Résumé
The more people lose contact with nature in their daily lives, the greater the need to compensate for this loss through nature-based recreation and ecotourism. However, these tourist activities are often not without consequences for animals. The mere presence of humans can affect resident wildlife. Short-term changes in physiology and behavior may accumulate and thus affect individuals. The cumulative impacts of these often small changes, combined with other environmental assaults, may have population-level consequences and thus reduce the likelihood of a population of persisting over time. In this chapter, we describe how human visits in natural areas might modulate the physiology and behavior of animals. We find that most animals are particularly sensitive to tourist numbers as well as behavior and noise associated with human presence. Feeding practices often change the behavior of focal animals, leading to some individuals becoming bolder and more aggressive. At the physiological level, a shift from a natural to an artificial diet could also have long-term consequences by affecting animals’ body condition and other traits essential for population survival. We list current and forthcoming challenges that need to be addressed to reduce negative impacts of human visitation on wildlife species in the context of sustainable tourism management.