sperm whale © Brian J. Skerry / National Geographic Stock / WWF

During a week spent in Baja California on the Where the Desert Meets the Sea cruise, I swam, snorkeled, hiked and kayaked. I soaked up the sun, practiced my Spanish with locals and saw incredible marine and wildlife including whales, dolphins and even a black jackrabbit. 

Here are some of the things I learned during my adventure: 

1) To differentiate between sea lions and seals look at the ears. While both are pinnipeds (fin-footed mammals), sea lions have ear flaps, seals don’t. Another difference is that sea lions have large front flippers and can pivot their hind ones, so they can walk on land. 

2) To get the best photograph of a sunset, zoom in.
I was on the deck one evening, trying to capture the stunning sunset with my modest digital camera. Naturalist and photographer Carlos Navarro came up to me and suggested zooming in as much as I could. Wouldn’t you know it, the photo is one of my best from the trip. 

–Marsea Nelson

© Ernst Schneider

Starting to plan your summer travels? Let the February edition of the WWF Travel enewsletter be your guide to several excellent group tour ideas, including several options for seeing Alaska. 

Missed a past issue or two? Read them at our enewsletter archive. Or sign up to have Travel and other WWF e-newsletters delivered directly to your inbox.

Edwards could speak for hours about all of the wildlife she’s spotted over the years, but we asked her to merely tell us about the best five encounters from last summer on the Kenai Peninsula. In no particular order:

courtesy Alaska Travel Industry Association

In the path of a moose: “Behind the Kenai Riverside Lodge, we have an area we fondly call ‘The Back 40.’ Even though it’s only about two acres, the area contains a nature trail that winds around ancient cottonwoods and heads to a bend in the river – a great spot to see resident nesting eagles. Every spring, there is a mama moose who likes to use the lodge a buffer from bears, and she drops her twin calves in the forest right alongside the trail. Wanting to afford her as much space as possible, we rope off the trail while she raises her young.  However, she sometimes ignores the rope.

“Walking to dinner once, I rounded a corner and nearly knocked a newly born calf right off its spindly little legs. We stood staring at each other, while he mewed softly for his mother. I quickly hurried to cover, lest the mother moose come answering his calls.”

courtesy Alaska Travel Industry Association

An eagle’s eagle eye: “We were rafting the beautiful Kenai River, enjoying a quiet, peaceful stretch around mile six or so. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, an eagle swooped down right in front of the boat, and with outreached talons he stretched into the water, attempting to hunt something. Unfortunately, he missed and quickly retreated. Once so, an ermine [a short-tailed weasel] emerged and continued swimming across the river, having narrowly escaped becoming prey.”

© Brooke Edwards

A killer time: “On one motorboat ride out to the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge, Dall porpoises played in the surf at the bow of the boat, racing the boat and teasing us with their quick, agile bodies. But no sooner than the porpoises had peeled away from their surf session, a pod of transient orcas came to take their place.

“We stopped the boat and cut the engine, letting the sound of the enormous bodies rolling under our boat amaze us. You could tell the males from the females from their six-foot-high dorsal fins. We snapped photos of their particular markings and compared them with a scientific website later to learn their names and relations to one other. In the pod we saw that day, we were able to identify five generations of killer whales.”

courtesy Alaska Travel Industry Association

Patience is a virtue: “After 2 ½ easy miles of trekking along the Russian River Falls trail, hikers are always rewarded with a view of the magnificent falls thundering out of the forest and over the rocks.  During the right season, you can see four-foot-long King Salmon leaping up the falls over and over again.

“During one such magnificent fish flurry, a young grizzly emerged from the woods and sat in the river on his haunches, periodically dipping his head underwater to scout for salmon that seemed to be tiring from their efforts.  We watched him until he was successful, in his awkward teenage way, pulling up a huge sockeye salmon with his claws and tearing at the flesh like it was a Fruit Roll Up.”

courtesy Alaska Travel Industry Association

Mammals on your tail: “Our glacier lodge’s unique locale affords us a special treat – being able to follow the tide to pull your kayak right into the upper lagoon. Icebergs rest on the shallow bottom and create an eerie setting to paddle through, with the glacial music of ice cracking, breaking, melting and moving.  On the way to the lagoon, it’s not uncommon to have seals, with their big curious eyes, track your progress. Sometimes they give away their positions when you hear a quiet sneeze coming from the back of your kayak. 

“After one such adventure, we returned to the lodge, hungry and tired from our outing. We pulled our kayaks safely on shore, shed our wet layers and retired to the lodge for steaming cups of tea to warm our bones.

“While we sat by the fire enjoying the cozy retreat, we looked up just in time to see a black bear trundling down the beach amid the colorful kayaks that we had just exited minutes before. What a perfect bear sighting – to be behind glass, warm and cozy, watching from the safety of the lodge.”

Have your own wild encounter on an active adventure on the Kenai Peninsula with WWF

The Greal Wall of China © Michel Gunther / WWF-Canon

We recently took a look at the top UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves that we’ll visit on tours in 2010. But what about UNESCO’s more famous designation, the honor of World Heritage Site?

Unlike a World Biosphere Reserve, which is a protected areas demonstrating a balanced relationship between man and nature, a World Heritage Site is a place of great cultural or physical significance. It could be as small as a monument or an archeological complex or as grand as a mountain or an entire city. UNESCO has designated 890 of them in 148 countries around the world.

WWF tours include quite a few World Heritage Sites. These are among the top 10:

Surtsey, Iceland: This volcanic island was formed from 1963 to 1967 off Iceland’s southern coast. It’s been protected from the start, providing scientists with the opportunity to study a pristine place as the plant and animal life from its infancy.
Cruise to Surtsey during our Viking Saga cruise

The Great Wall, China: The Great Wall was built more than 2,000 years ago by the first emperor of China during the Qin Dynasty to protect the Chinese Empire from invaders. At more than 5,000 miles long, it is one of the largest construction projects ever completed and is visible from outer space.
Visit the Wall during our China for Families tour

Volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia: This volcanic region not only has a high density of active volcanoes, but also possesses a variety of types and a wide range of related features. The world’s largest known variety of salmonoid fish as well as sea otters, brown bears and Stellar’s sea eagles make this beautiful area their home.
Journey to Kamchatka during our Northern Ring of Fire cruise

Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California, Mexico: Nearly all major oceanographic processes that happen in the planet’s oceans are present in the gulf, according to UNESCO, providing “extraordinary importance” for observing marine and coastal processes. WWF and its partners concur, working together to study and protect the region’s biodiversity.
Voyage on our cruise, Baja California: Where the Desert Meets the Sea

Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: Kathmandu Valley is the political, commercial and cultural center of Nepal. Seven groups of monuments and buildings represent the strong artistic heritage of this region. Three cities lie within the valley: Lalitpur, Bhaktapur and the capital Kathmandu.
Visit Kathmandu Valley during our Nepal Trek

Komodo National Park, New Guinea: Approximately 5,700 giant monitor lizards live on a batch of volcanic islands including some in New Guinea. They grow to 10 feet and weigh up to 300 pounds.
Walk through Komodo National Park on our Papua New Guinea to Bali tour

Kilimanjaro National Park, Tanzania: Rising majestically above the African plains, the 20,000-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa. This inactive volcano provides stunning views of the surrounding plains, which host numerous mammals.
Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with WWF

Gunung Mulu National Park, Borneo: Located in the state of Sarawak, Gunung Mulu is the most studied tropical karst area in the world, according to UNESCO. The park houses the largest known cave chamber in the world as well as an astounding diversity of plant and animal species.
Explore Gunung Mulu on our Wild Borneo trip

Taj Mahal, India: An immense monument made of white marble, the Taj Mahal was built in Agra as a tribute to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s favorite wife. Beginning in 1631, it took 22 years and 20,000 workers to complete.
 See the Taj Mahal during our Wild India expedition

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: Six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador and surrounded by open ocean, this volcanic archipelago straddles the equator. Due to its isolation, unusual wildlife developed on the islands and inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution following his 1835 visit.
Visit the Galápagos Islands with WWF’s travel partner

Learn which UNESCO Biosphere Reserves WWF visits in 2010 

The Yangtze River © Michel Gunther / WWF-Canon

An astonishing amount of economic development and a growing population have turned China into a region struggling to manage the resulting environmental challenges. WWF was the first environmental group invited by the government to work in China 30 years ago. From restoring the Yangtze River wetlands to environmental education and panda conservation, WWF seeks to pair up the country’s economic expansion with a sustainable approach to conservation.

Among WWF’s current projects in China:

Saving the giant panda
The giant panda is universally loved—and has a special significance for WWF as it has been the organization’s symbol since it was formed in 1961. WWF has been active in giant panda conservation since 1980, when it supported scientists’ field studies in the Wolong Nature Reserve. Today, WWF is working closely with the Chinese government on the first national panda survey in more than a decade. In an analysis that could shape regional conservation efforts well into the next century, WWF scientists are using satellite imagery to assess remaining habitat in the Qinling Mountains and also will review threats to pandas from the encroachment of human populations and the construction of logging roads.

Guaranteeing a future for forests with certification
WWF helped introduce the concept of timber certification into China. It cosponsored (with the State Forest Administration) China’s first conference on certification. A National Working Group on Forest Certification in China was established in May 2001. China now has four certified forests and more than 90 wood processing companies that have been certified for chain-of-custody under the FSC scheme.

Improving management of water resources
Dams and dikes alter the natural flow of a river. They block migratory patterns of fish species and sever the ecological relationship between the river and its floodplains. WWF works to restore the waterways that connect lakes to the Yangtze and is advising locals on a sustainable hydroelectric power plan that strikes a balance between the needs for energy production and environmental integrity. WWF has reconnected 11 lakes to the river.

Providing environmental education
For the past 10 years, WWF has initiated and developed practical methodology and guidance for schools and universities in the country. Currently WWF is supplying schools with educational resources to help raise awareness on the importance of forests and providing opportunities for students to work in their communities to promote sustainable “forest products” consumption.

Join WWF’s China for Families tour, scheduled June 26 – July 6, 2010.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like 10 interesting facts about giant pandas.

On the plains of Kenya, you never know who's outside your tent providing an early-morning wake-up call ...

Stacy Fiorentinos has been on dozens of wildlife safaris, but she remembers the first night she slept on the plains of Africa as if it happened last night, not 22 years ago.

Stacy was on her first outing in the Maasai Mara Reserve in southwestern Kenya. She spent the day rumbling across the dusty savannah in a four-wheel drive vehicle following a dizzying number of zebras and wildebeest. She had dinner at her camp and retired early to her private, canvas-walled tent, thinking sleep would come easily because of jetlag.

Not a chance.

Despite the cozy amber glow of a bedside lamp and the comfortable, full-size bed draped in the softest of blankets, Stacy said she couldn’t sleep. The sounds of the savannah kept her, like many first-timers on safari, wide-eyed, exhilarated and, admittedly, “a little bit petrified.”

Through the echoing chorus of frogs singing in the surrounding bush in the middle of the night, she heard heavy footsteps immediately outside her tent. She lay in bed, fully dressed, stiff as a board, clutching a flashlight.

“OK, this is it. This is it. This is a lion. I’m sure of it,” Stacy recalls now, with a laugh. “It dawned on me that I’m in the middle of the bush, and only a piece of cloth is protecting me from this lion.”

Actually, it turned out that “that piece of cloth” was protecting her from a few harmless waterbucks. They were taking a late-night stroll through camp, her guide told her as they investigated their footprints in the dust the next morning.

It's common to hear footsteps just footsteps from your bed.

Having gone on more than 30 safaris throughout Africa over the years, Stacy—who today plans safaris, including some of WWF’s tours, as president and founder of the tour operator Classic Escapes—says that very few travel experiences anywhere in the world can top a first night’s sleep on the African plains, no matter how much—or how little—sleep you get.

“I’m used to hearing night noise, but nothing can prepare you for how mesmerizing it is to sleep out there,” she said. “If I don’t go at least once a year, I go through withdrawal.”

Travel with WWF to Kenya: June 3-14, 2010 or November 3-14, 2010.

Pink river dolphin © National Geographic Stock/Norbert Wu/Minden Pictures / WWF

WWF is praising the Peruvian government’s announcement last week that it will increase funding to Amazon conservation efforts and boost its protection of the vital rain forest.

The Peruvian National Park Service is planning to allocate nearly $300,000 to boost protection of an area larger than the nation of El Salvador. This region, called the Purus Conservation Complex, is one that WWF has actively promoted for more than six years.

“This represents a major success [for] the conservation of the Peruvian Amazon and will [help] build long-term conservation strategies for roughly 3 million hectares of the richest forests in the world,” said biologist Jorge Herrera, who is director of WWF´s Amazon Headwaters Initiative.

For years, activities such as illegal logging – mainly mahogany – and poaching had exerted pressure on the forests and their biodiversity, disturbing indigenous communities and impacting isolated populations. In order to put an end to this, in 2004 the government established the national park and communal reserve with the support of WWF-Peru and other conservation groups.

This complex spreads across some of the most pristine forests within the Amazon Conservation Landscape and shelters jaguars, pink dolphins, arapaimas and other endangered species. It also houses at least eight ethnic groups, including an unknown number of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation.

Travel to the Amazon with WWF November 12-21, 2010

Get there in person during WWF’s “Bridging the Equator: Micronesia to Polynesia” voyage September 6 – 21, 2010

Coming in for a landing

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An elegant fairy tern comes in for a landing in Kiribati, which is also home to collared lories, Fiji goshawks and blue-crested flycatchers. © Jack S. Grove

© Fritz Pölking / WWF

10. The first panda came to the United States in 1936 – a cub to a zoo in Chicago. It took another 50 years before the States would see another.

9. A newborn panda cub is 1/900th the size of its mother and is comparable to the length of a stick of butter.

Weighing a 2 month-old baby © Susan A. Mainka / WWF-Canon

8. A panda’s paw has six digits – five fingers and an opposable pseudo-thumb (actually an enlarged wrist bone) it uses merely to hold bamboo while eating.

7. Of all the members of the bear family, only sloth bears have longer tails than pandas.

6. Pandas rely on spatial memory, not visual memory.

5. Female pandas ovulate once a year and are fertile for only two or three days.

4. The giant panda’s genome was sequenced in 2009, according to the journal Nature.

3. The WWF logo was inspired by Chi-Chi, a giant panda brought to the London Zoo in 1961, when WWF was being created. Says Sir Peter Scott, one of those founders and the man who sketched the first logo: “We wanted an animal that is beautiful, is endangered and one loved by many people in the world for its appealing qualities. We also wanted an animal that had an impact in black and white to save money on printing costs.”

First official poster of WWF from 1961 © WWF Intl. / WWF-Canon

2. Historically speaking, pandas are one of the few animals whose parts have not been used in traditional Chinese medicine.

1. Approximately 99 percent of a panda’s diet – bamboo leaves and shoots – is void of much nutritional value. Its carnivore-adapted digestive system cannot digest cellulose well, thus it lives a low-energy, sedentary lifestyle but persists in eating some 60 species of bamboo. Pandas must eat upwards of 30 pounds of bamboo daily just to stay full.

See giant pandas in their native country during our China for Families tour, June 26 – July 6, 2010.

The stealthy leopard, resting by day, hunting at night © Gerry Ellis/GLOBIO.org

Moving through the bush in complete darkness, a leopard’s hunting success depends on utter silence – something that John Chibwantu learned first-hand one cool August night after dinner. 

Chibwantu is one of the top safari leaders in Zambia’s Kafue National Park. Having led tours there for more than a quarter-century, he shared an excerpt from his journal describing the first time he ever saw a leopard make a kill: 

We embarked on a nighttime drive near the Lupfunga Tented Camp in Zambia’s Kafue National Park, quickly coming upon a set of fresh tracks. After following them for 10 minutes or so, a spotlight illuminated a moving object: an adult male, fully grown but quite a small specimen, lying on the side of a termite mound. 

The animal was relaxed in our presence – but like so many aspects of animal life on the bush, that was short lived. Nearby, an elephant bull was feeding, his intended pathway moving straight through where the leopard was lying. A shake of the ears and a loud trumpet was enough to scare the leopard away. I wasn’t intent on getting in the way of a fully grown adult elephant either! 

The route the cat had taken was impassable for our vehicle, so the only choice was to carry on up the road until a suitable spot was found. In the spotlight, I saw some eyes reflecting back at me, so I stopped and turned off the engine. 

The eyes were coming closer and closer. I soon identified the being as a rather skittish puku. “He would be a prime target for a leopard,” I told the travelers. “A leopard could feed for days on such an animal.” 

The skittish puku, an easy target © Graham Johansson/wildguides.co.za

With all eyes focused on the antelope, I was suddenly silenced mid-sentence by the small male leopard, which launched himself at the hind flank of the puku. Chaos erupted, and in a few seconds, once the dust that had been kicked up started to settle, we saw the leopard in the throes of suffocating its victim. 

For a leopard of his size, an adult female puku was a triumphant kill. He started feeding almost immediately and the guests, adrenaline still rife, were watching in silent amazement. After spending 25 years in the bush, I had finally seen my first leopard kill! 

With all watching the leopard feed, a sudden deep growl was heard out of the darkness. Another male leopard had arrived on the scene, and hearing the commotion he had come to investigate.  Realizing his adversary was smaller than him (and possibly encroaching on his territory), he lunged forward and succeeded in scaring the smaller male away. 

This is survival of the fittest at its peak; with the area drying out in the winter months, the prime territories for predators are along the river frontage and are held aggressively. For the smaller male, his search will continue. 

Join WWF’s Wild Zambia tour, scheduled August 9-20, 2010. 

If you enjoyed this article, you might also like Q-and-A: Zambia Walking Safari.