Nose-Picking Selfie-Seekers Ruining Easter Island Statues
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Photo by Thomas Griggs on Unsplash
Easter Island only has 5,700 inhabitants, but the more than 150,000 tourists that visit the island each year are wrecking the island. And most of them are only in search of one thing, a selfie picking the nose of the island's famous statues.
Easter Island's Tourist Problem
An archaeologist who works for UCLA, Jo Anne Van Tilburg, recently brought the issue to the public through the UCLA website.
"When I went to Easter Island for the first time in '81, the number of people who visited per year was about 2,500," she said. "As of last year, the number of tourists who arrived was 150,000 from around the world."
She claims tourists disrespect the native people, the land and the timeless statues, "all in service of getting a photo of themselves picking the nose of an ancient artifact."
It's no secret that tourists enjoy interacting with the statues and taking selfies may be part of their reason for traveling so far from their home countries.
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But to their credit, most of the #EasterIsland photos on Instagram show tourists respecting the boundaries put up by the natives around the statues.
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While Van Tilburg didn't propose any policies to ensure the statues are not ruined for future generations, we're guessing some ridiculous proposals might be happening soon.