An asssement of the possibility of re-introducing cheetah into India after their extinction on the sub-continent in the 1960’s, has been made. A group from the Wildlife Institute of India and the Wildlife Trust of India have submitted a paper to their country’s Ministry for Environment and Forests considering the improvement in dry grassland and desert ecology by bringing back cheetah.

This would mean that in some areas potentially tiger, leopard, lion and cheetah could co-exist which is sure to have a positive impact on tourism even though there is still talk of terminating tourism in the tiger reserves. The experts recognise the need for government backing of course, but also realise a requirement for an increase in prey species and protection of the areas of reintroduction.

Three national parks were identified including two in central India and one in the desert of western Rajasthan in which suitable habitats would be available for cheetah survival. They also recognise that the cheetahs would need to be introduced from populations in Africa and Iran. There is no time frame for this and it must be approved but given that there is so much that needs to be done just to save the Bengal tiger, India’s flagship feline, this is certainly a very optimistic proposal for the near future.

Wildlife & Wilderness will soon be bringing a range of European wildlife holidays to the website as a recognised tourism partner of PAN Parks. PAN Parks is a Europe-wide organisation committed to saving the best wilderness areas of the continent. It is doing this through a sustainable tourism programme. As we fully support this initiative are introducing a range of wildlife trips in some of these specific areas soon. In the meantime if you wish to learn more click here.

An historic meeting ended late last week in South Korea with the formation of an Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Led by the scientific community this independent platform will mimic a similar panel studying climate change. Those involved in climate change have had considerable success in catalyzing world-wide understanding and governmental action on global warming and it is hoped the configuration of the new body on biodiversity and ecosystems will have similar effects in its own field.

IPBES will facilitate decisive actions across governments worldwide based on ever increasing scientific documentation of accelerating declines and degradation of the natural world.

Let’s hope that this leads to a much greater understanding and appreciation of the real need for preservation of biodiversity and the protection of our wildlife and wilderness areas.

We are inspired by Iceland! It is an incredible country, not far away and easy to explore on your own. Today only a small area around Ejyafjallajokull icecap is out of bounds for obvious reasons but Iceland has launched a campaign “Inspired by Iceland”. If you want to be inspired by Iceland and discover some of its amazing nature, adventures and geology in summer or winter then contact us as we’d love to tell you about it!

The whale shark season in Western Australia is just starting up and its not too late to book into Sal Salis luxury camp and enjoy specially chartered boat trips to snorkel with these awesome creatures on one of the most pristine reefs in the world. Take a look at our Australia holiday pages for further information.

Obviously with much disruption to travel across Europe Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano is in the spotlight. Just what a bright spotlight it is can be seen in this infra-red image taken overhead by the Earth Observing-1 spacecraft on Saturday 17 April. Ironically the plume has not affected Iceland too much and most internal flights continue undisrupted. Photo couresy of NASA and further images available here .

Its currently pouring with warm rain, I’m deep in the rainforests of central Guyana. Conditions at the simple lodges are very comfortable and they inet connection too. Food is excellent given the remoteness but what is truly outstanding is the biodiversity. There are such good numbers of key indicator species such as red-throated caracaras and many toucans. The forest is a little more open too than that in the Amazonian basin of Ecuador or Peru. The guiding here is has been to an extremely high standard and they are all local guides. Fortunately English is the language of Guyana which really helps. I’m really looking forward to discovering the savannah and perhaps seeing giant anteaters, the contrast of that area is immense to the rainforest here. So will we sell Guyana holidays in the near future? Most definitely yes but it is a country for the more adventurous and keen naturalists or bird watcher. For the latter it is terrific.

PanParks is a European NGO that was founded by the WWF to protect the remaining wilderness areas of Europe. Many of these core areas are to be found in national parks from northern Finland to Portugal, Italy and Eastern Europe. They protect important large mammal species such as bear, wolf and lynx as well as much other flora and fauna and it is likely that you will be hearing much more about them in the coming year.

Wildlife & Wilderness director, Dr. Steve Banner, was invited out to the Central Balkans National Park in Bulgaria recently to help formulate the sustainable tourism model which will help provide much needed funds to help protect these important areas. The successful consultancy was carried out with other international tour operators and incoming agents who work in those countries currently with panparks protected areas.

In the coming months we will be introducing some exciting new programmes and each time you travel to one of these areas you can be sure that you are helping to protect the area you are visiting for future generations. For further information on panparks visit http://www.panparks.org/ or contact Steve at Wildlife & Wilderness.

Wildlife & Wilderness has been suffering problems with BT and our ISP which affected internet and telephony systems but these have now been resolved and normal service has resumed.

We are pleased to announce that some of our winter activity holiday fixed departures are still possible for 20 and 23 December allowing you to enjoy a cool Christmas full of snow activities such as dog sledding and snowmobiling in the magical winter of Lapland. Contact us for full details.