If you could travel to see nature anywhere in the world ... where would you go?

I was waiting for the time travel option: I would stay where I am (NY Hudson Valley, U.S.) and see my area prior to colonial settlement and destruction sans all the invasive species and with a higher number of apex predators.

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Thereā€™s something enchanting about the vastness and mystery of Siberia. And itā€™s a giant blank spot on the iNat observation map. I propose an expedition.

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Iā€™ll be traveling to Halifax and PEI this weekend! Iā€™ll mainly be birding, but if there is anything else you think I should be on the lookout for, do let me know!

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mainly birds for me too! Although, I just love anything having to do with the ocean so Iā€™m happy to look for all plants, especially heaths, insects (mainly moths) and interesting ocean life. Have a great timeā€¦I bet migration is really exciting there!

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Anywhere with access to both a rainforest and a coral reef.

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I would like to go to Mexico. It is such ecologically varied place. In a short space of time one can go from cool rainforest to temperate forest to dry desert - like conditions. Going south, Oxaca and the Yucatan are warm rainforest. It would also be neat to ā€˜fill in the mapā€™ so to speak.
Within Canada, Iā€™d like to go further north for moth collection, and out to the mountains. Since my interest is moths, I would stay away from Eastern Canada just because there are so many talented collectors out there.

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The Bruce Peninsula is one of those places I am determined that I WILL go, but Iā€™d also love to go back to the Colombian Andes. When I backpacked through there as a 19-year-old I was fascinated by the landscape but had so little specific knowledge as a stepping-off point for seeing the flora as more than a ā€œwall of green.ā€ Maybe after a stop in Costa Rica to measure some tall Ulmus mexicana, and afterwards continue south to the Alerce forests of Chileā€¦

The pacific islands with Auricariaceae as the dominant canopy trees would also be a trip. And the temperate floristic regions of east asia that have analogues in eastern north america.

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I would travel no farther than my own figurative backyard, the natural world at my doorstep is no less significant than some exotic, far off land. I personally believe the mentality that one must travel to another place to experience the natural world is toxic and unnecessary, for it is all too often that the average person overlooks, and often causes harm to, the species in their own backyard because they view their own natural setting as insignificant compared to another elsewhere. That said, I do enjoy traveling immensely and I have a particular interest in any natural forests remaining in Scotland and Ireland and would love to visit as much of the Americas as possible, particularly the old growth tropical rainforests of South America and (whatā€™s left of) the vast boreal wilderness of North America. A particular place I will visit someday are the Great Smokey Mountains, but it certainly wonā€™t be the same without the old growth hemlocks.

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Anywhere, either near or far, that I could have a local expert guide to show me the fascinating things I might overlook and tell me about seasonal changes and history of the area. As a novice naturalist and a restoration volunteer, my understanding of how ecosystems works has improved and the details are now more intriguing than the view.

Almost like going to a new place, I like going somewhere that I went to as a kid, like the Tetons. But, now with wider, and more detailed, eyes.

As far as new places, my next goal is the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

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A small selection of nature phenomena & natural places I dream of seeing one day:

The glow-worm caves of New Zealand
A penguin colony in the Antarctic
The gorillas and forest elephants of the glades in the jungles of central Africa
The birds of paradise of Papua New Guinea
The bottom of the ocean in one of those submersibles
The rainforests and mangrove forests of Southeast-Asia
The open ocean, looking for megafauna like sharks, sailfish, giant rays etc.
The mountains of Bhutan
The fruit bat migration in Zambia
Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef (or whatā€™s left of it :( )
Yellowstone National Park
The display of the cock-of-the-rocks and capuchinbirds in Suriname
The Amazon river
Kenya & Tanzania
A yet to be realised vast wilderness area with native megafauna in my continent Europe

Iā€™d also love to return to the east coast of Australia one day. I went there when I was 15 and that awakened my love for the natural world, but I could just about tell a heron from a pelican back then. Iā€™d love to go back and visit the same places, now with the knowledge, resources and experience to find and identify all the amazing creatures that live there.

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Let me know when you make it out this way and Iā€™ll show you around!

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For me it would be southeastern Russia (Vladivostok area) and the Korean peninsula. To see the cousins of our eastern North American flora.

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My profile shot for you, tuftedparidae :grinning:

Thatā€™s so cool! Iā€™m jealous

Yes please! I would love to go there as well!

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Interesting to read these parts together, as I spent the first half of my childhood living on the Olympic Peninsula and took school trips to tidal pools and Olympic National Forest. I would love to go back and visit now that Iā€™m older and have a greater appreciation for the wildlife there.

The iNat community in South Korea is very open and helpful; Iā€™m sure any one of us would be happy to offer suggestions on places to visit for anyone interested in adding to their iNat totals!

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I just popped up to Oregon for the past couple days and got a lot of firsts. Actually I even went around tide pools for the first time. Canā€™t wait to go back so I can see even more! Truthfully I would love to explore that whole coastline.

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I am discovering so many undocumented species near home that my wish would just be to be able to afford time off to fully explore the insect world of Louisiana, especially the NW corner where I currently reside. I have traveled the world, seen a lot of places, but currently I get more thrill out of finding new species at home than I do travelling all over in search of them. That said, I still have a few bucket list places- Australian outback, African safari (Ethiopia-Tanzania), and desert such as Gobi.

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I find that since Iā€™ve gotten into insects I donā€™t have to travel far to enter a totally different world. It really excites me to explore a piece of scrubland in my (new) hometown. But a desert and a rainforest are still on my wish list - though I havenā€™t really decided where.

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Better hurry!!

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