Visitors’ crude photo ops raise concerns on Easter Island

Tourists love taking a hilarious shot while visiting Easter Island, but an expert has warned the not-so-funny photo is causing a lot of harm.

Although the mysterious Easter Island is a dream destination for many, one expert is exhausted with the not-so-funny photo ops tourists are reportedly taking at the iconic statues, warning visitors’ bad behaviour could threaten the health of the historic site in the future.

In a new interview, archaeologist Jo Anne Van Tilburg, the director of both the Easter Island Statue Project and the Rock Art Archive at UCLA, claimed visitors to Rapa Nui National Park were taking crude photo ops of people “picking” the noses of the statues, known as moai, Fox News reports.

Easter Island’s statues are under threat from overtourism, an expert says.

“Because of the ubiquitous nature of photography in our community, people take the same picture repeatedly. Once one person picks a nose of the moai, you can be sure there will be multiple thousands (of photos) because people are lemmings,” Ms Van Tilburg said, reported TravelPulse.

Over 900 moai dot the remote Pacific island. New policies were recently implemented to better preserve the historic park, including a designated path and rules on what statues can be visited, according to the outlet.

The Pacific island, which is part of Chile, is famous for the iconic moai.

In addition, foreigners and Chileans who are not of Rapa Nui descent are limited to obtaining travel visas for the island up to 30 days, a rule that took effect last year due in part to overtourism concerns.

More than 100,000 visitors are estimated to flock to Easter Island annually, often overwhelming the isle’s 7750 residents, Travel + Leisure reports.

The remote Pacific island, located more than 322km off the coast of Chile, continues to be a source of fascination for historians.

Last year, researchers, including experts from Binghamton University, worked out how ancient islanders were able to place massive stone hats on the statues.

This article originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission