Wildlife Adventures

January is when the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti begin to teem with hundreds of thousands of migrating wildebeests and zebras. It’s here that the animals begin calving, with newborn animals filling the landscape over the next two months.

January is peak whale-watching season off Sri Lanka’s southern coast, when the waters fill with migrating whale species. Spotting blue whales and sperm whales is all but guaranteed, and you may even see humpbacks if you’re lucky.

The arrival of mating season in January sees male marine iguanas abandon their normal black colouration. With the aim of attracting a mate, they transform into an array of far brighter colours. This varies slightly between island populations, but rich red colours are most common.

These enormous cetaceans arrive in the Sea of Cortez, off Mexico, to give birth in the winter. In these sheltered waters, it’s possible to get incredibly close to them, with whales regularly swimming towards boats and spending time close to their side.

In the depths of the Himalayan winter, the mountain peaks and high ground become so covered in snow and inhospitable that snow leopards are forced lower down to hunt. This makes February the ideal time to spot them, with these elusive creatures often sighted on the bare rocky slopes below the snowline.

It is the rainy season that attracts flamingos to Kenya’s Rift Valley lakes, where they can be spotted in their thousands. But they remain when the rains briefly abate during January and February, making this the perfect time to photograph them under clear blue skies.

The second-largest migration in Africa sees vast herds of zebras constantly moving around Botswana in search of better pastures. March is when the herds are at their most active, leaving the Makgadkgadi Salt Pans as the rains draw to a close, heading north towards the Chobe and Okavango Rivers. The pans fill with a sea of migrating zebras as they begin their journey.

These wonderfully colourful and unusual looking birds can be spotted year-round in Costa Rica. But the beginning of the fruiting season in March is when they fill the trees in their droves, gorging on mangos and other tropical fruits.

March sees these enormous fish begin to congregate around the Ningaloo Reef, off the coast of Western Australia. This is one of a handful of places in the world where whale sharks gather in such numbers and it’s possible to snorkel beside them as they move slowly through the rich waters.

April’s hot, dry weather makes for some of the best tiger sightings of the year. Not only has the vegetation died back to make tigers easier to spot, but the lack of water sources also draws tigers to watering holes to drink. This predictability means that sightings are all but guaranteed if you have the patience.

Mating season for blue-footed boobies arrives in March and with it comes their eye-catching courtship dance. The males quite literally strut their stuff with a high-footed dance to woo the females.

20,000 grey whales pass within sight of Vancouver Island’s shores during the spring months, as they make their way up to their summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea. By April, mothers and calves are passing the island, making this the best time to spot them.

With clear skies and lush, verdant parks, this is the perfect time for avid and budding photographers looking to capture these incredible encounters. As this falls in Rwanda’s shoulder season, there’s much greater permit availability.

The beginning of the summer months sees these unusual creatures leave their winter territory and head through Lancaster Sound, towards their summer feeding ground. Following the edge of the receding ice floe, the migrating narwhals are most easily spotted during this period, when they’re far closer to shore than usual.

These water-loving birds, with their prehistoric appearance, are at their most active during Zambia’s wet season. However, for the vast majority of this period, their wetland home is flooded and inaccessible. This means that the best sightings occur just as the waters begin to recede, during April and May.

These elusive bears are one of Sri Lanka’s most surprising inhabitants and are notoriously hard to spot. However, the start of the fruit season in Yala and Wilpattu National Parks sees them climbing palu trees in search of ripe fruit, making this the best time to track them down.

Each year, June sees the arrival of migrating southern right whales, as they leave the cold Antarctic waters for the warmer waters off the cape. The whales come so close to the shore that they can even be spotted from land at many places along the Western Cape.

June sees Sri Lanka’s dry season coming to an end and this is when the landscape in Yala National Park is at its most arid. The lack of vegetation makes the park’s famous leopards easier to spot and their behaviour becomes more predictable, as they are drawn to the limited water sources.

Borneo’s orangutans can be spotted year-round, but it’s during the peak of the fruit season – in June – that they’re at their most active. Spending a lot of time foraging, they move from tree to tree in search of the best fruit, often coming very close to the paths, making for great up-close encounters.

The summer months see large numbers of whale sharks drawn to the warm waters off Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. But it’s during the month of July that these numbers reach their peak, with more than 100 whale sharks sometimes spotted in one area.

Caribou (known as reindeer in Europe) can be seen throughout the year in Alaska. However, after calving in the spring, they begin to congregate in larger numbers and, by July, they have formed vast herds that spread across the subarctic landscape.

The melting sea ice and warmer conditions make the peak summer months far better for spotting walruses around Svalbard. With very little sea ice to haul themselves out onto, they instead haul out on the beaches, making for fantastic sightings.

The Great Migration reaches its most dramatic point in August when the vast herds of wildebeests and zebras are forced to cross the Mara River in the northern Serengeti. Masses of animals build on one bank – sometimes growing in numbers for days – until they suddenly surge across the river, braving the crocodiles that hide beneath the brown waters. These crossings reach their peak in August, when a sighting of one is most likely.

Jaguars are notoriously hard to spot, but going to Brazil’s Pantanal in September increases your odds. This is when the dry season is drawing to a close, but the rains have yet to arrive. This hot, dry weather draws jaguars to the sandy river banks, where they can often be spotted basking in the sunshine.

August sees an influx of birdlife to the Okavango Delta, but nowhere is quite as busy as the area’s heronries. These seemingly arbitrary locations attract massive congregations of nesting and breeding waterbirds, drawing many different species. Only a handful of these heronries are accessible, all of them by boat.

Each summer, salmon in Alaska and British Columbia swim upriver to their spawning sites. However, to safely make it, they must avoid hungry grizzly bears that wait in the river to feed on them. This iconic sight is known as the “salmon run” and it reaches its frenetic peak during September.

September in Madagascar combines warm weather with clear skies, meaning that lemurs are at their most active, making for excellent sightings. It is also just after most species give birth, so your chances of also spotting baby lemurs are at their best.

The island of Ile Sainte Marie lies off Madagascar’s northeastern coast. The warm channel of water that lies between the island and the mainland attracts migrating humpback whales, who leave the cold Antarctic waters to breed. They begin to arrive in July and don’t leave until the end of September.

As early as August, these pink and blue migratory birds begin to arrive in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. But their numbers build over the next couple of months, making October the best time to see them. Taking advantage of the dry weather, they burrow into dry river banks to build their nests, congregating in colourful colonies as they flit back and forth from their nests.

October sees huge numbers of polar bears begin to congregate close to Churchill in Canada, renowned as a polar bear hotspot. With the Hudson Bay about to freeze over, the bears gather in anticipation of being able to hunt seals on the ice. This remarkable density of polar bears in this area is a unique phenomenon and is at its peak in October or early November.

This is the best month to visit the emperor penguin colonies on Snow Hill Island. With the Weddell Sea’s ice having receded, expeditionary ships can get close enough to access the island by helicopter. Visiting in October means that the newly born chicks are still close by, making for fantastic sightings.

One of the most unusual migrations in the world, the annual journey of monarch butterflies from the USA and Canada to Mexico is a remarkable phenomenon. In November, thousands of these creatures descend upon central Mexico, filling the trees with fluttering black-and-orange wings.  They spend the winter in this mild climate before returning north in the spring.

In November, the skies above Kasanka National Park in Zambia fill with a strange sight. More than eight million fruit bats flood into the park, descending upon the forest to feed on wild fruits. This is the largest mammal migration in the world and, for a couple of months, the area heaves with bats, tree branches sagging under their weight.

The beaches of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa begin to welcome nocturnal visitors in November. This is when loggerhead and leatherback crawl ashore each night to lay their eggs beneath the sand. Under the moonlight, watch them dig into the sand and deposit around 100 eggs before they head back into the sea.

Winter attracts whale sharks to Djibouti, with December or January the best time to encounter them. They come to the rich waters of the Gulf of Tadjourah to feed on plankton, with large numbers of these fish congregating in this relatively small area. This makes for fantastically reliable encounters, with time spent snorkelling beside them.

The Galapagos is filled with wildlife spectacles year-round, but December brings new life to the islands. This is when the iconic giant tortoises’ eggs begin to hatch and the baby tortoises crawl out into the world.

Wolves are found throughout the year in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, but it’s the arrival of the winter snow that makes them easier to spot and their tracks more visible. They are also more active in these winter months, making December the ideal time to visit when sightings are more regular.