The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Pick your favourite animal – and go!
From leopards, lions and wildebeest to flamingos, whale sharks, mountain gorillas and giant morpho butterflies, Brian Jackman guides you around the world in 30 species
BENGAL TIGER
No other image sums up the Indian subcontinent more dramatically than Shere Khan, as Rudyard Kipling called him – the ultimate carnivore, 440lb of molten copper, with curious round eyes that seem to drill deep into your soul. From an all-time low two decades ago, Bengal tigers have bounced back to about 3,000. Your best chance of seeing them is in the national parks and tiger reserves of Madhya Pradesh. Follow in Kipling’s footsteps to Pench, the inspiration for The Jungle Book. Scott Dunn (020 8682 5080; scottdunn.com) is offering five nights at the luxurious Jamtara Wilderness Camp adjoining the park, from £3,500 per person (two sharing) departing in November. This includes two nights in Mumbai at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotels (one at each end of the trip) and return flights from London.
LEOPARD
Shy, solitary and beautiful, leopards are the most elusive of Africa’s big cats. At Londolozi in South Africa’s Sabi Sand Game Reserve, based on a unique relationship built up by rangers and trackers, intimate sightings are guaranteed. Bailey Robinson (01488 689777; baileyrobinson.com) can arrange a safari with five nights at Londolozi. Take your pick from five luxury camps, including Tree Camp, built 70ft up in a giant leadwood. Prices from £4,600pp (two sharing), including flights.
LION
Long admired for their power and nobility, lions stand at the top of the food chain. Whether it is the pride males or the lissom females and their cubs, they are the species everyone wants to see on safari. Watch them posing on the granite kopjes of Namiri Plains in the Serengeti, or catch up with Kenya’s prides in the Greater Mara.
The Luxury Safari Company (01666 880111; theluxurysafaricompany.com) is offering seven nights in the Serengeti from £8,679pp including flights. Aardvark Safaris (01980 849160; aardvarksafaris.com) has a seven-night safari based at Kicheche Valley Camp in the Naboisho Conservancy, Kenya, from £3,946pp, departing in May.
MORPHO BUTTERFLIES
With a wingspan of up to eight inches, these beauties are among the world’s biggest butterflies. Ecuador, which has 4,000 species, is the best place to see them as they light up the Andean cloud forests.
Butterfly holiday specialist Greenwings (01473 254658; enquiries@greenwings. co.uk) is offering a 13-day guided trip to Ecuador departing on Sept 8 for £2,995 (excluding flights), led by photographer and author Adrian Hoskins.
AFRICAN ELEPHANT
Standing up to 11ft tall, meet the world’s biggest land mammal. Their social structure renders elephants endlessly fascinating to watch as they feed, drink and bathe. Like us, they love their young, grow old at the same age as us and grieve for their dead. But treat them with respect; even a mock charge can be terrifying. “Not surprising,” says world elephant expert Iain Douglas-Hamilton. “They have spent millions of years perfecting it.” Yellow Zebra Safaris (020 8547 2305; yellowzebrasafaris.com) can arrange a four-night stay with elephant-watching in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve, at Elephant Watch Camp, run by Iain Douglas-Hamilton’s daughter, costing from £4,850pp, including flights. Or seek out Tsavo’s tuskers with Expert Africa (020 8232 9777; expertafrica. com). Its 11-day Elephant Safari offers three nights at Satao Camp in Tsavo East, three nights at Severin Safari Camp in Tsavo West and four nights to wash off the dust on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast. From £4,070pp sharing.
WILDEBEEST
What an ungainly creature is the wildebeest. Yet of all African plains game, none can match its ability to follow the rains in its search for grass and water. A solitary animal is unremarkable; but to watch a million on the march and hear them grunting like some monstrous choir is to understand why their annual migration around the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem is acknowledged as the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth. Follow the migration and stay under canvas en route.
Tanzania Odyssey (020 8704 1216; tanzaniaodyssey.com) is offering a four-night Nomad Serengeti safari from £5,215pp. The price includes two nights at Entamanu Lodge on the Ngorongoro Crater rim, one night at Rivertrees in Arusha and return flights from London.
MOUNTAIN GORILLA
To meet up with a chest-beating 450lb silverback male gorilla is one of the wildlife experiences of a lifetime. It’s well worth the effort of trekking up the steep, forested slopes of Rwanda’s Parc des Volcans to see the world’s largest primates – not to mention the $1,500 (£1,100) permit required. Yellow Zebra Safaris (020 8547 2305; yellowzebrasafaris.com) is offering three nights at Singita Kwitonda, a luxury eco-lodge on the very edge of the park. Prices from £7,595pp including flights and gorilla permit.
POLAR BEAR
“Look for something yellow,” my guide on an Arctic wildlife cruise said. “Then see if it moves.” Wise words for anyone hoping to spot a polar bear in the frozen wastes of Svalbard. The thick fur that keeps them warm is the same creamy colour as a labrador and stands out in the white surroundings. Despite global warming, Svalbard still has about 3,000 bears – more than the island’s human population.
Exodus (020 8772 3936; exodus.co.uk) is offering a photographic expedition on board the Ocean Adventurer – an ideal vessel for exploring Arctic waters – departing June 10. Led by award-winning Paul Goldstein, it has polar bears as the focus. Prices from £5,995pp, including flights from Oslo to Longyearbyen but excluding flights from UK to Oslo.
WHALE SHARK
Capable of growing to more than 40ft long, these gentle giants with the polka-dot bodies are the biggest fish in the sea. Their mouths can be nearly 5ft wide – just as well they are totally harmless filter feeders. Swim with them at Australia’s North West Cape and the world-famous Ningaloo Reef, along with manta rays, reef fish and humpback whales.
Dive Worldwide (01962 302087; diveworldwide.com) offers 16 days in Western Australia from £3,795, based on two sharing and including flights. Departures between April and August, the best time for whale shark encounters. 10
PUMA
Also known as the mountain lion – a perfect description for Chile’s apex predator when seen beneath the snaggle-toothed skyline of Torres del Paine National Park. This is by far the best place to see them, together with the guanacos that are their favourite prey and the condors that circle overhead.
Naturetrek (01962 733051; naturetrek. co.uk) is offering an 11-day Pumas and Penguins trip to Chile, departing Feb 5 2022. It includes four nights in Torres del Paine and a visit to the king penguin colonies of Tierra del Fuego. Prices from £4,995, including flights.
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CALIFORNIA GREY WHALE Once hunted to near extinction, grey whales have survived to become the focus of a milliondollar industry as tourists flock to Mexico’s San Ignacio Lagoon. Situated on the Pacific coast of Baja California, the pellucid waters resemble a giant aquarium in the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve where these 40-ton animals come to breed every winter. “To have so many around your boat is probably the greatest whale-watching spectacle on earth,” says Chris Breen of Wildlife Worldwide. Wildlife Worldwide (01962 302086; reservations@wildlifeworldwide.com) offers nine-day whale-watching trips to the Baja in February 2022, from £3,995pp sharing, excluding flights. 12
RING-TAILED LEMUR Imagine a tropical island bigger than France. That is Madagascar, renowned for its unique wildlife. Chameleons, frogs, endemic birds and more than 110 species of lemurs, ranging in size from the pygmy to the indri. Most familiar of them all is the adorable ring-tailed lemur, found in Isalo National Park and the Anja Community Park.
Reef and Rainforest Tours (01803 866965; reefandrainforest.co.uk) knows Madagascar better than anyone. Led by expert Daniel Austin, its 15-day overland journey is a small group tour designed to take in the wildlife hotspots. Prices from £4,583, excluding flights.
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BLACK PANTHER
The “ghost of the forest”, as it is known in India, is not another species. It is a melanistic leopard whose glossy black coat is the result of a hiccup in the gene pool. Such animals are extremely rare and the chances of seeing one are slim indeed. Slim – but not impossible. Nagarhole, a national park and tiger reserve in Karnataka, is home to a handful of black panthers, including a male who turns up regularly to visitors’ delight. Wildlife Worldwide (01962 302086; reservations@wildlifeworldwide.com) is offering an eight-night Nagarhole’s Tigers, Wild Dogs and Leopards holiday from £2,295pp sharing, including flights. Departures in 2022.
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GREY WOLF
The eerie harmonies of grey wolves on the prowl must rank among the most spine-tingling sounds in nature, and where better to hear them than in the snow-covered mountains of Yellowstone, the world’s first national park? Reintroduced in 1995, more than 90 grey wolves now roam the park in eight separate packs, together with moose, elk and 5,000 bison. Naturetrek (01962 733051; naturetrek. co.uk) is offering an 11-day Wolves of Yellowstone holiday departing Jan 8 2022 and costing £6,695 per person, including flights.
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JAGUAR
Like a leopard on steroids, this is Brazil’s most powerful predator, weighing in at anything up to 265lb. Notoriously elusive but now seen with increasing regularity in the half-drowned wilderness of the Pantanal, the world’s biggest floodplain. As the floods recede and the dry season kicks in (June through November), sightings get even better. And if jaguars were not enough, you could also spot tapirs, giant river otters, giant anteaters, ocelots and hyacinth macaws.
A 12-day Just Jaguars holiday with Naturetrek (01962 733051; naturetrek.co.uk) costs from £4,595, including flights, for summer departures.
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LADY’S SLIPPER ORCHID
This exquisite European wild flower is so rare that some grow under armed guard to prevent them being taken. Among the loveliest places where they are to be found is the Alta Badia, an enchanted valley in the Italian Dolomites. In midsummer, its meadows and high mountain slopes are a flower-lover’s dream, lit up by gentians, globeflowers, and a host of other species.
Collett’s Mountain Holidays (01799
513331; colletts.co.uk) is offering seven-night holidays in Alta Badia with a choice of up to 40 walks, from easy strolls to high-level hikes with free optional self-guiding. Prices from £795pp, excluding flights.
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IBERIAN LYNX
In the wilds of Andalusia, only an afternoon’s drive from the Costa del Sol, lives the rarest cat on earth. With its mutton-chop whiskers and stubby tail, the Iberian lynx is about twice the size of a domes
tic cat and feeds mostly on rabbits. In living memory, they still roamed widely across Iberia, but by 2001 only 90 were left. Since then, due to a successful captive-breeding programme, numbers have risen to about 500, mostly confined to the Sierra Morena and the Coto Doñana National Park.
The Travelling Naturalist (01305 267994; naturalist.co.uk) is offering an eight-day fully escorted Iberian Lynx Quest, departing Oct 16. It costs from £1,775pp, including return flights from London Gatwick to Seville. iWildebeest, flamingos and cranes congregate at Tanzania’s Rift Valley Lakes
A ring-tailed lemur, inset, one of more than 110 species of the primate to be found in Madagascar 18
WHITE-TAILED EAGLE
This is surely the most spectacular raptor ever to grace the Scottish skies. With a 9ft wingspan, it is bigger than the golden eagle and is known in Gaelic as Iolaire suil na greine: the eagle with the sunlit eye. Driven to extinction in the UK by 1916, its reintroduction has been a major conservation success story with about 40 pairs scattered across the Hebrides. White-tailed eagles are now well-established on Mull, where you can spend four nights on a six-night guided wildlife adventure including visits to Staffa, Iona and Treshnish in search of puffins, whales and basking sharks.
Wilderness Scotland (01479 420020; wildernessscotland.com) is offering the six-night trip from £1,995, with departures in May, June and July. 19 SNOW LEOPARD For dedicated big cat fanatics, the snow leopard is the grail. Scattered across Asia’s mountain ranges, they are perfectly adapted for a life at high altitude, with fur nearly 5in thick in places and a tail almost the same length as their body, which they can wrap around themselves like a rug.
Working with the Snow Leopard Trust India and its expert guides, Steppes Travel (01285 880980; steppestravel. com) is offering a 13-day escorted tour to Ladakh, including four nights in the Ulley Valley, home to about 12 leopards. Departs February 2022 with prices from £6,295pp, excluding flights.
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RAGGIANA BIRD OF PARADISE
This is the national bird of Papua New Guinea, a country that has nearly 900 bird species, including 42 different birds of paradise and other outstanding “A-list” specials, such as Sclater’s crowned pigeon, flame bowerbird and vulturine parrot. Birdquest Tours (01254 826317; birdquest-tours.com) is offering an 21
LESSER FLAMINGO Abundance is what Africa does best, and to watch candyfloss clouds of flamingos descending on East Africa’s Rift Valley lakes is an unforgettable experience. A good time to go is September, when a million lesser flamingos (75 per cent of the world population) congregate.
Wild Frontiers (020 3925 9232; wildfrontierstravel.com) can arrange a 10-day Classic Tanzania trip, visiting the flamingo lakes of Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater. Prices from £6,325, excluding flights.
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GRIZZLY BEAR
To come face to face with North America’s formidable apex predator is something you will never forget. Equipped with claws the size of human fingers, the grizzly’s Latin name says it all: Ursus arctos horribilis. The time to see them is in autumn, when they gather to feast on spawning salmon before hibernating. Responsible Travel (01273 823700;
The wit to woo: great grey owls, with their 5ft wingspan, are among the world’s must-see birds
Mum’s the word: orang-utans are one of the most endearing of the great apes
Grey wolves roam the snowcovered mountains of Yellowstone, the world’s first national park responsibletravel.com) can arrange six-day bear-watching holidays to British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, spending three nights at a comfortable floating eco-lodge and using a combination of hides and boat tours. From £3,339, including flights. 23
GREAT GREY OWL
Rated among the world’s top must-see birds, great greys are also one of the biggest owls – and that distinctive facial disc is the largest of any raptor. Oulu in Finland is where to see this phantom of the north, floating through the forests on its impressive 5ft wingspan.
Birdfinders (01258 839066; info@ birdfinders.co.uk) will help you spot great owls during a three-night stay in Oulu, departing on May 7 with prices from £1,495, including flights.
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ORANG-UTAN
Confined to the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, these endearing great apes are now critically endangered. Born for a life in the treetops, with feet designed like hands, they are also endowed with an ability to reason and think. No wonder we find them so appealing.
Jules Verne (020 3733 9566; vjv.com) is offering a 12-night small group tour from £2,995, including flights, guided by local experts and with a chance to see not just orang-utans but sun bears and the great bat exodus from the Mulu caves.
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BROWN BEAR
More than 7ft tall when standing upright, brown bears are Europe’s tallest land animal, with a population of roughly 17,000 spread across the Continent from Finland to Greece and the Apennines. Their main European stronghold is Romania, where 6,000 bears roam the Carpathian Mountains. Make the most of Finland’s long summer evenings to watch brown bears from a comfortable hide – complete with beds and lavatories – in the fathomless taiga on the Russian border.
Naturetrek (01962 733051; naturetrek. co.uk) is offering a four-day Just Brown Bears trip from £1,295, including flights.
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SEA LION
With its streamlined body and four powerful flippers, the sea lion is perfectly adapted to its marine environment. In the Galapagos, they are the most common mammal, turning up on the sidewalks of San Cristobal.
Audley Travel (01993 683756; audleytravel.com) is offering a week exploring the islands in luxury as one of 16 passengers on board the Endemic, with snorkelling equipment and kayaks provided, as part of an 11-day cruise in December. It costs from £9,065 per person, including flights.
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EMPEROR PENGUIN
The biggest of the Antarctic species, this bird is about the same height as an average six-year-old child and just as adorable. The teeming rookeries on the shores of the Weddell Sea and Ross Sea offer unforgettable encounters. Steppes Travel (01285 880980; steppestravel.com) is offering an
11-day escorted trip to the Weddell Sea aboard an expedition cruise ship, using helicopters to see the emperor penguins of Snow Hill Island. It costs from £10,275pp sharing a twin cabin, excluding flights to Ushuaia – but should be well worth the price tag. 28
CAPE HUNTING DOG With their brindled coats and big bat ears, wild dogs are the painted wolves of Africa. Like all pack animals, they are successful hunters, and to be in at the kill is not pretty to watch. But there is no denying their appeal, especially when there are small cubs to feed at the den. Zimbabwe’s stunningly beautiful Mana Pools National Park is where the BBC TV filmed wild dogs for David Attenborough’s Dynasties documentary series.
Aardvark Safaris (01980 849160; aardvarksafaris.com) is offering seven nights in Mana Pools, overlooking the Zambezi at John’s Camp (established by legendary guide John Stevens), from £4,672 per person, including flights. Departs May.
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PINK-FOOTED GOOSE Make tracks for the Norfolk coast to hear the hounds of heaven in full cry. Every winter, 350,000 pinkfooted geese fly south from the Arctic to settle around the Wash, creating one of the most thrilling wildlife spectacles in Britain as they lift off at dawn to feed in the surrounding fields. Join a birdwatching house party overlooking the harbour at Burnham Overy Staithe to make the most of the spectacle.
Blue Sky Wildlife (01572 420012; blueskywildlife.com) is offering an eight-day trip in October from £1,500 per person, visiting the RSPB’s Titchwell and Snettisham reserves and other birding hotspots.
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RED-CROWNED CRANE Renowned for their beauty and longevity, the dancing cranes of Hokkaido are revered by the Japanese. Half the world’s population can be seen in the crane sanctuary at Tsurui, and February is the time to watch them dancing in the snow as they perform their elaborate mating rituals. Naturetrek (01962 733051; naturetrek.co.uk) is offering a 12-day Wild Japan in Winter holiday from £5,595, including flights. Led by an expert naturalist guide, it is designed to show Hokkaido’s dancing cranes and other bird species including Steller’s sea eagles and Blakiston’s fish owl.
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