9 of the best wildlife experiences

Seeing a creature in its natural habitat is one of the greatest moments in travel – here is your guide to finding, tracking and encountering the world’s most amazing species…

From penguins skipping the ice floes of the Antarctic to brown bears fumbling salmon in the rivers of Alaska – discover the best escapes for getting back to the wild. PLUS TV’S Liz Bonnin on her favourite animal encounters…

1 Penguin

RANGE: 20 million penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere.

THE EXPERIENCE: The Antarctic Treaty insists that you keep five metres between yourself and a penguin. But just try telling them that. Sat on an icy shore, trying to keep both distance and composure, it’s nigh on impossible not to attract the attention of these curious birds, and it makes for an encounter like no other.

NEED TO KNOW: Some 18 penguin species live across the Southern Hemisphere, from as far north as Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands, where you can snorkel alongside its endemic species year-round, to the shores of the Eastern Antarctic’s Ross Island and its vast colonies of tobogganing Adélie.

But you don’t always need a cruise ship. You can swim alongside the braying (and crotchety) jackass penguins of Cape Town’s Boulders Beach in South Africa or spot rare yellow-eyed species in the bays of Dunedin, New Zealand, without ever setting foot on a deck.

BEST PLACE TO SEE… The sub-antarctic island of South Georgia is perhaps the world’s most famous penguin-sighting spot; cruises (Nov–mar) disembark on Salisbury Plain, home to some 500,000 king penguins, for one of the great wildlife sights (arrive Dec–feb to see chicks hatching). But whether spying hundreds of Magellanic penguins on the shores of Punta Tombo in Argentinian Patagonia (Oct–mar for breeding) or fending off curious gentoos at Antarctic base Port Lockroy, seeing these birds makes for an unforgettable experience.