Falls (Happy Falls) and went on an overnight three day safari, visiting two different parks.

But what I saw at the safari was unexpected. The safaris are always busy with people wanting a personal memory with the African animals, but how they achieve that goal is unethical. It is not good for the animals to be used to human interactions, they are living in a protected park, not a zoo but to them they could be the same.

The first safari took us to Ngorongoro Crater, a massive crater with huge natural walls and tons of flatland for the animals to roam. On average 450,000 tourists visit Ngorongoro Crater each year, so there are always plenty of tour guides on hand. A crowded park means more traffic around the animals, mainly the rare and popular ones like the hippos, elephants and lions. When the animals are given a ton of attention they are less likely to come out of their hiding.

While this experience was incredible, there was one caveat. The safari drivers seemed too aggressive. They did whatever they could for us to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but did so without taking the animal’s boundaries into account.

That included getting as close as four feet from the lion cubs and sadly revving their engines to wake the two sleeping lionesses keeping watch over the cubs. Legally, the park rules state that tourists and drivers have to stay at least 25 meters away from the animals, especially big cats because they are nervous and a distinction could ruin their hunt.

This is bad for the animals because it’s a protected park and they should be protected from unnecessary attention from visitors, because even though it’s a wildlife park to visit it is their home. How would you like it if someone came into your home, didn’t respect your privacy and took control. It is disrespectful and rude, especially considering that the animals can’t speak for themselves. The point of the parks is to be as natural as possible, but that can’t be achieved with tourists driving around in jeeps flashing their cameras everywhere.

After an exasperating effort of tourists turning on their phone ringtones to make noise, the lions stood up to make sure that their cubs were safe and then kept a wary watch over the multiple safari jeeps that arrived with screaming kids and cameras clicking away.

Before, when the cubs were sleeping, they were tucked under brush a couple of feet away from the dirt road, but now they were wide awake as they pounced and played with each other, each time getting closer to the tourists watchful eyes. We soon drove away, giving up our close spot for the next bus full of yelling tourists.

Next we drove a couple of hours east to Tarangire National Park, which is famous for it’s many indigenous elephants. A couple of hours into the safari, a major problem came up. Ten safari cars followed a lioness off of the track, stopping a few feet away while she perched herself on a rock. We asked our tour guide why he was so close to the lions, he said that drivers compete for tips, more so than to “improve their customer’s experience”.

They zoomed around each other, yelling at the lioness to attract her attention, but the saddest part was that she seemed use to this horrible treatment. She lives in a protected park, she should be protected from not only hunters, but also from tourists screaming and drivers excited by the thought of more tips. Overall my experience with safaris have been life changing, but reflecting on it now, the drivers harassing the animals in a protected park was not a highlight.

To resolve this problem there should be park rangers driving around the crater making sure that no drivers are abusing park rules. We have created an environment for these animals so that they can be safe, we just have to follow through and ensure that we keep them safe.