I’m interning at a research station! Plenty of good inatting opportunities because of it!
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I bet! I got some really interesting pix when i went, but alas, all pre-digital and the prints don’t scan well. Cool memories! Most vivid one was the night hike when I walked thru a spider web that SNAPPED! Audibly! I don’t mind saying that I belted out a mighty scream lol!
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There are many incredible places, but the most impressive expanse of native ecosystems is Alaska. Patagonia, the Andes, the Himalaya, and most of northern Europe and Asia have rather small regions preserved, and heavily traveled. There are great places, but Alaska has huge regions of very limited human impact, except for the native village subsistence activities. Anchorage is my home, just stepping stone to wild ecosystems.
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Kola Peninsula is far from being heavily traveled though. And well, most of northern Eurasia is quite like Alaska, depends on place, ofc.
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I would love to spend more time back in Botswana - Chobe, Okavango Delta, etc, as well as Namibia (which I’ve been to several times but always still want to go back). In fact, there are many regions of Africa I want to explore - Zambia, the Congo basin, eastern Africa including Malawi, Mozambique, Ethiopia. Madagascar of course for the endemic species they have there.
Other parts of the world I would like to see include:
- The Americas - Patagonia in South America, the Pantanal, Yellowstone and Banff (largely because I want to see wolves and the Rockies), the redwoods in California, the Sonora desert. Although technically not Americas at all, I would love to visit Hawaii as well. Canada/Alaska for the polar bears and moose
- Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand for the beautiful birds and plants they have there; I’m quite intrigued by the Australian Proteaceae in particular, as they are so similar to the local native Proteaceae and yet so different, equally as striking in their beauty. The birds I most want to see there are the parrots and cockatoos, the birds of paradise, and bowerbirds!
- Asia - I want to see wild tigers, snow leopards, Asian rhinos, saiga antelope, etc, so it seems India and a few other similar places will be my best bet for that. I would love to see the biodiversity of Indonesia and Malaysia as well.
- Antarctica and the sub-antarctic islands for the penguins and leopard seals
And of course, if I were to go back in time I would love to see the Pleistocene landscapes of all the continents - Africa, Eurasia, the Americas, Australia, you name it! Sabre-toothed cats and mastodons, giant tortoises and land-hunting crocodiles, short-faced kangaroos and marsupial lions, chalicotheres and Stephanorhinus, toxodons and glyptodons …
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Honestly, I love where I am. But I told my wife I’m waiting for the day a black bear shows up in our yard…
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Hokkaido, Costa Rica, and Australia are some places currently on my bucket list.
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I’ll agree with Australia. But also, just to visit, the northwest America. And to South America for the rain forests. And so many more, lol.
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Count me in!
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I would love to explore the Lamington and Springbrook national parks and the cold rainforests of Tasmania and south island, new zealand.
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You know, @orlandob, I was thinking about parts of Canada, but now you got me all intrigued about New Zealand and Tasmania.
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Glad to hear!
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I would go to Central/South America. There is so much biodiversity and it is so beautiful there.
Japan is definitely one of the most wonderful places on the planet. There are big cities, sure, but the big cities butt right up against rural areas, so nature is always close by. I got to go for a week and a half during my undergrad and toured all over the place. The cedars along the Tokaido highway were gorgeous, and I remember being absolutely fascinated by the marimo at Lake Biwa. Even in the cities, there’s still plenty of nature to find. I love the cats at Himeji castle and the deer in Nara and Miyajima (even if they get a little pushy for the senbei). Someday, I want to go back. I want to explore the ryukyu islands and the mountains in Hokkaido. Seeing a Japanese giant salamander in person would probably make my year. I only hope I have more time to stay next time around.
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Absolutely! There are so many unique species there that you can’t find anywhere else. Have you taken a look at the wildlife in Socotra? The flora and fauna have the same sort of almost alien feel that Madagascar has–perhaps even more so.
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Kamchatka is on my bucket list, but more for the geological variety. I’ve read that it is a very tough place to travel through, however.
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Madagascar… I was planning the travel for the last month before the rain season this year. It seems I will have to wait till next year. :-(
Next on the dream list (for the mixture of nature and culture experiences and being realistic about age/health/vacation time/financial issues - I do not cherish futile travel dreams for very demanding or exceptionally costly places):
Mauritius
Botswana
Vietnam
Malta
Morocco
Kefalonia island (preferably in spring).
As to my own backyard - all my country is one big backyard where from one border to another I can travel in half of a day. I like going to various places here and do it a lot. Yes, tourism is something of a threat to nature, but backyard tourism is the same threat as the overseas one. Besides, I have witnessed a lot of examples worldwide how local people started to understand that preserving nature will bring more income because of the tourism. And personally - waking up under the sound of a howler monkey is not the same as listening the same on you tube. On TV you will never smell a flower, or a dust from under elephant feet, enjoy your own sightings of plants and animals you have never even heard of before.
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Antarctica is top of the list. Only continent I haven’t visited but mostly it’s the marine/ice ecosystem that I want to see first hand. Diving under the shelf ice looks magical - as long as you avoid the leopard seals.
After that, the region of Panama/Colombia/Venezuela/Ecuador/Peru for the incredible diversity of birdlife. I lived for a few years in southern Africa (Botswana and Namibia) and have travelled throughout that region and just into east Africa a bit (Malawi). I’d like to spend some time in west Africa. The Russian far east is a wish that I only develop after working for a while in European Russia. I love the language and the culture and am told by Russian friends that the far east is a world apart. The rest of the list amounts to “wherever I haven’t been”.
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I think Mount Kinabalu in Borneo for birds, flowers, butterflies and everything!