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Tags: Bahamas Travel / Animal Travel / Animals / Nassau Travel / Water Sports / → All Tags

How To Become An 'Aquarist For A Day' In The Bahamas

What do you do after you've built a 140-acre aquatic-themed luxury resort in the Bahamas and filled it up with over 50,000 marine animals tucked away in various lagoons and displays? If you're the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island, you launch an array of different packages that guests can purchase to interact with everything from mantas to sea lions. These programs are on top of the resort's older offerings, which include the chance to interact with dolphins rescued after Katrina created havoc in the Caribbean.

The new "Snorkel With The Mantas" program starts at $79/person and gives guests the opportunity to swim in waters filled with giant manta rays. Up to eight guests go into the reef at a time, splashing alongside the 10-foot wingspan rays. To round out the experience there are also zebra sharks, jacks, snappers, and schools upon schools of shiny tropical fish. Participants looking for something a little more playful can sign up for the new Sea Lion Interaction, which involves pretty much what you'd expect from the name.

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Tags: Animal Travel / Brachiation / Gibbons / Weird Travel / → All Tags

Alternative Methods of Travel: A Short Primer on Brachiation

Think about all the different ways there are to travel. There's flying, driving, and sailing, of course, but let's focus on the low-tech methods of locomotion, like walking, running, crawling, swimming, and brachiation. Not familiar with that last one? I wasn't either, until I wrote something about gibbons and stumbled across the term. Brachiation is a specialized form of arboreal locomotion in which primates swing from one branch to another using their arms. And while it's probably not going to help you navigate the streets of Bangkok, no self-respecting traveler should be without at least a basic understanding of it.

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Tags: Animal Travel / Fall Festivals / California Travel / Events / → All Tags

BYOT (Bring Your Own Tarantula) To California Town's Tarantula Fest

While cities usher in October with Oktoberfest and Halloween-related festivals, small-town Coarsegold, California, marks it with a celebration of the tarantula. This place has so much tarantula love that a massive spider sculpture sits atop the city’s Historic Village and killing one is a major faux paux. The 11th annual Coarsegold Tarantula Festival pays homage to the eight-legged spiders with a day of events on October 24.

Officials say the reason why the old mining town reveres the creepy-crawly spiders is that residents take pride in their natural surroundings, especially the diverse wildlife. The tarantulas are unique to the area, and as such the residents protect them as an integral part of the community. "When we first moved here, I accidentally ran over a tarantula and was severely admonished by a neighbor," says Dian Boland, the founder of the event. The incident prompted her to learn more about the misunderstood creatures. The more she learned, the more she wanted to honor the tarantula. "I wanted to make people aware of how interesting they are, how they really are good for the environment and unique to the mountains up here and really a lot of fun,” she says.

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Tags: Whale Watching / Whales / California Travel / Animal Travel / → All Tags

Where To Whale Watch Up And Down The California Coast

When autumn rolls around, tourists desert the sandy shores of California. What they don't realize is that when beach season ends, whale-watching season begins. The best time to see whales in Cali is December through March, when about 20,000 gray whales, up to 50 feet long and 45 tons each, swim 6,000 miles south from Alaskan waters along California's coastline to breeding waters in Baja. Groups of whales stay close to the shoreline to avoid predators, logging 70 to 80 miles daily.

You can whale watch up and down the coast and California State Parks are some of the best places to shout, "Thar she blows!" Humboldt Lagoons State Park, Patrick's Point State Park and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in Humboldt County are all good whale-watching locations. MacKerricher State Park, three miles north of Fort Bragg in Mendocino County, is another place to spot 'em. Plan your expedition during the Mendocino and Fort Bragg Whale Festivals, March 6 to 7 and March 20 to 21, respectively, so that you can partake in guided whale walks, whale boat tours, chowder tastings and art exhibits.

More perfect whale-watching locations after the jump.

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Tags: Animal Travel / Tourism Boards / Ecotourism / Florida Keys / → All Tags

Watch Florida's Baby Turtle-Hatching Livecam, Or Go See For Yourself

The Florida Keys Tourism Council is trying to raise awareness about the endangered Sea Turtles who nest on their beaches. And what better way to get people's attention than by letting them watch cute little turtle hatchlings emerge from the nest for the first time and find the ocean all on their own?

Every summer on Big Pine Key, in the lower Florida Keys, turtles crawl ashore at night to dig nests and lay about 100 ping-pong-ball-sized eggs. After covering them with sand, the turtles return to the water. Approximately two months later, the baby turtles are born.

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Tags: Animal Travel / Animals / Pigs / Beaches / Beach Travel / Caribbean Travel / → All Tags

Caribbean Beach Overrun by Family of Cute Pigs

I like animals as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure I'd be thrilled about swimming with pigs. It would be impossible not to think about that scene from Y tu mamá también where the porcine invaders befoul a tent that the protagonists had pitched on a remote beach, rendering it uninhabitable. But if you've never seen the film and you're not particularly bothered by pig shit, then make a beeline for Big Major Spot Island in the Bahamas. There, on aptly-named Pig Beach, a family of cute piggies frolics and swims with tourists, hamming it up (sorry) for the cameras and generally proving that they're just as smart as dogs and twice as funny. The brown and pink boars and piglets are known as the famous Swimming Pigs of the Exumas, and they've been an island fixture for generations, rooting around in the underbrush and living off scraps fed to them by passing boaters. You won't see me there, though, as I'm skeeved enough by the water quality of non-pig beaches.

[Photo: worldmaxtravel.com]

Related Stories
· Never Mind Swine Flu, These Pigs are Swimming in the Bahamas [worldmaxtravel.com]
· Animal Travel [Jaunted]

Tags: Tours / Active Travel / Outdoor Travel / Animal Travel / Tripadvisor / → All Tags

Go To Lunch With A Llama In New Mexico's Mountains

TripAdvisor recently released their members’ picks for the best tours in America. While some were pretty blah, one that really stood out to us was the opportunity to trek through the wilderness in New Mexico with llamas by your side. You don’t actually ride the llamas, but they accompany you and your group, and apparently the critters are more than happy to carry your stuff. This leaves you and your back free to enjoy nature at it’s finest. Just remember to share your water bottle with your llama friend in case he or she gets thirsty.

The tours take you into New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and all treks are at your own pace. The tour guides, and probably the llamas too, aren’t looking for a stressful journey. After you work up an appetite as you make your way through the Carson National Forest, you’ll be happy to enjoy a fresh meal. All trips serve up “Backcountry Gourmet” meals and the head guide works as a chef in the off-season—so your taste buds will be in good hands.

Tours start at just $99 if you want to experience their Take a Llama To Lunch day hike. If you’re looking to spend a couple nights in the woods, and really get in touch with your new furry buddies, 3 night tours start at $499. Just remember to bring some llama snacks with you; you probably want to get them on your good side as soon as possible.

Related Stories:
·TripAdvisor Tallies America's Top 10 Tours [Official Site]
·Wild Earth Llama Adventures [Official Site]
·Tours coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo of some llamas: Big Grey Mare]

Tags: Animals / Zoos / Sharks / Chimpanzees / Animal Travel / → All Tags

When Animals Start Acting Like Animals

Once again, humans are outraged that animals have begun acting like...well...animals. It all started in Australia in the Sydney Harbor last week when a navy diver was attacked by a shark. The following day a surfer at Bondi Beach nearly lost his hand to a shark. Yet despite this, shark numbers are not increasing in the waters of New South Wales. And in an effort to convince people the water's fine, Sydney is still going ahead with its Harbour Swim Classic on March 1.

Then this morning, folks in the tri-state area were roiled to hear that a pet chimpanzee brutally attacked a friend of its owners in Stamford, Conn. The chimp was acting so crazy that eventually police shot him in self-defense. For reasons unknown, the 4-feet-tall, 200-lb, chimp (who does have a case of Lyme disease) got aggressive but usually he's very "normal."

The chimp liked watering flowers, wine, expensive steak, brushing his teeth and even watching baseball games on TV. Neighbors also said he liked to pretend to drive his owners' cars - including a pink Cadillac convertible.

We think it's insane that you want to keep a chimpanzee as a pet in your house. However, allowing a three-month old chimpanzee fly on a commercial airline on his way to the Frankfurt Zoo is perfectly acceptable.

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Tags: Animal Travel / Animals / Bats / Africa Travel / → All Tags

Go Batty In Pemba and Save a Creepy-looking Animal

When you read a story about wildlife these days, the news is usually bad. As the human population swells on this planet, animal species are increasingly pushed to the brink of extinction by poaching, habitat loss, and pollution. That's why it's refreshing to hear some good news on the animal front every once in a while. A nifty item on msnbc.com points out that a huge, scary-looking bat on the Tanzanian island of Pemba has made an amazing recovery in recent years, after being reduced to just a handful of specimens in 1989. Today, thanks to two new forest reserves - and the local population's growing distaste for roasted bat - the Pemba flying fox is back, with conservationists estimating that between 22,000 and 37,000 animals are currently making a home on this picturesque island on the northern end of the Zanzibar archipelago. Island residents hope that the big bats, which can have a wingspan of nearly six feet, will lure eco-tourists from the safari camps on the mainland. We're not sure how anxious travelers will be to get up close and personal with critters like these, but it's nice to see that ugly animals are finally getting some protection. After all, why should cuddly koalas get all the conservation funds? Fortunately, visitors to the island these days will find plenty to do beside bat-watching, from a tour of a clove plantation (this is a Spice Island, after all) to a sail among the barrier islands on a dhow.

[Photo: AP]

Related Stories:
· Giant Bat Returns from Brink of Extinction [msnbc.com]
· Animal Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Animals / Animal Travel / Zoos / → All Tags

Wily Cheetah Protests Extra Bag Fee By Running Amok in Delta Cargo Hold

A cheetah on its way from Portland to Atlanta escaped from its cage in a Delta Airlines cargo hold Friday, giving baggage handlers a Halloween scare they weren't expecting. As the AP points out, two of the big cats were being transported in the belly of a passenger jet when one of them - the smarter one, presumably - somehow escaped its enclosure and began wandering through the hold. Upon its discovery, animal experts from Zoo Atlanta showed up on the scene and tranquilized the free-spirited feline, who now awaits its owner at the zoo. Of course, everybody's wondering how such a thing could happen. Who at Delta is responsible for packing live cheetahs into crates? We'd hope they double checked that the cage doors were securely shut. While we're at it, who the heck is shipping cheetahs cross-country anyway? The airline won't reveal who owns the animals, but if it's not the zoo itself, it's likely some private, animal-obsessed citizen, and that's kind of weird. In any case, I hope the cheetah enjoys its new southern home and doesn't rack up any more frequent-flier miles.

[Image: cinemovida.net]

Related Stories:
· Cheetah Gets Loose in Cargo Hold of Flight [AP via Yahoo! News]
· Animal Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Safaris / Rhinos / Africa Travel / Animal Travel / Animals / → All Tags

Rhino Travel: Kenya is Back in Black

As big and bad as they seem, Africa's famed black rhinoceroses are in trouble, having been pushed to the brink of extinction by a century of poaching, trophy hunting, and habitat loss. So it's heartening to hear that wildlife organizations in Kenya and the U.K. have begun releasing captive-bred black rhinos into the Kenyan wilds. As BBC News points out in a brief story and nifty video, the groups recently released a group of young rhinos into an area that only 30 years ago supported 20,000 animals, but now has fewer than 500 left. If managed well, a successful rhino recovery could provide a substantial boost to the country's tourism industry, bringing in hordes of camera-wielding visitors desperate for a snap of the most powerful-looking of the big four. And anyway, the black rhino is a pretty cool beast: they hang out alone and wallow until it's time to mate, they're vegetarians, and they only lash out when the feel threatened, unlike their jerky cousins, the hippos.

[Photo: BBC News]

Related Stories:
· Black Rhinos Released Into the Wild [BBC News]
· Safari Coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Animal Travel / Zoos / Penguins / → All Tags

Edinburgh Military Tattoo: Come for the Marching, Stay for the Penguin

The 2008 Edinburgh Military Tattoo is in full swing, with more than 200,000 people in town to watch military bands and display teams from the British Isles and around the world perform against the backdrop of Edinburgh Castle. This year's tattoo held a special honor for one resident of the Edinburgh Zoo, as a three-foot-tall penguin named Nils Olav received a knighthood from the Norwegian King's Guard.

Sir Olav, as he is now known, is actually the third in a distinguished line of penguins who have served as honorary members of the King's Guard. The unit has a long-held tradition of visiting the zoo while in town for the Tattoo, and couldn't help but be charmed by a tuxedoed young waterfowl who considered himself a kindred spirit to the uniformed soldiers. Olav I, who was named after Norway's then-king Olav, was first made an honorary member of the guard in 1972, and he and his replacements have garnered awards and accolades ever since.

As part of his knighthood ceremony, which was held on Friday at the zoo, Sir Olav reviewed the troops and waddled around to the sound of bagpipe music. And while he's a big deal in knightly circles, it doesn't take much to get an audience. Just drop by the Edinburgh Zoo's world-renowned penguin exhibit, which first started breeding these adorable birds in 1914. The Tattoo runs through August 23.

Related Stories:
· King Penguin Receives Norwegian Knighthood [msnbc]
· Edinburgh Zoo [Official Site]
· Edinburgh Military Tattoo [Official Site]
· Animal Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mirror.co.uk]