Where to go in a fortnight
There’s no need to fly to spend a fortnight watching wildlife in Europe. Take your car on a ferry across the Bay of Biscay for a carbon-minimising journey to northern Spain – with decent prospects of fin and Cuvier’s beaked whales thrown in. Then, split your time between Picos de Europa National Park and Somiedo Natural Park. In the Picos, enjoy lammergeiers, wallcreepers, Pyrenean chamois and a kaleidoscope of butterflies, including the majestic Apollo. In Somiedo, focus on mammals: brown bears and wildcats are readily seen, but Iberian grey wolves require local guides.
If flying is essential for that holiday of a lifetime, make it count: offset carbon emissions, use responsible service providers and spend locally. Glamping in Botswana’s Okavango Delta is a case in point. At Moremi and Khwai, the local community manages savanna and wetlands to both conserve and benefit from wildlife. Standout mammals include top-drawer predators (lion, leopard, serval and even wild dog) that stalk herds of antelope such red lechwe.
Your visit helps their future.
Should Brazil’s Covid-19 nightmare abate, 2022 would be an auspicious year to visit as it marks 200 years of independence. Spend several days in the Atlantic forest at Guapiaçu Reserve (REGUA), a conservation beacon in one of the world’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots. Rare birds include the giant snipe and shrike-like cotinga, which vie with marmosets, sloths and 100 types of hawkmoth for your attention. Then head to the Pantanal. South America’s answer to the Serengeti is rightly famed for harbouring the world’s most easily encountered hyacinth macaws, giant otters and jaguars.
Other big cats might entice you to India, another country celebrating independence in 2022 (this time 75 years). Flying into Delhi, Ranthambore is the logical national park to try for the tiger, India’s feline icon. Remarkably, however, these stripy cats are a mere supporting act to the headliner – the snow leopard in the Himalayas. In Ladakh’s Hemis National Park, at least one company offering snow-leopard tours boasts both carbon neutrality and a 100 per cent record in seeing this superb species.
Late winter island-hopping in Japan – Earth’s snowiest country, surprisingly – is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser. Delight in Japanese macaques (‘snow monkeys’) bathing in Honshu’s hot springs, then marvel at 80 per cent of the world’s hooded cranes wintering on Kyushu. For an icy finale, fly north to Hokkaido, to witness dancing red-crowned cranes, encounter hordes of Steller’s sea eagles and admire the world’s largest nightbird: the Blakiston’s fish-owl.