Where in the World
I travel so you don’t have to…!
Eye of the Rhino
Since I became a professional wildlife photographer in 2013, I’ve been on 35 trips to every continent in the world. It’s taken a long time and cost a lot of money, so if you want to see a particular species or behaviour, I thought you might appreciate a little help! Where can you see lions, polar bears or penguins? Where can you see brown bears catching salmon or cheetahs chasing gazelles across the savanna?
Well, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s take a look at what each continent has to offer…
Africa
Dustbuster
As most people know, Africa is the best place to see the Big Five: lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and buffaloes. You can also extend that to the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’—which are simply the Big Five plus cheetahs and African wild dogs. In fact, Africa is so rich in wildlife that you can find a huge range of iconic creatures, such as hyenas, jackals, hippos, zebras, giraffes and warthogs.
However, you won’t see them wherever you go. I’ve visited nine African countries for wildlife photography:
Botswana (Okavango Delta, Moremi and Chobe)
Kenya (Laikipia, Masai Mara, Ol Jogi, Olare Motorogi and Naboisho Conservancies)
Namibia (Gabus Game Ranch and Etosha)
Rwanda (Volcanoes National Park)
South Africa (Kruger and Greater Kruger)
Tanzania (Grumeti, Klein’s Camp, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Tarangire)
Uganda (passing through…)
Zambia (South Luangwa)
Zimbabwe (Hwange, Mana Pools)
On all my 21 trips to Africa, I’ve seen 148 different animals. Here are the top 10 and the number of places where I’ve seen them. (NB: I sometimes went to more than one country, so the totals can be more than the 21 individual ‘trips’.)
Plains zebra 29
African bush elephant 28
Common warthog 26
Hippopotamus 26
Cape buffalo 25
Lion 25
Spotted hyena 24
Black-backed jackal 22
Common waterbuck 21
Leopard 21
Those figures suggest you’re pretty much guaranteed to see some species, but even then, it depends on where you go. For example, let’s take a look at the countries where I’ve seen the Magnificent Seven:
Botswana (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Kenya (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Namibia (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Rwanda (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
South Africa (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Tanzania (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Uganda (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Zambia (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Zimbabwe (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
That changes the picture a bit, doesn’t it? For example, you’ll see that I’ve only seen all seven animals in four countries (Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe) and never seen leopards in Namibia, Rwanda or Uganda. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s impossible to see them in those countries—I only passed through Uganda, and I only went to Rwanda for the gorillas, so I didn’t see anything else! However, I’ve been on over 500 game drives in the other countries, so this list is a pretty good guide to what you’re likely to find.
Having said that, it’s always important to go to the right places in each country. That usually means particular national parks (owned by the Government), reserves (run by regional government) or private concessions and conservancies (usually owned by the local tribes and leased to safari camps and lodges).
Here’s the same list by park or reserve:
Chobe (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Etosha (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Greater Kruger (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Hwange (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Laikipia (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Mana Pools (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Masai Mara (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Okavango Delta & Moremi (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Serengeti (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
South Luangwa (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, cheetahs, African wild dogs)
Let’s look at all this another way. If you want to see a particular animal, where’s the best place to go? Here’s my advice on where to go for the Big Five, cheetahs and African wild dogs:
Lions: Masai Mara in Kenya or Serengeti in Tanzania
Leopards: Masai Mara in Kenya, Greater Kruger in South Africa or Serengeti in Tanzania
Elephants: Chobe in Botswana
Rhinos: Ol Jogi in Kenya (for black rhinos) or Etosha in Namibia (for black and white rhinos)
Buffaloes: Klein’s Camp in Tanzania
Cheetahs: Masai Mara in Kenya or Serengeti in Tanzania
African wild dogs: Greater Kruger in South Africa or South Luangwa in Zambia
Antarctica
Slippery When Wet
Antarctica is a fantastic place to see whales and seals, but you don’t get the variety of wildlife that you find in Africa. Overall, I’ve only seen 21 animal species down there, which is obviously far fewer than in Africa. However, I’ve only cruised the Southern Ocean twice, and the lack of different species is more than made up for by the quantity of marine life.
Strictly speaking, penguins are birds, so they don’t belong on my list of the top 10 animals, but that still leaves plenty of seals and whales:
Crabeater seal
Fin whale
Humpback whale
Peale's dolphin
Weddell seal
Antarctic fur seal
Antarctic minke whale
Blue whale
Commerson's dolphin
Common minke whale
There are three main locations in Antarctica: the Falklands, South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula. The best way to get there is by ship from Ushuaia and then by Zodiac inflatable boat for cruises and ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ landings. Some itineraries take in all three destinations, and some just go to the Peninsula. I was lucky enough to visit all three in 2016, and I went back to the Peninsula in 2021.
Each of the three places is good for different species, and your itinerary will be designed to take in the main ‘hot spots’, such as Prion Island and Salisbury Plain on South Georgia for Antarctic fur seals and Gold Harbour on South Georgia for southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals.
To see whales and other cetaceans like orcas, you just have to be lucky—and it’s not easy even then! If you’re in the lounge when they announce a sighting on the PA, you don’t have much time. It’s so cold on deck that it takes you 15 minutes to change into your outdoor gear and fetch your camera, and by the time you get back on deck, the whales have usually disappeared!
But it’s still worth it…
Asia
Stealth
Apart from a day trip to Can Gio in Vietnam, the only Asian country I’ve visited on photographic trips is India. I’ve gone on tiger safaris in Ranthambore, Bandhavgarh and Tadoba in 2013, 2017 and 2023. The first one was a disaster, but the last two were much better in terms of sightings. It’s always hard to take good pictures of tigers because of the thick undergrowth, but I did manage to get one of my photos on the cover of Remembering Tigers!
An Indian safari is unlike any African safari because it’s all about one animal: the tiger. If you see a sambar deer or an Indian roller on a game drive, your guide will drive straight past—because it’s not a tiger! That can be frustrating at times, but it doesn’t take anything away from the feeling you get when you see your first tiger.
It happened to me on a G Adventures trip called Tigers, Temples & Wildlife. I was on a game drive in Bandhavgarh when the guide in my vehicle suddenly shouted, “Tiger! Tiger!”
The driver jammed the pedal to the metal, and we slewed off down the dirt track towards the sighting. Unfortunately, there was a 90-degree bend in the road, so everyone had to hold on for dear life as we tore round the corner as fast as we could, our hearts beating wildly.
In another 300 yards, we reached a water hole where another couple of Gypsies had already parked up. A young tiger was drinking from the pond, and another one was lying in the grass nearby. Success!
If you’re not a tiger fan, I wouldn’t advise going on safari in India (for obvious reasons!), but I’ve seen a total of 20 animal species. Here are the top 10:
Bengal tiger
Sambar deer
Chital
Indian gaur
Northern plains gray langur
Rhesus macaque
Nile crocodile
Nile monitor
Golden jackal
Frog
If you have your heart set on a particular species, it doesn’t really matter which resort you choose as you’ll see tigers, deer, crocodiles and langurs almost everywhere. In my experience, the best places to see tigers are Bandhavgarh and Tadoba, where I’ve seen tigers every day. I didn’t see a single tiger in Ranthambore, but that’s another well-known destination, along with Nagarhole, Pench, Jim Corbett and Kanha.
Other possibilities are Ladakh or Mongolia to see snow leopards and Kabini for black panthers.
Europe
Black and Blue
I very rarely go to European countries to photograph wildlife, but I did enjoy going to Svalbard for my first sight of polar bears—even though none of my pictures was sharp enough! I also spent a couple of long weekends at a safari park in Cabárceno, Spain, and Lake Kerkini, Greece, to see the Dalmatian pelicans.
Overall, I’ve seen 30 animal species in Europe, but if you exclude the United Kingdom and a safari park in Spain, the only European destination I’ve visited is Svalbard (or Spitsbergen), which is a group of Norwegian islands in the Arctic Circle. Here are the animals I saw there:
Arctic fox
Atlantic walrus
Bearded seal
Blue whale
Common minke whale
Fin whale
Harp seal
Humpback whale
Polar bear
Ringed seal
Svalbard reindeer
White-beaked dolphin
The main attraction of Svalbard is the polar bear. Polar bears are like beautiful girls: they’re hard to find, and if you try to get too close, they turn their back and walk away! However, I did see 13 bears on my cruise around the islands.
The general routine on board ship is similar to an Antarctic cruise—except the distances are a lot shorter, so you have to put up with far fewer ‘days at sea’! If you’re not sailing to reach a particular location, you generally get a Zodiac cruise or landing in the morning and another one in the afternoon. The rest of the time, you have to read, listen to lectures or work on your photos. There’s not much else to do…!
As with Antarctic cruises, you don’t really need to choose where to go. There’s only one set of islands, and to find polar bears, you just need to follow the ice. That’s obviously up to your guide and the captain of the ship, so you can relax until there’s a sighting. What typically happens is that one of the staff will make a PA announcement that there’s a polar bear dead ahead a couple of miles away, and then all the guests will set up their cameras and tripods on the foredeck and wait for the action to start.
Sightings typically last from 15 minutes up to an hour, and I was lucky enough to see a mother with two cubs making a long trek across the pack ice. The young ones were very playful, so Mum had to bark at them in line!
North America
Bear Gills
I’ve spent a lot of time in the States over the years, but I’ve only been on three wildlife photography trips: once to Glacier, Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks, once to Nunavut to see polar bears and once to Alaska to see brown bears catching salmon (see above).
The Brooks Falls trip was one of the highlights of my photographic career, and I was very pleased to get a couple of classic Catch of the Day shots worthy of Thomas D Mangelsen himself! In hindsight, though, I was very lucky to be able to go there. These days, it’s an incredibly popular destination, and you need to win the lottery (literally!) if you want to book accommodation at Brooks Lodge.
Given the paucity of trips, I’ve only seen eight animals in North America:
American bison
Arctic fox
Brown bear
Polar bear
Ringed seal
Arctic hare
Red-tailed chipmunk
Sockeye salmon
Having said that, it’s well worth visiting Alaska and Nunavut for the bears, and Yellowstone is a fine place to get shots of frozen bison and grizzlies—but only if you’re prepared to go in winter!
South America
Jurassic Bark
Apart from Antarctica, South America was the last continent I managed to visit, and even now, I’ve only been to the Galápagos (for the giant tortoises), the Pantanal (for the jaguar) and Torres del Paine (for the puma). It was a couple of friends of mine who inspired me initially. I wasn’t that keen on the Galápagos, but they’d just been there and managed to persuade me that it was an ideal place for wildlife photography. The animals were mostly cold-blooded, so they just lay around in the sunshine waiting for people to take pictures!
Overall, I’ve seen 30 animals in South America. Here are the top 10:
Guanaco
Jaguar
Land iguana
Lesser anteater
Capybara
Marine iguana
Marsh deer
Ocelot
Puma
Sally Lightfoot crab
I’m glad I went to the Galápagos, and I remember a couple of highlights. One was discovering brightly coloured Sally Lightfoot crabs in the rock pools on the shoreline, and the other was getting ‘buzzed’ by a Galápagos sea lion that I thought for a moment was a shark!
My other two South American trips were to tick the last two big cats off my list: jaguars and pumas. I saw quite a few jaguars in the Pantanal region of Brazil (including one called, inevitably, ‘Mick Jaguar’!), and I even saw one kill a caiman. The trip to Torres del Paine in Chile was just as successful in terms of the number of sightings, but the pumas didn’t do anything very interesting. We also had a daily battle with the weather, which meant the light wasn’t great most of the time.
Verdict
"Who turned out the lights?"
I’ve obviously been to Africa far more often than any of the other continents, but I hope this article is a useful guide when it comes to deciding where to go next on your adventures. If I had to recommend a couple of places anywhere in the world, I’d go for Brooks Falls (if you can find a hotel!) and the Kicheche Camps in the Masai Mara. I’ve seen at least one cheetah kill all four times I’ve been there, so if you like watching cats chasing down antelopes at 70 mph, that’s definitely the place to go.
If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.
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