Travel Ideology believes in and values sustainable wildlife tourism. This is an approach that prioritises the welfare of animals and the protection of ecosystems.
It is a concept that ensures that the animal population can be visited without change to its behaviour for many decades to come.
With this in mind, we run small private tours rather than minibuses full of tourists. The advantage of this is that our customers get closer to the wildlife, and the animals feel less threatened.
Where tours are larger, it can sometimes mean a wall of 15 or 20 people speeding towards animals, causing the frightened animals to race for safety. In this case, nobody wins.
Effective sustainable wildlife tourism can only take place with very small groups.
Sustainable Wildlife Organisations
We are a National Parks and Wildlife EcoPass operator and a member of Wildlife Tourism Australia. These organisations share our values about sustainable Australian wildlife tourism.
Fun and Enjoyable
We also believe that our wildlife tours should be fun and educational, with opportunities to get close, take photos, and experience the wildlife at a distance that does not cause them distress.
The experience should be enjoyable for our guests. We aim to make each of our wildlife tours an unforgettable experience for them.
We are proud to have customers who refer friends and relatives to our tours years later.
Educational
We aim to educate our guests about wild animals and their unique behaviours rather than just provide photo opportunities.
By practising our values, we get closer. Because the animals feel unthreatened, we often get to observe behaviours that are not seen in zoos or sanctuaries.
We do not condone touching or feeding animals under any circumstance. This can create dependence on humans and result in people being bitten, scratched, kicked, and, in some cases, hospitalised.
Many cases involving hospitalisation are far removed from the individuals who originally fed the animals.
In Australia, it is not only dangerous but can also be a criminal offence to touch, feed, or otherwise interfere with wildlife. In recent years, Australian state governments have issued large fines to a number of tourists.
One tourist fed BBQ chickens to crocodiles in the wild, another picked up a baby wombat and ran away from its mother with it, and a third was caught feeding dingoes.
Case Study 1
Morisset Psychiatric Hospital Kangaroos
Morisset Psychiatric Hospital was a place many tourists visited to see kangaroos roaming freely. Unfortunately, people came and fed the kangaroos and petted them.
This led to them losing their fear of humans. The animals developed an expectation that humans would bring food.
However, sometimes people came and did not bring food or withheld it. The animals started biting, scratching, and kicking humans as a result.
As a consequence, many people were taken by ambulance to hospital emergency departments.
Eventually, the hospital built a wall around the grounds and installed a large gate, preventing tourists from entering the property.
Case Study 2
Fraser Island (K’gari) Dingoes
Fraser Island is a haven for people visiting with their 4WDs. It is popular for its population of dingoes. Unfortunately, visitors treat these wild native dogs like domestic dogs, allowing them close and even feeding them.
The dingoes hunt in packs. In January 2026, dingoes surrounded and killed a Canadian tourist. In 2001, a 9-year-old was killed near Waddy Point.
In both cases, this was the result of dingoes losing their fear of humans through feeding and interaction.
There is also a famous Australian criminal case involving a death by dingo. The prosecution alleged that the mother killed and disposed of her baby.
She maintained her innocence, alleging that a dingo dragged the infant from a tent. After she served years of her sentence, the courts released her and reversed the verdict.
At Dales Campground in WA, a spate of dingo attacks led to four separate incidents on humans in one week (as of 25 April 2026). This only happens when dingoes lose their natural fear of humans.
Unfortunately, that normally happens when dingoes are offered food at some stage.
Sadly, these are not isolated examples. The world is full of similar instances where people have upset the balance, leading to dire consequences.
In Australia, the single greatest predictor of animal attacks is direct or indirect feeding. This occurs where people either feed them directly or, in the case of crocodiles, clean fish or throw food scraps into the water near their habitat.
These animals lose their natural fear of humans, associate humans with food, and then become aggressive when people do not feed them.
Our Sydney Wildlife Tours
We offer a number of wildlife tours consistent with our above-mentioned values. These include:
Sydney parrots and other native birds tour
Should you wish to reserve your tour, please click on Book Now.
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