According to the Washington Post, wildlife enthusiasts and visitors at Yellowstone National Park are teaming up to help each other locate and observe the often elusive animals that roam the park. Several new smartphone apps help visitors to pinpoint exact locations of animals spotted in the vast park in order to improve the chances for other visitors to find them. It’s exciting how technology and nature can work together in this situation and benefit the park as well as its visitors… but is this really a good idea? While the benefits of an app like this include improved safety (warnings of dangerous situations can be relayed easily via smartphone; Grizzly attacks killed two tourists in Yellowstone last summer) as well as a higher level of satisfaction for visiting tourists, there are obvious concerns as well. According the Post article, “the crowds that stop to gawk at roadside wildlife in Yellowstone can grow to hundreds of people,” and tourist traffic doesn’t bode well for, say, a group of feeding grizzlies. And then there’s the concern of crowds disrupting the natural habitat and demeanor of wild animals, making them more comfortable around humans and thus potentially more dangerous. Here’s the conundrum: thousands of people flock to Yellowstone from around the world to enjoy the peace, revel at its natural beauty, and hope to catch a glimpse of some incredible wildlife in the process. And you have to admit, there’s something magical about a chance encounter with a wild being that’s both exhilarating and personal. Sharing this experience with a traveling mass of other tourists and their iPhones on a giant game of connect-the-dots might not only be dangerous but also might extinguish that awe factor that makes the experience worthwhile. Then again, without a little technological help, you could spend hours in the park only yards away from spotting some incredible creatures and never know it. What do you think? Do you support apps like “Where’s a Bear?” or would you prefer the nature experience to stay au naturale? (read the Washington Post article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/new-apps-help-yellowstone-visitors-find-wildlife-but-raise-concern-about-crowds-of-tourists/2012/04/17/gIQA6zw4OT_story.html)
