Thinking of your next trip? Here are some mammal-focussed trips that are looking for people to join them. If you are planning a trip and looking for company, or looking to team up with others somewhere, then please post on the forum or get in touch.
If you are running a commercial mammalwatching tour then please email me for rates and options.
Anyone can list a trip here. They are not necessarily recommended or approved by mammalwatching.com, especially if I don’t know the people involved. So please do your own research before signing up: two weeks in a rainforest with someone you don’t get on with will not be fun ….
The following trips are looking for people to join.
Amazon Cruise with the Amazon River Dolphin Conservation Foundation, October 12 – 22, 2019
Organiser – Suzanne Smith & the ARDCF
A trip planned for October 2019 for up to 20 people with plenty to see and do at an affordable price. Amazon River Dolphin Conservation Foundation is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization. While our work focuses on the endangered Amazon river dolphin, we will explore the region in search of other rainforest wildlife. We will try to see as many species as possible. During previous trips, we have encountered tucuxi (another river dolphin species), red howler monkeys, titi monkeys, red rumped agoutis, white faced sakis, white fronted capuchins, giant river otters, Amazon tree rats, black howler monkeys, pied tamarins, long-nosed bats, squirrel monkeys, fishing bats, three-toed sloths and much more.
Level of difficulty: Easy
Borneo, October 2019
Organiser – Tomer Ben-Yehuda
19 full days of mammal exploration at Tawau Hills, Deramakot, Kinabatang River, Danum Valley and Mt. Kinabalu, looking for all the rare, bizarre and interesting mammals of Borneo. The prime targets will be of course the clouded leopard (10 nights at Deramakot dedicated for the task), marbled cat, sun bear, bay cat (extremely difficult, but found at Tawau Hills), Hose’s civet (also very difficult but found at Tawau and Mount K), flat-headed cat, western tarsier, and anything else we can find
Level of difficulty: Moderate
Andean Rare Mammals, 1 -11 November 2019
Organiser – Royle Safaris
The trip visits the higher altitude habitats of Ecuador in search of some of the most sought after South American mammal species. This trip focuses on 3 different areas, the cloud forests around Bellavista (where Olinguito is a prime target), Papallacta (where mountain tapir is the main species) and Cayambe Coca National Park (where the wonderful Andean (spectacled) bear is our number one target).
Along the way we expect to see species such as Andean white-tailed deer, Andean white-eared opossums, Andean rabbits, kinkajous and Andean foxes and we hope to see some rarer and more elusive species such as northern oncilla, colocolo, northern pudu, western mountain coati and many more species. Many of the species are very elusive and so we cannot guarantee any of the rare mammals, but we will have expert local guidance in each location as well as our own zoologist escort (Martin Royle), who has worked in the Ecuadorean highlands with the Andean Bear Project in the past. What we can guarantee is significant effort put into trying and see as much as possible.
As well as daytime effort we will also spend a good amount of time after dark looking for species. We will have high quality optical equipment for long distance spotting, a thermal imaging scope and animal caller all to help us in our efforts.
For anyone interested in extending this trip to explore other great areas of Ecuador (such as the Amazon or Galapagos Islands0) we can also make these arrangements and provide tailored itinerary for this. We have a great team of local guides in Ecuador and can provide itineraries specialising in mammals, birds, herpetofauna, marine wildlife, botany and photography.
Level of difficulty: Moderate
Amur Leopard and Siberian Tigers: November and December 2019 Trips
Organiser – Royle Safaris
- Amur Leopard Photography Tour (this is the location where all of the attached pictures were taken) – 19th – 27thNovember 2019
- Siberian Tiger Photography Tour – 12th – 20th November 2019
- Siberian Tiger Winter Tracking Tour – 27th November – 6th December 2019
- Combined Amur Leopard Photography Tour & Siberian Tiger Photography Tour – 12th – 27th November 2019
- Combined Amur Leopard Photography Tour & Siberian Tiger Winter Tracking Tour – 19th November – 6th December 2019
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Bioblitzes in Costa Rica with Fiona Reid: December 2019 and February 2020
Organizer – Fiona Reid
I recently bought a large and beautiful property in Southern Costa Rica – 154 acres, with massive waterfalls, lots of mature forest, and a good variety of habitats. In order to find out more about the biodiversity on my land, I am planning a series of bio-blitzes and bat workshops.
Dec 14-21, 2019. Bat Bioblitz and Workshop to coincide with Nils Bouillard’s Big Bat Year. Nils is traveling the world to see as many bats as possible and try to help promote their conservation. Leaders: Loren Ammerman, author of Bats of Texas and renowned bat biologist, and her husband Mike Dixon, a herpetologist will provide their expertise and help with mist netting and herping.
Feb 20-27, 2020. Nature Bioblitz This is the second of two nature workshops, where all fauna will be recorded. Leaders: Rich Hoyer, a very experienced birder-naturalist (employed by WINGS), will be surveying birds, butterflies, moths and odonates; Tracie Stice and Gianfranco Gomez, naturalists and spider experts, organizers of the legendary Drake Bay Night Tour will be providing their intimate knowledge of local natural history too.
I’ll be co-leading and organizing both workshops and I will have permits for catching rodents and bats. We will take at least two day trips to other habitats. For batters we will visit locales where I know of roosts for species we may have missed. With luck, we should find roosting Spix’s Disk-winged Bat, Chestnut Sac-winged Bat, Pygmy Round-eared Bat, and a number of tent-making bat species. The river has Greater Fishing Bats and numerous smaller species, and we hear the calls of Shaggy Bats and Northern Ghost Bats frequently – catching those two is hard but we will certainly try. I expect we will encounter 30-40 bat species during the first workshop, including some good ones (we will definitely do some batting on the February workshop as well, but the extent will depend on group interest). Other mammals that are easily seen around Sylvan Falls include Red-backed Squirrel Monkey, White-faced Capuchin, Neotropical River Otter, Tomes’s Spiny Rat, White-nosed Coati, Central American Agouti, and more.
Level of difficulty: Easy – Moderate
Mainland Clouded Leopard Trip to Nepal (Feb 2020)
Organizer – Royle Safaris
After the amazing trip report from Jens Hauser last year, Royle Safaris has been in touch with the leading clouded leopard researchers in Nepal and we are pleased to announce the first group trip dedicated to looking for the Indochinese clouded leopard in Nepal.
We are looking at travelling in late February 2020 and have space for 4 people to join. For anyone wishing to know more about this amazing and unique trip, you can reply on this blog or email me info@royle-safaris.co.uk.
Level of difficulty: Moderate
Dominican Republic Solendon & Hutia Tour (February 24-28 2020)
Organiser: Royle Safaris
The two main mammals that we will be looking for on this trip are the Hispaniolan solenodon and Hispaniolan hutia, they are both endemic to Hispaniola (although largely extinct in Haiti). The solenodon is so unusual that its description defies belief, about the size of a house cat, with an awkward and slow gait, they look like oversized shrews that have a venomous bite and a ball and socket joint on their nose. Hutias are giant arboreal beavers in appearance and struggle to survive as they are favoured for food and suffer when deforestation occurs. This short trip is one that will fascinate anyone interested in rare and unusual wildlife. Alongside the two targeted mammals we will also search out endemic birds and reptiles within this short time frame. Despite being a short trip and there not being a huge variety of wildlife to be seen, this trip is designed to offer the chance of seeing and photographing two of the world’s most unusual, little known and critically endangered mammals. On this aim we have very high hopes and should be successful.
More information is here https://www.royle-safaris.co.uk/itineraries/endemic-mammals-of-the-dominican-republic/
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Kingdom of the Snow Leopard, Ladakh (February 28 – March 15, 2020)
Organiser: Royle Safaris
We have great success in our snow leopard tours and since 2011 we have not failed to see snow leopards on our trips travelling in the peak season (February – March), in fact in the last 9 trips we have seen over 2 individual snow leopards and in March 2014 we had over 50 hours of sightings including 2 male fighting over mating rites, a mother and cub, attempted hunts and also the first time mating snow leopards has been seen and filmed at close quarters. You can see the incredible pictures taken from this trip on one of our clients (Mr. John Oates) Flickr pages (https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnswildlifephotos/sets/72157642780737593) and also the BBC aired footage of this encounter as they were filming for Planet Earth 2 during this trip.
Level of Difficulty: Moderate/Hard
Chad, Feb/March 2020
Organizer – Chalo Africa
Chad has true otherworldly beauty: seas of orange-yellow sand, multi-coloured oases, and surreal rock formations. After all, most of the country is a part of the Sahara Desert. But Chad also has one of the world’s largest single herd of elephants, about 130 lions, and over 10,000 Central African savanna buffalo, which range in colour from jet-black to orange. This is wild adventuring, including driving hundreds of kilometres across the Sahara, seeing rock paintings up to 12,000 years old, and coming face to face with elephants whose recovery is one of the most heartwarming of wildlife conservation stories.
Trip Highlights
• The elephants of Zakouma National Park and their story of hope
• Flocks of birds that completely blanket the sky and earth
• The one and only picture-book Sahara Desert – the world’s largest desert – with all possible shades of orange and yellow
• Prehistoric rock paintings and petroglyphs showing people dancing, herding, and hunting, and depicting the wildlife that flourished millennia ago
• Dromedaries drinking huge amounts of water very quickly
• Lions, buffaloes, Kordofan giraffes, and all manner of antelope including tiang and roan
Level of difficulty: Easy/Moderate
Sichuan Rare Mammals, Spring 2020
Organizer – Royle Safaris
Back in April 2019 Royle Safaris ran its second back to back Sichuan Mammals Tour with special focus on the rarest and ‘coolest’ of Chinese mammals. We were very successful, the trip resulted in 3 sightings of giant panda (plus a 4th through thermal only) as well as red pandas, Pallas’s cats, Chinese mountain cats, Himalayan wolves, Indochinese leopard cats, Asiatic golden cat and Asiatic black bear. In fact 42 species of mammals were seen or evidence of their presence was seen.
Because of the incredible success we have had in the last 2 trips we are running two more tours (following the same itinerary) for 2020. We have sold all but one place on these two trips, so if anyone would like to know more and join you can contact us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk.
Level of difficulty: Easy/Moderate
Kglagadi Transfrontier Park, May 2020
Organiser – Chalo Africa
5-Person Group Departures from Mabua to Twee and vice-versa
Group 1: Arrives in Botswana on May 1, 2020 – Trip Ends in South Africa on May 14, 2020
Group 2: Arrives in South Africa on May 17, 2020 – Trip Ends in Botswana on May 30, 2020
Kgalagadi means ‘place of thirst’. It is a part of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. Much of it consists of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), Africa’s first Peace Park. The KTP is truly wild: surreal semi-desert wilderness; red sand dunes; dry rivers that are said to flow once in a hundred years; and starry skies without light pollution. It’s home to the black-maned Kalahari lion. It’s said to be one of the top two places on the planet to see the cheetah. It has 19 key predators including lion, cheetah, hyena, jackal, fox, African wildcat, and caracal. And when it rains with the spectacular thunder of the Kalahari, lillies start to bloom.
Trip Highlights
• The Kalahari lion (sightings are common)
• The cheetah (sightings are common)
• The pure Kalahari sky, with full-spectrum sunsets and dense star clusters, and a special photogenic light at sunrise
• Spectacular thunderstorms and rains that bring out the smell of red sand dunes
• The possibility of seeing less visible animals such as the leopard, meerkat, brown hyena, honey badger, porcupine, and pangolin
• Herds and herds of picture-perfect oryx/gemsbok
• Genuine solitude and silence in camp, but perhaps interrupted by owls and other raptors, yellow mongooses, barking geckos, and all manner of iridescent birds
Level of difficulty: Easy
Recent Comments