Exotic Wildlife

Kipling’s The Jungle Book was the first exposure many of us had to India’s wildlife, and it inspired a lifelong fascination. From the Bengal tiger of central India’s jungles, to the snow leopard of the Himalayas and the one horned rhino of Kaziranga, wildlife watching in India is unforgettable.

Normally when you approach wild animals and birds, they flee; such is the impact on generations of wariness about humans and what their motivations might be. But in the Galapagos, isolated from all kind of predators, the wildlife has no such fear.

The BBC’s Big Cat Diary was a blockbuster of a wildlife documentary, and it was shot entirely in Kenya’s Masai Mara. There’s no better place in East Africa to spot lion, leopard, and cheetah, and particularly in the private reserves bordering the park, you can get remarkably close.

There are just two places left in the world where you can still see mountain gorilla. Tracking permits are issued in strictly limited numbers, but they fund vital conservation work. Hiking through the dense jungle is a thrill in itself, but nothing can prepare you for that first gorilla encounter.

If primates are your thing - and let’s face it, who doesn’t want to meet the relatives in the wild? - Journeysmiths can help you pair gorilla tracking in Rwanda with spotting chimpanzee and the Big Five in Tanzania.

There’s no permanent human population in Antarctica, but that’s probably just as well as the continent is already fully populated with other residents, from penguin to fur seal to whale. These fascinating, beautiful creatures are unfazed by the few people who do visit, making for intimate and mem...

The remote Pantanal is the world’s largest tropical wetland, and home to a wealth of beautiful landscape and wildlife. The sighting which most excites us is the rosette patterned South American jaguar, which slinks through the Caiman Ecological Refuge.