We humans don’t always recognize what a threat we are to wildlife. In a study done with macaques at a National Park in Morocco, scientists looked for specific evidence of stress these animals felt from humans. They looked at both obvious signs of nerves and physiological signs of stress. They studied how the macaques reacted in three different situations: during feeding, during normal human tourist behavior such as taking photos and during aggressive human behavior such as someone throwing something at the macaques.
The macaques showed signs of stress during all three interactions, and physiological signs of stress during the aggressive interactions. With these studies scientists hope to create some guidelines for tourists to help the animals live as stress free lives as possible.
“It would be very straightforward to develop some general guidelines,” he told BBC Nature. “For example, not allowing tourists to get too close to the animals and asking people to keep noise levels down a little bit. Just a few simple things.
“This could actually make the experience [of viewing wildlife] much better for people as they would be able to enjoy the animals as they behaved in a much more natural way.”
I was lucky enough to get up to Yellowstone a few years ago and help with a wolf study. 
I will never forget my last day there. Four of us decided to spend one more hour looking for a new pack that had formed to see how they were getting on. We found them far on a hillside through scopes, but then they disappeared into a ravine. We knew they were heading our way so we backed off to the other side of the street to give them all the room they wanted. While re-setting our scopes they turned up again right across where we had been, about 50 feet away! We froze in amazement just soaking up the beauty of the scene as they crossed the street to our side and out into the prairie.
But one wolf stopped and would not cross the street. She looked right at me and I knew she just could not handle us humans being so close. Somehow without a word, all four of us took one quiet step backwards and looked down. She quickly crossed and joined her pack.
The wolves of the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone are definitely acclimated to humans, but we still affect them. They keep one eye on us just like those macaques make certain they know what the humans around them are doing too.
Clear communication between us can help us learn where the comfort zones are so that we can give our wild friends as much room as they need!
