From vast open landscapes, to huge wildlife reserves, to small sanctuaries rehabilitating wounded creatures, there are plenty of places to see animals outside of your local city zoo.Hike along the OhauStream and watch baby fur seals splash around in a pool at the foot of a waterfall, or go to Kenya and get your first “giraffe-kiss.” Or, if you aren’t afraid of the cold, take a trip to the “Polar Bear Capital of the World” and watch as curious cubs learn valuable survival skills from their mothers.
Where wildlife is involved, timing is key for improve your chances of spotting an animals because they change their behavior with the seasons and the weather. So, if you are hoping to spot a wild elephant, be sure to visit Chobe National Park during the dry season, when these majestic mammals gather around and swim in the rivers, according to the park’s website. Planning is even more important if you want to see newborns; so head to China in August or September to catch a glimpse of the tiny baby pandas at the Chengdu Research Base, reports The Telegraph.
Here, we take a worldwide tour of the best places to see your favorite wildlife, and their adorably cute babies, starting with the wild horses of the Camargue in France.
The Camargue region of southern France is known for its semi-wild, white horses, which are indigenous to this wetlands and salt marsh area of the Rhône river.Named after their home, thebreed of horse is believed to be one of the oldest in the world, indigenous to the area for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, reports News.com.au. The horses are relatively small in size, with square heads, a stocky appearance and a thick tail and mane. Colts are born brown, only developing their light coloring around the age of four or five, according to region’s tourism office. Theyare allowed to roam across the land freely, reports news.com.au, and can often be seen from the Natural Park near Arles.
The horses have also been traditionally used for cattle work, so local “guardians” (cowboys) from nearby ranches corral them from the wild when they reach about the age of three, and train them, says the tourism office, although usually only the males are broken in for riding, with the mares left to breed.
NEXT:Meet rescued baby sloths in Costa Rica
The Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica is located in the village of Penhurst, about a four-hour drive from the nearest airport in San Jose. The privately owned sanctuary raises and rehabilitates injured or orphaned sloths and has taken care more than 500 of the animals, according to Discovery News. The country’s sloths are threatened by rapidly expanding human development, and according to TreeHugger, many of the sloths at the sanctuary have been injured or orphaned by human-caused incidents, including felled trees, power line electrocution, traffic accidents or hunting.
The sanctuary is open six days a week for tours and now features a Bed & Breakfast, where guests can stay in one of six rooms named after some of the sloth residents.
NEXT: See panda cubs in China
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is an important conservation and breeding center for pandas. It is located about six miles north of the city of Chengdu, on the Futou Moutain and it is home to more than 90 giant panda bears. The base is open to visitors year round, but according to Lonely Planet, it is best to visit in the morning when the bears are most active. Plus, morning visitors can observe feeding time. August and September bring the bonus of newborn baby pandas that can be seen in the nursery, reports The Telegraph. Pandas often have twins but struggle to care for both, so, according the newspaper, visitors often get the chance to see one of the twins being bottle-fed.
In addition to the black and white kind, red pandas also live at this reserve.
NEXT: Go gorilla trekking in Rwanda
The Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda was the first national park to be created in Africa, and it was set up to protect the mountain gorillas. There are 19 mountain gorilla families currently living in the Virunga Mountains, which are located in the Northern Province near the border of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Of these 19 gorilla families, only 10 can be visited.
A permit is mandatory to see the primates and the process of getting one can take up to a year, according to the Daily Mail, because visitor numbers are strictly controlled at only 80 people a day. The length and difficulty of the treks required to see the gorillas vary depending on which family is visited, reports Reuters.
NEXT: Hang out with kangaroos on the beach in Australia
Situated in Australia’s Murramarang National Park, Pebbly Beach is a great place to go swimming, surfing or camping, but the real draw is its famous kangaroo residents. The rumor was that there were “surfing kangaroos” at this beach, but that was just a myth that arose from a photo of a kangaroo in low surf, according to VisitNSW.com. The speculation is that a dog probably chased the kangaroo into the water. Still, kangaroos are plentiful on the beach, and they appear very comfortable around human visitors – some will even let you pet them, reports VisitNSW.com.
NEXT: Snorkel with manatees in Florida
Established in 1983, The Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge was dedicated specifically for the protection of the endangered West Indian Manatee. These giant “sea cows” move into the warmer waters of Crystal River when water temperatures drop in the Gulf of Mexico.
Crystal River is one of the few places where it is legal to enter the water with the animals and observe them while snorkeling from a safe (but closer) distance. Manatee calves can sometimes be seen with their mothers, as they often nurse for one to two years after birth, but it is important not to harass or separate them as that will impact their survival. This river is also a great place to go kayaking among these docile creatures.
NEXT: Walk among the penguins in Argentina
IslaMartillois a small island in the Beagle Channel located on the Argentine side of Tierra del Fuego. It has a research station on it, dedicated to studying theMagellanicpenguins and small colony ofGentoopenguinsthat call the island home, according to CNN.
PiraTour, based in Ushuaia Argentina, offers visitors the exciting opportunity to walk among penguins for an hour on the island. There are only two tours daily, according to the tour’s official website, and each tour islimited to 20 people, so it is important to book your spot early.
NEXT: Visit the elephants in Botswana
The Chobe National Park is the most diverse game reserve in Botswana covering approximately 11,000 square kilometers. It is best known for being a home to Kalahari elephants, which are the largest of all the elephant subspecies. There are an estimated 70,000 of these elephants living in the park today, according to the park’s official website. During the dry season, these magnificent animals converge around the Chobe and Linyanti rivers, where they are easy for visitors to see.
NEXT: Hug a koala bear in Australia
First established in 1927, The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is the first and largest koala sanctuary in the world. It is located in Brisbane and is home to over 130 koalas. The sanctuary is open daily to visitors wishing to see these cuddly marsupials and during daily feeding times, visitors can get an especially good view. From February to May, fluffy baby koalas can sometimes be seen emerging from their mother’s pouches, reports Travel & Leisure, and for an extra fee, it is possible to get a koala hug from an adult bear under the supervision of sanctuary workers.
The sanctuary is also home to other interesting animals, such as kangaroos, platypuses, wombats, Tasmanian Devils, snakes and birds.
NEXT: Kiss a giraffe in Kenya
The Giraffe Center, run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife, is a 120-acre special sanctuary for the rare, endangered Rothschild’s giraffe subspecies. This type of giraffe stands out because they have no markings below their knees, reports Giraffe Research, making them look like they are wearing cream stockings. Located in Langata, just outside Nairobi, the Center allows visitors to observe, feed and even kiss the giraffes from a raised, circular viewing deck.
Those wishing to spend more time with the giraffes can also spend the night at the Giraffe Manor nearby, where the animals poke their heads in the dining room window at breakfast time.
NEXT: Spot polar bears in Canada
Only 600 miles south of the Arctic Circle, Churchill Manitoba has less than 1000 human residents, but every year tens of thousands of tourists descend on the small town considered the “Polar Bear Capital of The World.” Annually, polar bears gather in theheadlands overlooking Hudson Bayto wait for the bay to ice over, according to Travel & Leisure. By November, as many as60 bears can be seen in one given day, reports The Huffington Post.
Local tour operators offer tourists a way tosafely see the bearsin their natural habitat from tundra vehicles or wilderness lodges, according to the website everythingchurchill.com. One group,Churchill Wildoffers aweek-long“Mothers & Cubs” safari.
NEXT: Look for tiger cubs in India
Once the Maharajas of Jaipur’s hunting grounds, Ranthambore National Park is today one of India’s largest national parks, stretching over 1,334 square kilometers in Rajasthan. This tiger reserve is full of wild jungle scrub, rocky ridges, and the Ranthambore Fort dating back to the 10th century, reports Lonely Planet, as well as other wildlife, including leopards, jungle cats and more than 300 species of birds.
The best time to see tigers is between November and May, according to USA Today, because it is the dry season. Lonely Planet recommends planning two or three safaris to increase your chances of seeing one of these beautiful large cats. Tigresses and cubs are often spotted in the Bakaula area of the park where there is dense forest cover, reports CNN.
NEXT: Watch the lemurs dance in Madagascar
On the banks of the Mandrare River in Southern Madagascar, the Berenty Reserve is a privately owned research site that has been open to tourists since the early 1980s. The reserve is home to six different species of lemurs, a colony of fruit bats and 103 species of birds.
Most visitors come to see the lemurs that are tame around their human guests. According to Travel Madagascar, ring-tailed lemurs and ‘dancing’ Verreaux sifakas are the easiest to spot. The reserve also features many easy-to-walk, quiet forest trails and an anthropological museum on site offering insight into the Antandroy culture of the region, reports Lonely Planet.
NEXT: Visit a fur seal nursery in New Zealand
From April to October ever year, hundreds of baby fur seals clamber up the Ohau Stream from the Kaikoura coastline to play in a freshwater pool at the foot of a waterfall. These babies stay in this “seal nursery” pool for about two to three days at a time while they wait for their mothers to return to feed them. The pups are often seen playing in the water, sometimes with sticks and leaves.
According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, fur seals had almost been completely wiped out by hunting prior to a 1894 ban, but little by little their population is making a slow comeback today.
To visit these cute, playful seals, it’s an easy 10-minute walk along the Ohau Stream trail to the waterfall. On weekends, a volunteer is on hand to answer any questions about the seals and ensure both the humans and seals remain safe.
NEXT: Check out the orangutans in Malaysia
At the edge of the Kabili forest reserve in the state of Sabah, the Sepilok Orang-Utan Rehabilitation Centre is one of only four orangutan sanctuaries in the world. It is dedicated to rescuing, caring for, rehabilitating and releasing orangutans to the wild. There are currently around 60 to 80 orangutans living free in the reserve.
Visitors to the center can see the primates as they emerge from the forest during feeding times that happen twice a day. There are also a number of walking trails that lead into the forest, according to Lonely Planet.
MORE ON WEATHER.COM: 50 Places to See in Africa
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