Nature & Wildlife
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” This observation from American novelist Jhumpa Lahiri could not be more apropos as passionate travelers like us remain housebound for an extended time. But think of it as a gift—like a long stretch of snow days from school.
African Safaris
The term Africa’s Big Five means something quite different today than it did when it was coined in the late 1800s during the continent’s colonial period. Then, it referenced the animals—Cape buffalo (or African buffalo), elephants, leopards, lions and rhinoceroses—that trophy hunters considered to be the most challenging and dangerous to hunt on foot.
News & More
These are difficult times. As you have likely started to feel the impacts of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in your community, we hope you’re taking extra care to stay safe and healthy, for yourself, your loved ones, and those around you. It is a stressful and emotional experience as our daily routines change.
Travel Tips
Like many of you, I suspect, I worry a lot about environmental issues: diminishing biodiversity, climate change, greenhouse gases and melting glaciers. Yet, about once a year, I book a flight.
Videos
Bears, lynx, wolves and wildcats used to roam the lands that today make up Great Britain. European brown bears, however, have been extinct there since at least the early Middle Ages—and possibly even earlier. British lynx disappeared around 700 A.D., due to hunting and habitat destruction. And by the turn of the 16th century, wolves were extinct in England and Wales.
Alaska
Katmai National Park is a realm of untrammeled rivers, pristine streams and clear lakes. The park and the greater Alaska Peninsula are part of the Bristol Bay Watershed, which, according to World Wildlife Fund, is the most productive salmon ecosystem in North America.
African Safaris
More than 350 types of frogs live in Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo. The nation stretches across 226,917 square miles (approximately the size of France or Texas) off the coast of East Africa. This gives Madagascar possibly the highest frog diversity per square mile of any country in the world.
News & More
Every year, the New York Times names 52 places as top destinations to visit. This year, nine Nat Hab destinations made the list. Some destinations are making strides in conservation and others are dramatically changing as a result of climate change. Travel can bring about inspiration and perspective to those trapped in their everyday bubble.
Conservation
Norway is the first country in the world to commit to no longer using any products that contribute to deforestation.
Travel Tips
A small ice rink, created by flooding a flat piece of ground in front of the elementary school that was just two blocks from my home when I was a child, never failed to lure me outside on cold, Wisconsin winter nights.
Travel Tales
Where will your travels take you in 2020? It’s probably one of the most pleasant questions to ponder. I hope that you’ll go to places both far and near. Wherever you’re going, you’re sure to make some amazing memories. But as every traveler knows, memory can be—what I like to describe as—“fluid.”
Antarctica & Arctic
The Earth’s poles have a special kind of pull on me—sometimes called the “ice blink”—and that’s why on this Christmas Eve, I’m thinking of them.
