wildlife Archives

Seals on the journey to Staffa in Scotland.

The best places to see seals in Scotland: Your complete guide

Scotland has two resident seal species: the grey seal and the smaller harbour seal (also called the common seal). Combined, they account for roughly 40 per cent of the world's grey seal population and around 30 per cent of Europe's harbour seals. In short, Scotland…

The best places to see whales in Western Australia

Western Australia sits astride one of the great whale migration routes on earth. The Humpback Highway — as the west coast migration corridor is known locally — carries more than 35,000 humpback whales past the state's coastline each year, travelling north from their Antarctic feeding…

Dolphins are found along much of the South Carolina coast.

The best places to see dolphins in South Carolina: Your complete guide

South Carolina's coastline is one of the finest stretches of bottlenose dolphin habitat on the US Atlantic seaboard. The state's network of tidal creeks, salt marshes and sheltered sounds creates ideal conditions for the resident pods that live here year-round. Add the Intracoastal Waterway threading…

The best places to see alligators in Florida

Florida has more American alligators than any other state — an estimated 1.3 million of them, living in virtually every freshwater habitat in the peninsula. They occupy lakes, rivers, marshes, roadside ditches and, occasionally, suburban golf courses. Seeing an alligator in Florida is not difficult.…

Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco.

The best places to see sea lions in California: Your complete guide

The California sea lion is one of the most abundant and adaptable marine mammals on the Pacific coast. Intelligent, vocal and apparently unbothered by human attention, it has colonised harbour walls, marina pontoons and rocky outcrops from the Mexican border to the Oregon state line.…

Dolphins swimming in Port Stephens, New South Wales.

The best places to see dolphins in New South Wales, Australia

New South Wales has an extraordinary coastline — 2,000 kilometres of it. From the subtropical waters off Byron Bay to the cold-water estuaries of the far south coast, bottlenose dolphins are resident along virtually the entire stretch. Several bays and headlands also see common dolphins,…

A 4WD vehicle at Rainbow Beach on the Fraser Coast of Queensland, Australia.

Are there any crocodiles in Rainbow Beach, Queensland?

Rainbow Beach is not in Queensland’s Croc Country, so the chances of encountering a crocodile in Rainbow Beach are tiny, if not totally impossible. Why people stay in Rainbow Beach Rainbow Beach in Queensland, home of the Carlo Sand Blow, is one of the most…

A platypus in Broken River inside Eungella National Park, Queensland.

The best places to see platypuses in Queensland, Australia

The platypus is one of the most improbable animals on earth — venomous, egg-laying, duck-billed and beaver-tailed. It also happens to be genuinely difficult to find. Platypuses are shy, solitary, largely crepuscular and spend most of their time in burrows or underwater. Even in good…

The best places to see manatees in Georgia, USA

Georgia is not Florida. It does not have warm springs, dedicated manatee refuges or swim-with programmes. What it does have is a remarkably productive stretch of Atlantic coastline — the Golden Isles, the Lowcountry, the ACE Basin — where West Indian manatees spend the warmer…

Puffins can be seen all around the Icelandic coast.

The best places to see puffins in Iceland: Complete guide for bird-watchers in Reykjavik and beyond

The Atlantic puffin is, by any reasonable measure, an absurd bird. It has the colouring of a clown, the flight style of a panicking bumble bee and the waddling gait of something that has recently misplaced its dignity. It is also one of the most…