BBC Wildlife - UK (2021-12)

80 BBC WILDLIFE December 2021

There’s no need to fly to spend a fortnight

watching wildlife in Europe. Take your

car on a ferry across the Bay of Biscay for

a carbon-minimising journey to northern

Spain – with decent prospects of fin and

Cuvier’s beaked whales thrown in. Then,

split your time between Picos de Europa

National Park and Somiedo Natural Park. In

the Picos, enjoy lammergeiers, wallcreepers,

Pyrenean chamois and a kaleidoscope of

butterflies, including the majestic Apollo. In

Somiedo, focus on mammals: brown bears

and wildcats are readily seen, but Iberian

grey wolves require local guides.

If flying is essential for that holiday

of a lifetime, make it count: offset carbon

emissions, use responsible service providers

and spend locally. Glamping in Botswana’s

Okavango Delta is a case in point.

At Moremi and Khwai, the

local community manages

savanna and wetlands to both

conserve and benefit from

wildlife. Standout mammals

include top-drawer predators

(lion, leopard, serval and even

wild dog) that stalk herds of

antelope such red lechwe.

Your visit helps their future.

For sightings of

tigers, India’s

Ranthambore

National Park is

hard to beat

wildlife TRAVEL 2022

Where to go

in a fortnight

Take in the balletic

spectacle of red

crowned cranes at

Hokkaido

Should Brazil’s Covid-19 nightmare

abate, 2022 would be an auspicious year to

visit as it marks 200 years of independence.

Spend several days in the Atlantic forest at

Guapiaçu Reserve (REGUA), a conservation

beacon in one of the world’s most threatened

biodiversity hotspots. Rare birds include the

giant snipe and shrike-like cotinga, which

vie with marmosets, sloths and 100 types

of hawkmoth for your attention. Then

head to the Pantanal. South America’s

answer to the Serengeti is rightly

famed for harbouring the world’s

most easily encountered hyacinth

macaws, giant otters and jaguars.

Other big cats might entice

you to India, another country

celebrating independence in 2022

(this time 75 years). Flying into

Delhi, Ranthambore is the logical

national park to try for the tiger,

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Lowen is a naturalist

and author, whose books

include 52 European Wildlife

Weekends, which won Travel

Guidebook of the Year.

India’s feline icon. Remarkably, however,

these stripy cats are a mere supporting act

to the headliner – the snow leopard in the

Himalayas. In Ladakh’s Hemis National Park,

at least one company offering snow-leopard

tours boasts both carbon neutrality and a 100

per cent record in seeing this superb species.

Late winter island-hopping in Japan –

Earth’s snowiest country, surprisingly – is a

sure-fire crowd-pleaser. Delight in Japanese

macaques (‘snow monkeys’) bathing in

Honshu’s hot springs, then marvel at 80 per

cent of the world’s hooded cranes wintering

on Kyushu. For an icy finale, fly north to

Hokkaido, to witness dancing red-crowned

cranes, encounter hordes of Steller’s sea

eagles and admire the world’s largest

nightbird: the Blakiston’s fish-owl.

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FIND OUT MORE

● tinyurl.com/okavango 2022

● regua.org

● whc.unesco.org/en/list/ 999

● ranthamborenationalpark.com

● tinyurl.com/japan-wild

For the latest Covid19 travel restrictions,

Iberian grey wolves patrol the please check gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

wilds of Somiedo, Spain