World's finest wildlife destinations

Rayane said:
A very underrated place is Morocco. I don't many companies offer Wildlife tours but if you do a little research, rent a car and travel around, you'll get a very wide range of species without going accross the world in you're based in Europe.
A very good diversity of seabirds, with Razorbills migrating as far south as the desert town of Dakhla. 7 shearwaters species in addition to many others.
A good selection of desert species in the southern parts of the country (with one of the best locations in the world to see Sand cats), a more european selection in the northern forests of the country and a few endemics in the Atlas mountains.
If you take in consideration how close it is to most of the European countries, how favorable the weather usually is and how good moroccan food tastes, in my opinion it's a top destination.
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Have you been there and seen wild sand cats?
 
Wolverine, yes, we were unlucky the first night, so we were allowed to stay longer, and one arrived and showed really well for about 10 minutes.
 
Rayane said:
A very underrated place is Morocco. I don't many companies offer Wildlife tours but if you do a little research, rent a car and travel around, you'll get a very wide range of species without going accross the world in you're based in Europe.
A very good diversity of seabirds, with Razorbills migrating as far south as the desert town of Dakhla. 7 shearwaters species in addition to many others.
A good selection of desert species in the southern parts of the country (with one of the best locations in the world to see Sand cats), a more european selection in the northern forests of the country and a few endemics in the Atlas mountains.
If you take in consideration how close it is to most of the European countries, how favorable the weather usually is and how good moroccan food tastes, in my opinion it's a top destination.
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I wouldn't consider Morocco as one of the best wildlife destinations.
Birding is great, sure, but the number of mammals is pretty limited and a good part of them are rodents and bats (which personally aren't the animals I look for in trips).
Some centuries ago it would have been a great destination, with oryxes, Lions and even bears...
 
Luca Bronzi said:
I wouldn't consider Morocco as one of the best wildlife destinations.
Birding is great, sure, but the number of mammals is pretty limited and a good part of them are rodents and bats (which personally aren't the animals I look for in trips).
Some centuries ago it would have been a great destination, with oryxes, Lions and even bears...
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Mammal wise it is indeed a bit of a hardcore country. Some very nice species but they require a lot of organisation in order to see them. Keep in mind it's only a 2 hours flight from Europe, that was the point, close and decent.
In the Souss-Massa National Park there are a few semi-wild Dama Gazelles, Scimitar-horned oryxes and Dorcas Gazelles. I also believe they have Addaxes and they are working on a North African ostrich reintroduction. Maybe in a few years it'll be more attractive than ever with all those nice species roaming wild again.
 
I thought that maybe, in this thread, we could periodically start a discussion about one specific country and talk about it and then move on to another destination.
What do you think?
 
I am willing to start the ball rolling on Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Madagascar, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Uganda or Botswana.
 
Tetzoo Quizzer said:
I am willing to start the ball rolling on Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Madagascar, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Uganda or Botswana.
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Madagascar would be good.

I thought a lot about going to Nosy Be, but unfortunately wildlife is relatively scarce there.
Lokobe Reserve hosts many spevies of reptiles and amphibians, and in some times of the year it's possible to spot Humpback Whales (in summer) or Whale sharks (in Winter), but the number of mammals as far as I know it's pretty scarce (only 2 diurnal species of lemurs: black in Lokobe and Common brown in Nosy Tanikely, and then Nosy Be sportive lemurs also in Lokobe and another little, elusive critter I forgot the name of).
It would be nice to visit the southern parte of the island, which is far more interesting, but it's not in my plans for now.


Are there zoochatters who visited Madagascar and can talk about their experiences?
 
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I visited Madagascar a couple of years ago for two weeks, and visited the south of the island. Saw a dozen lemur species, tenrec, boa, numerous chameleon species, giraffe-necked weevil, humpback whale, and members of all the endemic bird families. There is a full write up on Bird Forum; search for A mad month in Madagascar. It was organised directly through a ground agent, Gaby, and as a result was MUCH cheaper than the usual tours. However, be aware that road travel is exceptionally slow, so we lost more than two days doing nothing but travelling. The wildlife is localised, but the local guides (compulsory in various sites) really know their stuff, but make sure you specify everything you would like to see; we almost missed some easy to see owls because we had headed off to see Abert’s Tetraka, and the guides did not think to mention the possibility of the owls.
 
Tetzoo Quizzer said:
I visited Madagascar a couple of years ago for two weeks, and visited the south of the island. Saw a dozen lemur species, tenrec, boa, numerous chameleon species, giraffe-necked weevil, humpback whale, and members of all the endemic bird families. There is a full write up on Bird Forum; search for A mad month in Madagascar. It was organised directly through a ground agent, Gaby, and as a result was MUCH cheaper than the usual tours. However, be aware that road travel is exceptionally slow, so we lost more than two days doing nothing but travelling. The wildlife is localised, but the local guides (compulsory in various sites) really know their stuff, but make sure you specify everything you would like to see; we almost missed some easy to see owls because we had headed off to see Abert’s Tetraka, and the guides did not think to mention the possibility of the owls.
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You indeed did some very good travels :p
I'll go to read the report.
 
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