Jackson Hole’s new Instagram filter warns you when you’re dangerously close to wildlife

Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board has created an open-source Instagram filter to help visitors gauge if they’re at a safe distance from wildlife to take photos. The board hopes the tool will help better protect tourists visiting wildlife destinations — and the animals they’re watching — during the busy summer travel season.

To use the filter, visitors to the valley and wilderness recreation area need to open up the Selfie Control filter in the Instagram app. After selecting the type of wildlife they’re looking at, tourists must align the animal’s outline to its icon. If the real-life animal’s bigger than the icon, then they’re too close and should back up.

Jackson Hole, like nearby Yellowstone National Park and other wildlife destinations, gives tourists guidance about how much space they need to give animals depending upon their type. Visitors should give bears, for instance, at least 100 yards of space, while Jackson Hole tells tourists to give other animals like moose at least 25 yards of space.

However, it can be hard to tell whether or not you’re at least 100 yards away through sight alone, which is why the board developed the filter. It’s also why Jackson Hole made it open-source, so other wilderness destinations can also download the code and create their own versions.

“We want to see the numbers of stunning wildlife images on the rise and incidents and accidents steeply decline,” said Crista Valentino, executive director of the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board.

Over the years, there have been several highly publicized instances of visitors getting dangerously close to wildlife at national parks. Recently in April, a tourist visiting Yellowstone National Park was injured by a bison and arrested after getting too close.

According to a 2018 study from scientific journal One Health, bison injured more people than other animals at Yellowstone National Park between 2000 and 2015. The National Park Service says Yellowstone is home to the largest bison population on public land in the US, which is likely why. However, the One Health study also noted that 48 percent of injuries occurred after visitors got too close to the animal to take photos.