The best trips I have ever taken have something in common: They were all long-haul trips in pursuit of seeing animals in their natural, remote habitats.
On Fair Isle, a Scottish island where birds far outnumber humans, a puffin walked up to me and gnawed at the tip of my hiking boot.
“It’s a mating sign,” my guide told me, laughing.
And I’ll never forget when I went on a solo self-drive safari in Namibia’s Etosha National Park. I left my car only once for a quick bathroom break — and was startled by a herd of wildebeest running in the distance.
Perhaps my most cherished experience, though, was in Kaktovik, Alaska, a community above the Arctic Circle reachable only by flight. The small Indigenous island town was experiencing the effects of melting sea ice on polar bears, who were coming onto land to find food. For a short window of time, a limited number of visitors were allowed to bear witness and I was lucky enough to be among them. On a rugged, seven-person boat, I saw a mother polar bear with her two cubs, who were equal parts cute, close and vulnerable. It was a rare, emotionally heightened event — part of that special sauce that elevates a trip from great to transformative.
Wildlife experiences ideally do more than serve as passive viewing or entertainment. They should transform the client into an advocate for animals and their increasingly threatened habitats. In this issue’s cover story, experts share best practices when evaluating the ethics of wildlife travel. What struck me most about this piece is that many of the tips rely on common sense, but we have been conditioned by mass tourism to accept unnatural and exploitative animal experiences. If rides and performances are ubiquitous and legal, they must be okay, the thinking goes.
Recently, a destination proposed an itinerary for me that included a dolphin encounter. As much as I’m sure my kids would enjoy petting a dolphin, I didn’t think twice before refusing. Going out of my way to see animals in the wild changed me forever. Once clients make these journeys, they will hopefully find it’s impossible to do it any other way.
