A peer-reviewed study published in Animal Conservation has found that human activity — including wildlife tourism — significantly raises stress levels in wild tigers and may be pushing tigresses away from high-disturbance zones when they breed.

The study, authored by Aamer Sohel Khan, Vinod Kumar, Gudimella Anusha, Andre Ganswindt, and Govindhaswamy Umapathy, examined tigers across five reserves in India. Using non-invasive methods, researchers collected 728 presumptive tiger scat samples from core and buffer zones during both tourism and non-tourism seasons. Genetic analysis confirmed 610 samples as tiger — genetically identified and sexed — which were then tested for faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCMs) — a hormonal biomarker of stress — and faecal progesterone metabolites (fPMs), an indicator of breeding activity in females.

The findings are sobering. Tigers in areas with high anthropogenic activity showed elevated stress hormone levels. Stress levels also rose closer to tourism roads, suggesting that safari traffic is a meaningful stressor — not a neutral presence. Tigresses, meanwhile, appear to be responding behaviourally: they showed higher breeding hormone levels in parts of reserves where stress was comparatively lower, suggesting they may be actively selecting quieter locations for reproduction.

The study’s implications for reserve management are significant. If core tourism zones — typically the most ecologically productive areas of a reserve — are also the most stressful, managers face a direct trade-off between visitor revenue and tiger welfare. The authors call for management strategies that account for the spatial distribution of human disturbance, particularly during breeding seasons.

Sources: Animal Conservation — Khan et al. (2026)

This report is based on the abstract of a peer-reviewed study published in Animal Conservation (Wiley/ZSL), first published 7 May 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.70073. India Wildlife News has not accessed the full paper.