Literary agent Pamela Brodowsky people who travel to see animals will want have to dream about travel adventures. Destination Wildlife: An international site-by-site guide to the best places to experience endangered, rare and fascinating animals an their habitats gives you places and animals to aspire to see around the globe.
The book is exactly what you’d want to have on hand through a cold winter weekend when you’re dreaming about where you could travel next year. You’ll need some other books to get into the specifics of travel to all those destinations, but this is a nice way to browse your options. Written with the National Wildlife Federation, you can be pretty sure these are ways to see animals that aren’t going to hurt or exploit them.
Brodowsky is extremely diplomatic in describing the one place in the book I’d question: the wild horses of Assateague and Chincoteague. She describes the roundup of horses, some of which will be sold, adding “Depending on your personal preference, you might want to join or avoid the pony-swim crowd.” Fair enough, but I’d go further and say that many people who love wild horses would be disturbed by the round-up–especially since the horses are managed so differently on each side of the Maryland-Virginia border. The Maryland folks use the Humane Society’s birth control procedures (and allow dogs); the Virginian manage the herd to sell off horses every year to support their fire department (and ban dogs from the island, even inside cars). Which would you rather support?
I would have liked to see some glossy color pictures and maps, a fuller representation of wildlife everywhere and a greater willingness to consider places outside big national parks and sanctuaries. Animaltourism.com tries to give people practical wildlife options close to home. But we need all kinds of wildlife watchers and guides to promote sustainable, responsible wildlife watching. Brodowsky does uncover a few rare gems, like Monkeyland, a primate sanctuary in South Africa, and specific inns to stay at to see the friendly gray whales off Baja, California. I bet her book inspires lots of great adventures.
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