WildBlog - Stories of Wildlife Conservation Travel

Looking to give something back during your next vacation? If you’re an animal lover, consider a volunteer vacation that focuses on the wildlife of your chosen destination. 

Last year, the Marine Megafauna Foundation won the SEEtheWILD contest worth $3,000. With 1,236 votes for MMF on Facebook, we were overwhelmed by the amazing support for our conservation efforts in Mozambique.  But what were these funds exactly used for?

The grant went towards my PhD project, entitled ‘Habitat use and movement patterns of the reef manta ray, Manta alfredi”, aims to gather information on movements and habitat use of manta rays along this very productive coastline. However, the reef manta ray population here has been very hard hit. With an 88% decline in manta ray sightings over an eight-year study period, more information on these enigmatic fish is needed. By using intricate tagging technologies to find out where these mantas go, we hope to be able to better protect them.

Manta alfredi, the smaller of the two manta ray species grows to about 5 meters wide and appears to be resident to the southern Mozambican coastline.

"What region of the earth is not full of our calamities?"

Looking to give something back during your next vacation? If you’re an animal lover, consider a volunteer vacation that focuses on the wildlife of your chosen destination. From sea turtles in Baja Mexico to colobus monkeys in Kenya, there are ample opportunities worldwide to assist with wildlife research and advance conservation efforts.

I crawled out of bed at midnight and unzipped the flap which served as the door to our large tent overlooking the Atlantic. Black clouds were rolling across the stars above and the wind roared raggedly up the dune. Walking barefoot in my pajamas I wound down the dark sandy trail that tunneled through the forest.

Not every college student wants to spend his or her spring break or summer vacation partying or working a menial job or humiliating internship. Intrepid college students want to return to campus with more than a tan. They're always on the lookout for adventurous ways to spend their breaks while enriching their resumes and their lives. That's why some of the highest-achieving students from leading universities and colleges are taking advantage of their time off from school for volunteer travel. 

Destinations around the globe offer countless volunteer opportunities for college students who are looking for meaningful life experiences and the chance to make a positive impact on their world. For those interested in the environment, biology, or wildlife activism, a vacation spent working with a conservation organization can be both fulfilling and beneficial for a future career.

Volunteer conservation vacations give college students the opportunity to:

On August 2^nd, 2012, the first of five satellite tags was deployed on the carapace of a nesting green turtle at Guanahacabibes National Park and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, located on the westernmost tip of Cuba. Named Harriet, this turtle along with its four brethren, is being tracked from space for the first time. This research is revealing clues on the origin and life history of a significant population of green turtles (Chelonia mydas), whose migratory patterns, according to basic research already conducted, could range as far as Florida, Central America or even South America.

The Great White shark slides effortlessly up from the blue depths.  At first an intangible shape, one twist of the powerful tail transforms the distant fish into a formidable reality.  There are few experiences as exciting as diving with a shark in the wild. I have been diving and surfing around sharks most of my life yet actually seeing the shark is a rare experience. 

Sometimes the best way to tell the truth is to make it up and Barbara Kingsolver’s latest book Flight Behavior is a great example. Possibly the most important environmental book of 2012 is a fiction novel with an undereducated housewife as its unlikely heroine. In this engrossing book, Kingsolver creates a scenario that with monarch butterflies suddenly changing their behavior and picking the woods behind the woman’s home as a new wintering ground, to the bafflement of everyone including the butterfly experts.

The sea turtles need your help! Six of the seven species of sea turtles are endangered and facing possible extinction. This week we’re kicking off Billion Baby Turtles, a project aimed at reversing this alarming trend and saving sea turtles.