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Natasha Daly is a writer and editor at National Geographic where she covers animal welfare, exploitation, and conservation. She wrote National Geographic\u2019s June cover story, Suffering Unseen, the Dark Truth Behind Wildlife Tourism.

If you haven\u2019t read it yet, read it.\xa0\xa0

It is the story of the bleak reality that is daily life for so many captive wild animals, including: elephants, tigers, sloths, dolphins, whales, even polar bears. And, it\u2019s the story of why so many wild animals are living miserable and often painful existences. The answer is, us. Well\u2026 us and social media \u2013 which is also us.\xa0

Animal related activities that we often associate with travel and global tourism, activities like bathing elephants in Thailand or taking selfies with sloths in South America, have become social norms and even rites of passage when it comes to taking off to see the world with a backpack or on holiday or honeymoon. And that is because of social media. Yes, people were doing these things pre-internet, but the numbers didn\u2019t compare.\xa0

We see friends or celebrities swimming with dolphins or holding baby tigers in their Instagram feeds and it looks innocent, harmless and fun and all of a sudden, there\u2019s one more thing to add to the bucket list. But the truth is a different story. The truth involves a lot of pain and a lot suffering behind the scenes. Natasha and photographer, Kirsten Luce spent a year on four continents investigating this story, and what they learned and reported will astonish you.\xa0