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.

Recent news is that some of the beavers released in Scotland have built their first lodge. Perhaps nothing special until you consider that the last beavers in the UK were present up until around 400 years ago. The current lodge, which cannot be visited by the public, demonstrates that they have settled in to their new environment and are ready to overwinter. If you wish to see beavers in the wild then it is possible in several countries to which we operate. Of course Canada springs to mind but closer populations can be seen on wildlife holidays in Finland, particularly in the northeast where bear, wolverine and elk also feature. Our Poland holidays also reveal good populations around the Bieszccady Mountains where bison, bear, wolf and lynx are also inhabitants and the Biebrza wetlands which is a great area for viewing elk, the king of the marshes.

As the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 is announced with an Iberian Wolf jumping a gate into a field under moonlight in search of food, we have clients in Poland tracking wolves in the Bieszczady Mountains. This area is often very productive for those interested in finding Europe’s elusive carnivore. Recent snows in the mountains of Poland have meant that wolf tracking early in the season has been quite rewarding  this week. From a village base where wolves were last sighted 4 days ago daily tracking takes place with our professional guide and the knowledge of local researchers and forest workers. Bear trails and bison are also readily seen at this time of the year too. So if you want the excitement of tracking these magnificent large mammals consider taking a holiday in Poland with us soon.

With a busy September past, we have found time to launch a small selection of the very best cruises in the Arctic around Spitsbergen and Greenland for the summer of 2010. These are initmate trips with terrific guiding that are sensitive to the environment yet provide you with incredible wilderness experiences and wildlife encounters with a small group of like-minded enthusiasts. There is a choice of 3 ice-strengthened ships carrying between 12 and 50 passengers although only the larger vessel explores the remote northeast Greenland coast. Further details will be added shortly but do contact us if you are interested in discovering the Arctic on an expedition cruise next year.

Shortly we hope to launch Arctic safari holidays for general wildlife enthusiasts. However, professional wildlife phototgrapher, Andy Rouse, has just completed the first of 3 trips this summer with Wildlife & Wilderness leading small groups in search of polar bears and other Arctic wildlife around Spitsbergen and the Svalbard archipelago in the high Arctic. On board a small ice-strengthened vessel that can reach locations no other ship can get to ensured the group got some spectacular wildlife encounters both with polar bears, walrus and other wildlife. None of more usual larger ships offer this type of initmate experience but unfortunately all of Andy’s trips for this summer are fully booked, not suprising given that these are probably the best Arctic safari holidays you can find. Some of his initial stunning images can be seen at www.andyrouse.co.uk/blog.

The International Whaling Commission is meeting in Madeira this week and one of its priorities among the 85 member countries is to find ways to break through the deadlock of polarised views with regards to hunting of whales. Reports commissioned by various interest groups now show that whale watching has doubled in the past decade and as a consequence is of considerable worth to local economies worldwide whilst hunting can be a cost burden on those governments still allowing whaling. Of particular note is Iceland where the outgoing government set a quota of 150 fin whales, none of which would end up in Iceland but would be sold to the East. However whale watching holidays in Iceland continue to be worth more to the economy and the season there is being extended. In Reykjavik the season will to run throughout the year for the first time this year. Clearly whale watching holidays offer a more responsible and sustainable role in a countries economy as well as helping protect whales and oceanic ecosystems.

In a paper published today in Proceedings B of the Royal Society, Australian scientists have determined that dingoes are beneficial to ecosystems in which they are the top predator. Nothing unusual there perhaps, except that dingoes were an introduced species coming with settlers some 5000 years ago from Indonesia and usually alien species are detrimental to their environment. In some areas of Australia where fencing has removed dingoes, kangaroos have increased and destroyed much of the arid grasslands thereby reducing numbers of smaller mammals and other wildlife dependent on that ecosystem. The red fox was also seen to increase in numbers. However, in those areas of the outback beyond the dingo fences the wild dog retained its role as the top predator and more importantly retained a more diverse cascade of wildlife in the pyramid beneath it and the grasslands remained more intact. Therefore a role for dingoes in the conservation of outback wildlife and increased farming productivity is suggested.