As panic over the discovery of a new variant of the Wuhan pneumonia virus in southeast England sweeps the world, more and more countries are announcing bans on Britons entering the country.
Japan is one of the latest countries to “temporarily” close its doors to Brits, while South Korea and the Philippines have both issued flight bans from the UK that will not be lifted until at least Dec. 31. Singapore and Hong Kong have also introduced bans on the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak and, in recent days, restrictions on British travelers crossing the border.
This brings the total number of countries banned from the UK to 57, including the vast majority of the EU’s 27 member states.
Gloria Guevara, head of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), condemned the series of restrictions, saying: “While protecting public health is paramount, blanket travel bans will not solve the problem. They haven’t worked in the past, and they won’t work now.”
Instead, Guevara called for a “comprehensive and rapid turnaround testing regime” to reduce the spread of the virus and limit devastating economic losses.
“Human stagnation” gives wildlife a new lease of life
However, according to Mark Eveleigh, travel correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, the “anthropause” is not all bad news. As human activity is limited globally, safari rangers report healthier wildlife populations.
“There’s no doubt that while most of the population has been grounded, the animals have been enjoying their holidays,” said local guide Bread Shambamaropa as they stood at a desolate bar in Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools National Park, gazing at a depression packed with antelope and elephants. Bread Shambamaropa said, “It’s terrible for business and park revenue, but the animals are under much less pressure. The leopards are closer to camp than ever before.”
Since arriving in Zimbabwe, Ivory has heard a lot about the “beasts” even in urban areas during the pandemic: Elephants have been spotted hanging out in the Victoria Falls shopping area. Zebras graze on the edge of Kariba town. Sleeping lions stopped traffic on the A1 highway. Eveleigh also witnessed firsthand how leopards in Fali Pond National Park are embracing the new normal: one night alone, both he and Bread were on the balcony of a bar when they saw the largest leopard he had ever seen in his life, staring at them from only six feet away in the dark.
Foxes became increasingly visible in the empty streets of London, while in Tel Aviv and Barcelona, residents reported sightings of wild boars. When India’s Ranthambore National Park reopened, naturalists were surprised to find the region’s famous tigers frequenting the main roads.
In the United States, while national parks are off-limits, black bears and coyotes roam freely in Yosemite National Park. In the San Francisco Bay Area, researchers have witnessed white-crowned sparrows changing their calls in response to reduced traffic noise.
Whale sharks have been spotted off the developed south coast of Bali, Indonesia, while local fishermen say they have never seen it in these areas for as long as they can remember. The north coast previously had a usually thriving dolphin-watching fleet. Oceanographers are now measuring the underwater conditions there so that when conditions return to “normal” they can properly assess noise pollution and its impact on the behavior of the huge dolphin population in the area.
Researchers are convinced that the human standstill provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand our impact on wildlife.
Rodney Westerlaken, PhD, of the Bali-based Westerlaken Foundation, said, “We must now focus on large-scale studies, because this human silence may not come back.”
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