In episode 15 of our African Photography Safaris Podcast, we tackled a fiery listener question that began with moral outrage and continued with a glass of something strong! The question was simple enough, but the assumptions behind it… well, less so. The reality of conservation reality is not a fairytale!

Why should tourists be allowed to invade African wildlife reserves just to gawk at animals for entertainment? Ban this exploitation and leave these creatures alone to live in peace, the way nature intended.”

Giraffes on the savannah of the Lemek Conservancy, Maasai Mara.

The first thing that struck us was: why is he even listening to our podcast? It doesn’t seem consistent with his outlook!

When someone uses emotionally charged words like invade, gawk and exploit, they’re not asking a genuine question. They’re delivering an incorrect and unfair moral verdict. Ethical wildlife tourism isn’t entertainment at the expense of nature. It’s often the reason nature still exists to be seen at all.

Or, as Kaleel neatly summed up after Alan went off on an absolute rant:

“If tourism didn’t exist….. the wildlife would be much worse off for it.”

These tired, surface-level accusations need calling out. If we let this stuff slide, misinformation spreads unchecked. These simplistic, comfortable clichés sound noble online, but they actually damage real conservation and the livelihoods of the people fighting to protect wild places. If we don’t challenge them, we allow sentimental slogans to replace uncomfortable truth. And the truth is brutally simple. Wildlife doesn’t survive because we “leave it alone,” it survives because dedicated people, backed by ethical tourism, fight every single day to keep it alive. This is the reality of conservation and it isn’t a fairytale.