The world is full of extraordinary destinations that will quite literally bring you face-to-face with the world’s most amazing wildlife. But which ones should you add to your bucket list?
Scroll on to see how our team of well-travelled experts have (subjectively) ranked the best wildlife destinations on the planet...
The Bavarian Forest National Park is an area of ancient mountain woodlands on the border between Germany and Czechia. Established in 1970, it was the first national park in Germany and, together with the Sumava National Park across the border, forms the largest protected contiguous forest in Central Europe.
Criss-crossed with hiking trails, and home to one of Europe’s largest canopy walks, the park also provides a much-needed habitat for lynxes, wolves, brown bears and red deer. You’ll also find a herd of European bison (pictured) introduced to the park as part of a European-wide initiative to save this once-flourishing species.
Soaring above the Patagonian Steppe, this breathtaking national park in southern Chile is one of the most diverse in the world. As well as the towering stone peaks that give the park its name, you’ll find azure lakes, emerald forests, raging rivers and ice blue glaciers.
The wildlife here is equally diverse. Within the 699-square-mile (1,810sq km) park, you’ll find more than 25 species of mammals, including pumas, grey foxes, skunks, huemul (a kind of deer) and, of course, the ubiquitous guanaco (pictured), usually silhouetted against one of the park's jagged peaks.
China’s iconic giant pandas are something of a conservation success story. Together with the Chinese government, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) created a network of remote nature reserves deep in the Minshan Mountains of Sichuan province that protected habitat and supported breeding programmes. It all helped to bring these extraordinary creatures back from the brink of extinction.
Today, these reserves offer the best chance to see a giant panda in its natural environment, inevitably chomping on bamboo, as well as rare moon bears, golden snub-nosed monkeys and golden pheasants.
Stretching for 270 miles (430km) along its southern border with Spain, the French Pyrenees is the wildest part of the country. Here, among its serrated chain of peaks, you’ll find rare and endangered wildlife including griffon vultures, brown bears and izards (pictured), a type of mountain goat also known as Pyrenean chamois.
For the best wildlife encounters, head to the valleys, tarns and mountain pastures of the Pyrenees National Park, a 176-square-mile (457sq km) preserve that has offered sanctuary for these endangered creatures since 1967.
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South Luangwa is the jewel of Zambia’s national parks, centred around the verdant banks of the Luangwa River where all kinds of wildlife congregate. Here, beside oxbow lagoons and under evergreen mahogany and ebony trees, you’ll find elephants, buffalo, hippos, lions, crocodiles, African wild dogs (pictured) and the largest naturally occurring population of leopards in the world.
The park is also the birthplace of walking safaris, where visitors abandon vehicles and search for wildlife on foot instead, particularly the Thornicroft's giraffe, which can only be found in this national park.
Sitting deep in Colombia’s southern Amazonian basin, the vast 293,500-hectare Amacayacu National Park is a birdwatching paradise. It is home to 468 recorded species of birds, including the rare black Amazonian umbrellabird (pictured) and the equally elusive hoatzin.
During the rainy season, much of the park is flooded. Even in the dry season, it can only be reached by boat from the Amazonian settlement of Leticia. Unsurprisingly, the park is also home to 150 species of aquatic mammals, including the Amazonian manatee and the river dolphin.
Known as the ‘Amazon of the North’, the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada’s British Columbia is a permanently sodden 21-million-acre wilderness dotted with waterfalls, moss-covered rocks and ancient cedar trees. Here you’ll find coastal grey wolves, grizzly bears, Sitka deer, cougars, mountain goats, orca, salmon, sea lions, sea otters and humpback whales.
There's also spirit bears (pictured). These mysterious pale-coloured bears, officially known as Kermode bears, are considered sacred by the local T'simshian people. They regard spotting one as a good omen, although all it takes is patience and a knowledgeable guide.
Yellowstone’s abundant and varied wildlife is as big a draw for the park as its world-famous geysers. Visitors travel from all over the US and the world to witness wildlife superstars like bears, wolves, elks and bison living their best lives in the park’s widescreen habitats.
While you’ll find wildlife scattered all across the park, the hydrothermal basins (pictured) are a popular gathering point, particularly in winter. Bison take advantage of the warm ground and thin snow cover. Black and grizzly bears come for the moveable feast across all seasons.
The mating dance of Japan’s red-crowned cranes is one of the most ethereally beautiful wildlife spectacles on the planet. Male and female cranes bow to each other, throw their heads back and raise their wings in a balletic vow, confirming their lifelong commitment to each other.
You can see the cranes dance every February and March in open fields across the island of Hokkaido. One of the best places to witness the ritual is the Tsurui Crane Sanctuary, close to Kushiro city.
The undoubted superstar of this national park tucked away in the southeast corner of Sri Lanka is the Panthera pardus kotiya, a majestic leopard endemic to the country. Indeed, the park claims to have the biggest concentration in the world of leopards of any kind, with at least one leopard found every 0.4 square mile (1sq km).
If you can drag your zoom lens away from the trees where the leopards rest with languid ease, the park’s other residents include elephants, sloth bears, crocodiles and over 215 species of birds.
The Pantanal covers more than 42 million acres in southern Brazil and is the largest tropical wetland in the world. Unlike the Amazon to the north, it is relatively easy to spot wildlife here. The vast open spaces you'll find offer the best opportunity to see animals living happily in their natural habitat.
Encountering a jaguar is one of the area's main highlights. You’ll come across them on the Cuiabá River, along with otters, capybaras, tapirs and the ever-present caimans. Another favourite in these parts is the giant anteater (pictured), although they are more likely to be seen at the Pantanal’s southern edges, near Bonito.
Ulva, a tiny island just off Stewart Island in the far south of New Zealand, is a snapshot of what this corner of the Pacific looked like before the arrival of Europeans and the pests, like rats, that they brought with them. A huge conservation effort has seen the island predator-free since 1997 and the native bird life is flourishing.
The island has a series of walking paths where visitors can spot endangered birds like the South Island saddleback, yellowhead, rifleman and Stewart Island robin. It is also one of the best places to spot New Zealand’s national bird, the kiwi (pictured).
Here’s one for your wildlife bucket list: heritage-listed Ningaloo Reef on the northwest coast of Western Australia. It’s the longest fringing reef in Australia and one of the few places in the world where you can swim with whale sharks.
These gentle giants grow up to 60 feet (18m) long and gather here in large numbers from March until the end of July. Floating beside these behemoths, along with manta rays and turtles, is a truly humbling experience and one of the most unforgettable wildlife encounters on the planet.
This heavily wooded, mountainous national park in Spain’s Andalusia region is now home to the world’s largest population of endangered Iberian lynxes. These sphinx-like creatures once roamed across southern France, Portugal and Spain but are now largely confined to the craggy outcrops here.
The best spots to catch a glimpse of these stunning felines is along the road to La Lancha (watch for the road signs warning of their presence) and the Encinarejo Trail. Keep an eye out for the magnificent eagles, buzzards and vultures that call the park home too.
See how we've ranked some of Spain's best bucket-list attractions
This extraordinary reserve in eastern Rajasthan is the best place to spot Bengal tigers in the wild. A census of the tiger population in 2022 estimated the population at 88, with the park assuring visitors that they have a 70% chance of spotting one.
The area was once the favoured hunting grounds of the Maharajas of Jaipur and the park is littered with the ruins of lodges and outhouses. You’ll often spot the tigers lounging here, sunning themselves or looking out the windows, showing the reminders of their former tormentors the disdain they deserve.
Laguna San Ignacio on California’s Baja peninsula has been described as the only place in the world where whales come to watch people. Every year, from January to mid-April, thousands of grey whales gather here to mate and give birth (and seek out a little human companionship).
Although the whales voluntarily seek out humans, there are strict rules about interacting with them. Whale watching is only permitted in a specific zone, with only 16 boats allowed in the zone at any given time. Boats are not permitted to pursue the whales and must turn off their motors when they approach.
The Okavango is the largest inland delta in the world, a lush swampy waterway that covers 6,500 square miles (16,800sq km) of northern Botswana. When the rains come, so do the animals, making it one of the best places to spot Africa’s Big Five – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant and buffalo – on the continent.
For a truly unique wildlife experience, take to the serpentine waterways here on a mokoro safari (pictured). Expertly paddled by your experienced guide, these traditional canoes offer an intimate perspective on Africa’s iconic wildlife, grazing only a few feet away and towering above you.
Komodo National Park in Eastern Indonesia is home to the world’s biggest lizards, the fearsome Komodo dragon. Measuring up to 10 feet (3m) long and weighing up to 70kg (155lb), they prowl the beaches and dry interiors here searching for buffalo or deer to feast upon.
The dragons live on islands across the national park, but visitors are only allowed on the main islands of Komodo and Rinca. The park also offers some of the best diving in these parts. Its waters are teeming with 1,000 species of tropical fish, 260 species of coral and rare marine mammals like dugongs.
Every autumn, in a heavily wooded reserve 62 miles (100km) northwest of Mexico City, one of the world’s greatest wildlife spectacles unfolds. It’s on a scale that rivals the Serengeti’s great migration, but instead of wildebeest this mass movement involves butterflies. Billions of them.
Nobody knows why Monarch butterflies winter here before beginning a round trip to Eastern Canada in the spring. But they do, and in such numbers that the branches of the trees here literally bend under their collective weight.
Namibia’s Etosha National Park is set on a salt pan so big it can be spotted from space. Perversely, this hostile environment makes it one of the best places to spot wildlife in Africa, with an incredibly diverse range of animals gathering at its waterholes at all times of day and night.
One of those beasts is the critically endangered black rhino. Despite the ongoing threat from poachers, their numbers are on the rise here. Indeed, the recent BBC documentary Africa discovered that they like to hold ‘secret parties’ around waterholes late at night, particularly the one near Okaukuejo Camp.
The Everglades in Florida loom large in the American psyche – a wild, untamed place dripping with menace and danger. It is also one of the most important wildlife habitats in the country, providing a haven for some of America’s rarest and most endangered species like the manatee, American crocodile (pictured) and the elusive Florida panther.
Much of the park can only be reached by fan-driven airboats, but your best chance to see the Everglades’ more elusive residents is to go on one of the quieter ranger-led tours.
Perched high in the Ethiopian plateau, the Simien Mountains National Park is a spectacular land of jagged mountain peaks, deep valleys and sharp precipices, formed over the millennia by geological tempests and erosion. Isolated and difficult to reach, it has provided sanctuary for some of the world’s rarest creatures including the Walia ibex and Simien fox.
It is also the domain of the terrifying Gelada baboon, also known as the bleeding-heart baboon because of the distinctive marking on their chests. They prowl the mountain meadows and clifftops here, the only primate other than humans to live on the ground.
Chitwan National Park, deep in Nepal’s southern subtropical Terai, is an area unlike anywhere else in the country. Here the dry barren highlands give way to a region of dense forests, wetlands and grassy plains, the perfect habitat for one-horned rhinos, Bengal tiger and unique bird species like the giant hornbill.
First established in 1973, the park is at once home to the world’s largest terrestrial mammal, the elephant, and its smallest, the pygmy shrew. But the undoubted highlight is its population of one-horned rhinos, looking for all the world like they are covered in armour plating.
Located in the vast, remote southwest corner of Alaska, Katmai National Park is home to North America’s largest protected population of brown bears. Brooks River Falls is where they like to fish.
At the height of the annual salmon run between late June and July, you’ll spot up to 50 bears here trying to catch a sockeye whopper with their mouths. The most successful bears have been known to catch up to 30 salmon a day. Keep an eye out for bald eagles, gulls and the odd wolf or two trying to muscle in on the action.
Covering an area of 7,523 square miles (19,485sq km) of Lowveld, Kruger National Park is the largest in South Africa and bigger in size than Israel. First established in 1898, it has long provided a haven for Africa’s iconic elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, rhinoceroses and more.
With nearly 5,000 miles (8,046km) of paved and gravel roads, it is also one of Africa’s most accessible national parks. Visitors are free to drive themselves around and stay overnight in one of the many public rest camps or exclusive private lodges that have been granted concessions within the park.
Churchill on Hudson Bay in Canada is known as the ‘Polar Bear Capital of the World’. Up to 600 bears live in and around this remote Manitoban town, which even has a polar bear prison with 28 cells to keep bears who wander into town and cause too much mayhem.
There is no shortage of tour companies in town, happy to take you into the tundra for a (relatively) close encounter with these extraordinary creatures. Most of them use converted tundra trucks. Polar bears like the ones pictured here may look cute, but get between a mother and her cubs, and you’ll be glad of the added protection.
The extraordinary ecosystems of Costa Rica’s Corcovado National Park are best described as exuberant. Not just because of their diversity, although you’ll find everything from mangrove swamps and wet forest to low-altitude cloud forest, but because of the staggering amount of wildlife that calls it home.
At last count, the park’s residents included 6,000 different types of insects on top of 367 species of birds, 140 mammals, 117 amphibians and reptiles and 40 freshwater fish. You’ll find some of the shyest and most endangered species here, too, like Baird’s tapirs, jaguars, scarlet macaws and sloths, both two-toed and three-toed.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef tops many a wildlife lover’s bucket list and for good reason. Stretching over 1,430 miles (2,300km) down the country’s eastern coastline, it is home to the world’s largest collection of coral reefs, with 400 types of coral, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 types of mollusc.
For visitors it represents the chance to dive into the kaleidoscopic world of Finding Nemo writ large, snorkelling among stunning coral formations, giant clams, schools of neon fish and anemones (pictured), symbiotically protecting cute clown fish.
Just three hours east of the Madagascan capital, Antananarivo, this relatively untouched swathe of primary rainforest is the undisputed lemur capital of the world. Take one of the ranger-guided walks and you are guaranteed to see these playful primates gambolling in the tree branches above you.
The smaller Analamazaotra section of the reserve is home to the indri, the largest species of lemur, as well as brown and lesser bamboo lemur as well. To see a black-and-white ruffed lemur (pictured), made famous by the animated movie, Madagascar, head to the forests in the Mantadia section of the park.
On an island famous for its wildlife, the Danum Valley Conservative Area in Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, offers it all. Here, among the tallest tropical trees in the world, you’ll find pygmy elephants, clouded leopards, Malay sun bears and orangutans (pictured), especially when the durian trees are in fruit.
Just two hours from Lahad Datu, this 130-million-year-old ancient rainforest has been a heavily protected conservation area since 1968, protecting it from human settlement and logging activity, ensuring it continues to be one of the world’s premier wildlife havens.
Antarctica is arguably the last pristine place on Earth, a remote frozen landmass where the average summer temperature barely gets above -28°C (-18°F). It’s also one of the planet's most exciting wildlife destinations.
Here, as your rigid inflatable boat weaves its way through towering icebergs, you’ll spot orcas and leopard seals before landing on shore to be greeted by vast colonies of emperor penguins (pictured). An expedition cruise to the icy waters here is a once-in-a-lifetime wildlife experience.
This remote volcanic archipelago sits isolated in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 600 miles (966km) off the coast of Ecuador. The islands shelter an incredible diversity of plant and animal species, many not found anywhere else. It's the place that inspired Charles Darwin to develop his theory of evolution when he dropped by in 1835.
That isolation has left the wildlife of the islands seemingly unafraid of humans. Stubborn marine iguanas refuse to budge from rocky paths. Seal pups swim and play with snorkellers in the waters offshore. And it’s hard to discern any movement in the Galápagos’ famous giant tortoises at all.
Described as Australia’s Galápagos, this island anchored off the south of South Australia is home to a veritable arc of flora and fauna. You’ll find kangaroos, of course, sometimes lounging on the island’s dazzling beaches. But there’s also sea lions, countless birds and the world’s last colony of Ligurian bees.
Kangaroo Island is also home to a thriving colony of koalas (pictured), introduced from the mainland in the 1920s and thankfully free of diseases like chlamydia that have ravaged populations back there. The devastating bushfires of 2019-20 took a terrible toll, but the koalas – and the island itself – are on the road to recovery.
Visiting one of the 12 mountain gorilla families that live in the dense rainforests on the Rwanda side of the Virunga mountains is a wildlife experience that will live with you for the rest of your life. You’ll sit within feet of the world’s largest living primate, one that shares 98% of our DNA, and marvel at their calmness and eerily familiar ways of socialising.
Contact with the gorillas is strictly limited to one hour and only 96 visitor permits are issued each day. The park is also home to golden monkeys, elephants, bushbucks and 178 species of birds (including 29 that can only be found in the Rwenzori mountains and the Virungas).
This vast park bordering Kenya in Northern Tanzania tops our list for one very good reason: the Great Migration. Each year, more than two million wildebeest, zebras and other herbivores move north from the south of the Serengeti towards Kenya, risking life and limb to cross the Mara River in search of food.
It’s the largest mammal migration on Earth, a dusty 500-mile (800km) trek fraught with peril at every turn. Lions hide in the grass, ready to pounce, and – with close to 3,000 crocodiles lying in wait – crossing the Mara River is literally a leap of faith.