Good places to go for my first mammal watching trip
Hello. At the end of this year, I am planning on going on my first solo trip to see as many new species as possible, but with a main focus on mammals. As I am from South Australia, I haven’t had many opportunities to see wild mammals beyond the more common species in my state, which, if you’re familiar with South Australia, isn’t many. I’m planning on going on a road trip and doing some volunteering to see more native mammals, but I really want to go somewhere overseas for the first time in January or February to see some non-rodent, bat or cetacean eutherian mammals. Any ideas on good countries to visit with mammal-focused tours that aren’t too expensive would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.
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24 Comments
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Daniel Boyland
Nepal is pretty cheap to visit. You can do multi-day jungle walks in Chitwan National Park for around $60 USD a day. There are plenty of interesting mammals to see there, including tigers, rhinos, elephants and sloth bears. I arranged the tour through Hotel Rhino Land, which is a good budget option. For a better chance of seeing tigers, you could also head to Bardiya National Park.
If you want something even cheaper than that, Thailand would be good, as you can self-drive and camp in the national parks and walk many of the trails without a guide. The best parks there are probably Kaeng Krachan National Park, Khao Yai National Park and Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. Make sure to avoid the weekends and holidays if you don’t like crowds.
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Michael Johnson
I agree with Jan, Africa (or at least southern and eastern Africa) would be my pick for a “first” mammal watching trip. My first trip was incidental to attending a wedding in South Africa. My wife and I spent three nights in a lodge near Chobe NP in Botswana. I came away with a list of 21 mammals and an addiction. You can find interesting mammals all over but often you have to work hard to see them. In Africa it is a magnificent show.
As for expense, of course that varies a lot. Book with one of the big companies you will find on the internet, and you will be paying for their advertising, infrastructure, and the wages and travel costs of the western tour leader. On the other had things will run like clockwork and you will see a lot in a short time. Backpack through Asia, eating and staying with the locals, and it can all cost next to nothing, but you will have to plan and work a lot harder to see the animals. In between there are a wide range of options. For instance, Borneo (great for mammals) would be a good trip. I can recommend One Stop Borneo. There will not be any luxury lodges, but the wildlife will be fantastic.
Lastly before you get too far into planning, check the weather in places you are considering. There is nothing worse than arriving somewhere then spending your time sitting in a room waiting for the torrential rain to break.
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James
It’s funny you mention One Stop Borneo and the weather. I was looking into the tours One Stop Borneo does, and they sound awesome, but apparently it’s the wet season at the time of year when I’d be able to go. I think that I will definitely go on a tour with them at some point, though. Thanks.
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Jon Hall
Lots of good suggestions here. Shavez from OneStop Borneo was visiting New York last week and we talked about lot about the ‘wet season’ in Borneo. Most people want to visit in what used to be the dry season I know .. but the wet season is far less predictable than it used to be and the mammalwatching can be good at anytime in Borneo. Plus you will have many places to yourself. Do don’t rule it out!
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Jim Vanderpoel
I nominate Yellowstone National Park in the United States for first mammal trip. Easy to see lots of big game and large predators; very unwary small mammals to beef up your list; great roads for self-driving; nice places to stay inside park; always in mountain and canyon scenery. Also, Park Rangers are very helpful.
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Grayson Ponti
In my book nowhere tops East Africa (Kenya or Tanzania) for a first-time mammal watching trip. I would start with https://www.safaribookings.com/ to find a safari within your budget. If you are willing to do a joining, budget camping tour you should be able to find one for a reasonable price. The amount of large mammals in one place easy to see is unparalleled. In your own country, I have had stellar wildlife viewing experiences in Kangaroo Valley in NSW, Atherton Tablelands in Queensland and French/Phillip Islands in Victoria.
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James
I actually read your Australia report, and it was pretty cool. I was a bit jealous you would’ve seen more wild Australian natives than me. I am considering driving up to Cairns in November-December after uni ends and going around the Tablelands and the Daintree, but I might take my car on the ferry to Tasmania instead, as I think it will be a bit more 2WD-friendly. East Africa is probably the most interesting spot in Africa in my opinion. I’d love trying to get photos of one of the big male bush elephants there alongside some of the local antelope and giraffe species.
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Asanoth
Honestly, if you are going for the first time AND you are Australian, any “good” site is a good site for you.
Also, vast majority of locations can be visited independently and therefore cheap, with exceptions being mostly in central Africa (never been), Spitzbergen and other remote destinations.
Africa might be great, South Africa can be very cheap, especially for longer trips, with a lot of wildlife to offer, even though it is rainy season in January. Thailand or central America (probably Costa Rica?) would have pleasant weather in January, so would India or lowland Nepal, but India might shock you 😀 .
In Africa, however, “tours” would be quite pricey, while in CR, Nepal or Thailand you can (and sometimes must) hire guides for reasonable to outright cheap prices.-
James
Costa Rica would be interesting. One of my friends went there to do some fieldwork with the sea turtles, which sounded fun. She didn’t have much luck with terrestrial animals, but considering the biodiversity of the country, I think she just wasn’t looking enough. I am quite interested in Xenarthrans, alongside the awesome Baird’s tapir would be very cool to see.
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Chad Johnson
My advice would be Kruger National Park. It’s budget friendly and you don’t need a guide, it’s easy to drive from camp to camp and, for a first trip, you will see iconic wildlife every day. If you’re looking for something closer to home, I’d say Borneo. Also, in case you haven’t been, The Arid Recovery Center in South Australia near Roxby Downs is an amazing place to visit if you can arrange a tour. The bilbies are in the midst of a population boom so now is a good time to go.
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James
I definitely need to get down to arid recovery I always hear the most interesting stuff coming from there. I haven’t really done much solo driving in areas that remote yet, so I would have to do some decent planning ahead and get some new camping equipment. I have heard some good things about Kruger, and South Africa also has African penguins, which are one of my favourite penguin species if I’m allowed to say that here lol.
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shortclaws
If you feel confident enough to travel independently, then definitely self-drive is the best way to keep the cost down. In which case South Africa has many parks where you will have no trouble finding everything from elephants to multiple mongoose species yourself, the Kruger being the most obvious. But Namibia is also safe and fine for self-driving, and has (for me) the very best park for big game in the world: Etosha!
I think Nepal or Sri Lanka would be a good first place for a *guided* trip on a budget: there’s a great range of large animals to be seen by day, and then of course lots more smaller stuff on night drives. I’d pick that over the rainforests of SE Asia, where there is a huge diversity… but an awful lot is nocturnal and smaller (for a first trip, maybe less fun?).
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benbalmford
That is a pretty healthy budget for sure for a mammal trip. In general, beyond international flights, the biggest costs are often ground transport and guides, and so in both cases more people = lower per person costs. You may well be able to find someone thru this website to join a trip in case you want to reduce cost that way. Perhaps worth flagging that Australia does have some incredible mammals, perhaps particularly in Queensland, that are pretty easy to see without a guide… But southern Africa is probably a better bet for wow. Madagascar is one place that hasn’t been mentioned but definitely could be done on such a budget (see a report by asanoth for instance) and Jan is a good time to go for lots of species. You could also contact Patrick Richard and see if he could organise a trip for you if you were able to buddy up. Etosha is amazing but typically better in Sept/Oct at the end of the dry, which tends to concentrate mammals near water. South Africa offers pretty easy mammal-ing, Kruger is good and then there are other sites for more wacky species – lots of reports here for where to go. Further north, Uganda tends to be a cheaper option than Kenya/Tanzania with similarly stunning mammals. I’d also add Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia into the mix as options. All can be done quite cheaply (I’d guess Columbia too, but haven’t been and so don’t know about prices) – obviously they do have high end sites too – but I haven’t been in Jan/Feb so can’t comment on how the places are in those months. I think choice of destination really depends on what it is you want to see.
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JanEbr
That really depends on what is “not too expensive” for you, because that can be wildly different for different people. Then you mention “mammal-focused tours” – that’s also somewhat contradictory to “not being too expensive” – but again, depending on what that means, it can be perfectly feasible. If you want to see a large list of large mammals on one trip, it’s very hard to beat a safari in Africa (people bring long lists from all sorts of places, but outside of Africa, they tend be half rodents and bats at least if they are long) – which can be expensive, but doesn’t have to be terribly, if you are willing to camp and self-drive.