5 Wildlife Tourism Experiences Where Travelers Can Make a Genuine Difference

Along with animals like penguins and sea lions, the Strait of Magellan and surrounding waters are home to enormous humpback whales. They can weigh up to 60,000 pounds and be 50 feet long, and guests will learn to listen for the sounds of the blowhole to know if a whale is in the area. Researchers can identify the whales by their tail markings, patterns, and sometimes injuries. Photo: Suzie Dundas

Guests of WhaleSound spend three days aboard the Tanu, a small but comfortable research vessel that tracks whales throughout the Strait of Magellan. It’s long days on the water, so maybe best avoided if you’re prone to seasickness. Photo: Suzie Dundas

On the second day with WhaleSound, guests will make the trip to the Santa Ines Glacier. Stay for more than a few minutes, and you’ll definitely hear the sounds of ice cracking and breaking as the glacier slowly moves and warps. Assuming the boat crew are good with their net, they’ll likely scoop up a piece of ice broken off from the glacier to make pisco sours later that night at camp. Photo: Suzie Dundas

It’s not just whales you’ll see while on the water with WhaleSound. Patagonia is home to sea otters, sea lions, and five types of penguins: Magellanic, Humboldt, Gentoo, Southern Rockhopper and King. Bring your long camera lens. Photo: Suzie Dundas

WhaleSound guests sleep in geodesic domes, and camp staff make a fire in each one at night while guests are dinner. From my dome, I could hear the sounds of whales exhaling through their blow holes in the water at night, and even managed to see a huge humpback whale sleeping in the seaweed just a few yards from the shore. Photo: Suzie Dundas

There are more than 6,000 species of coral on the planet, and they’re alive — that’s right; they’re animals, not plants. So when reefs die off, it’s literally coral dying. But divers in Fiji can help save baby coral by doing a restoration dive or working in an underwater coral nursery. Photo: Kokomo Private Island

Fiji has some of the world’s best diving and is home to more than 400 species of hard and soft corals. But equally is the need to protect the animals that live in the safety of the coral. More than 1,200 species of fish, 58 species of shark, and dozens of species of crustaceans, octopuses, and mollusks shelter in the reefs. Without coral, the entire food chain of the ocean collapses. Photo: Kokomo Private Island

Kokomo Private Island has seven coral nurseries, all at shallow depths and protected from swells and currents. This is a horizontal rope nursery, designed for branching corals (most species of coral that resemble tree branches without leaves are ‘branching’).  that resemble tree branches. The resort also has different styles of nurseries for coral that grows vertically and coral that can’t attach to a rope. Photo: Kokomo Private Island

The luxury resort has a variety of lodging, but even the smallest “room” is still a private villa. It’s pricey and certainly a for-profit experience, but the coral restoration dives have no additional fee — they’re just a chance for travelers to give back to the environment and learn about ocean protection. The resort (and homes on the island) fund the sustainability efforts and guests are welcome to participate in nearly all of the island’s ongoing projects. Photo: Kokomo Private Island

Treks take very small groups of tourists through dense jungle in search of mountain gorillas. If you find them, you’re only allowed to spend a limited amount of time with them per day to ensure they don’t become too accustomed to having humans nearby. Photo: Visit Rwanda

Volcanoes National Park, home to Rwanda’s gorilla treks, covers 72 square miles and is home to five volcanoes. Nearby are plenty of luxury and eco-lodges for travelers. Photo: Visit Rwanda

Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda borders the DRC’s Virunga National Park. This area of Rwanda was a battleground in the 1990s, but has since been developed into a safe national park for wildlife and international and local travelers. Photo: Visit Rwanda

The tourism money that comes from selling permits goes toward a host of ecological programs, from wildlife monitoring to ranger training and anti-poaching and anti-deforestation efforts. Photo: Visit Rwanda

For a small fee, tourists can assist in releasing baby sea turtles like this one into the sea. Campamento Tortuguero Palmarito is a non-profit and all income goes toward sea turtle conservation and research. Photo: Nickolaus Hines

The baby sea turtles are very, very tiny, so it’s not a surprise that seabirds see them as food. Baby sea turtles are only about two inches long, and sea turtles can lay 100 eggs at once several times per season. Photo: Nickolaus Hines

It’s hard not to feel a sense of happiness as you set the baby turtles on the sand and watch them successfully scurry into the sea. While they’re still at risk of predation in the water, they’re generally safer off the sand as they can hide near seaweed or partially bury into the ocean floor. Photo: Nickolaus Hines

The scaly baby turtles are as cute as can be, and escorting them across the sand is a great way to help ensure as many as possible make it safely to the sea. But it’s not the only way to participate. Tourists can go for nighttime ATV rides to observe sea turtles and report new nests, go dolphin and turtle watching on a boat, or even opt for an eight-day wildlife tourism camp (including snorkeling and hiking). Photo: Nickolaus Hines

An average day on the expedition includes a long hike into the jungle to find the elephants, followed by around three hours of behavior monitoring and studying. Once returned to camp, participants will have time to enter their research, visit the local village, and participate in discussions on ecology and wildlife. Photo: Biosphere Expeditions

Researchers, staff, and citizen science volunteers alike stay in a nearby hill tribe village. Shown here is the expedition base, where the team meets for training and discussions, as well as to upload and analyze the data they collect. Photo: Biosphere Expeditions

These two elephants are displaying natural elephant behavior, both buy using their trunks to sniff out their surroundings in search of food and by having a quick scratch against the trees. Photo: Biosphere Expeditions

This elephant is named Gen Thong, and he’s one of the youngest members of the study herd. The elephants are used to humans and staff and citizen scientists can and must get quite close to study details of their behavior and food preferences. Here, Gen Thong is being curious and following a staff member on his way back to camp. Photo: Biosphere Expeditions

The focus of your eight days in Thailand will be on studying the behaviors of Asian elephants like this one. They’re considered endangered and research suggests their populations have declined by about half in the last 60 years, mostly due to habitat loss. Photo: Biosphere Expeditions.