Looking for tips for a great tropical trip…
Hi folks,
A friend and me are looking for a good place to go wildlife watching next year. Last year I had a great time in Nepal (Bardia and Chitwan with tigers, slothbears, gharials and everything) and this year too while visiting Costa Rica with my son (tayra, kinkajou, many snakes, nurse sharks and more).
What we are looking for is very rich jungle or savanna habitat, where we both can walk around (on our own or with a guide) and do a few drives (because filming from a vehicle is not very easy). Clear fresh or salt water (for underwaterfilming, even in shallow jungle streams) is very welcome too. All wildlife is great, but mammals and herps are preferred. We love staying/sleeping/camping in or very near the wildlife area itself and luxury is not really necessary. Our budgets also aint as big as many of yours are though.
What we might offer in exchange to the people where we will be staying is professional 4K wildlife filmshots made there. (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VqH_zSjAXw&t=54s )
We are thinking of Nagarahole & Kabini in India, Sabah Malaysia, Bolivia, Uganda and Brasil. We love to hear from you about tips on these or other countries.
Cheers, Jeroen Verhoeff
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10 Comments
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Flemming Versloot
Hey Jeroen,
Have you looked into the state of Assam in India? It can be that you wrote it off as a lot of species are similar to those in Nepal. But you can visit parks on foot (nameri, hoollongapar, en areas of Kaziranga) and has some clear water streams. Although not that many in the national parks. At Nameri, I stayed at a local resort where at night several very large 1.5-2m long banded kraits where going around.Another place you could look into is Cat Tien in Vietnam. Here you can bike and walk around freely in the jungle, and people also wander of the paths. It has some small jungle streams where you can spot tropical fish, although there is also Siamese crocodiles in the park.
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jeroen
Thanks a lot Flemming! I did write it of initially indeed, but I always wanted to visit Kaziranga though, so now you have me interested again… Are walking guides required there? Or wise to use because off possible dangerous wildlife? Them banded kraits sound really nice too! Vietnam sounds good too (especially for herps!?), but my understanding is that it’s not very good for the larger animals anymore, like many of the smaller Southeast Asian countries seem to be nowadays?
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Flemming Versloot
You cannot walk inside Kaziranga alone. But you can walk around the core area of the park, there is plenty of wildlife outside of the park too. We saw elephants, gibbons and rhinos outside of the park borders. You would have to look for the animals more then inside the park, but I really would have liked to have a thermal imager on me to go and look around at night. Also during the monsoon apparently local villages get flooded with large pythons from inside the park.
And yes due to poaching animals are very skittish in Vietnam. Most things run the moment they see you.
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Ian Thompson
Some ideas:
1. Mana Pools in Zimbabwe
2. Tiputini in Ecuador
3. Emas in Brazil (combined with the patanal)
4. Tai forest in Cote d’Ivoire
5. Cat Tien in Vietnam
6. Taman Negara in Malaysia
7. Various sites in Queensland
You can’t walk on your own in Kabini/Bandipur but you can do so in a number of areas in the Western Ghats, around Valparai for instance. Sabah would probably meet your needs well. Really depends on what species you most want to see. If you are considering French Guiana you might want to look at Suriname as well – less expensive and lots of opportunities to walk in the forest.-
jeroen
Thanks for these great tips Ian! I have been in Taman Negara and personally I think Australian mammals are rather unsexy (sorry Aussies!), but the other locations are definitely on my whish-list now. I knew that for walking in the Ghats we need a guide, asl long a sthey are afoordable that is fine. Sabah is top of my list, but I am a bit uncertain about the possibilities on filming in the heat/humidity/darkness over there, also as most things seem to be seen form cars. But the snorkling there should be best in the world I think? We have to make some tough decisions…
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Eduardo Ruiz
I would suggest to look at the report of Jan Ebr on French Guiana from early 2025. There is savannah habitat along the north of Kourou/Sinnamary where cats, giant anteaters and region specific primates are found and then long routes “pistes” going deep inside the forest where everything is possible (bush dogs spotted 3 times in Route de Kaw this year, for example). Camp Bonaventure, ADNG and Montagne de Kaw are great of herps and rare mammals like giant armadillo or margay are seen sometimes too, Lac Petit Saut has guaranteed giant river otters and regular sightings of jaguar and more rarely puma, apart from white faced saki , guianan spider monkey or red howler, but you would need an operator for that one. Sentier du Rorota in Remire has regular sightings of silky anteater, long tailed porcupine and sometimes black-tailed dwarf porcupine,… and most of them you can do by yourself. I have done a lot of research so if this catches your attention i can share with you more details in private.
Good luck in your search!