Travel Tales
Inside Antarctica: A Rare Glimpse of a Whale Breaching
It usually starts with a small plume of water out in the open ocean, typically quite an underwhelming sight.
Good Nature Travel Blog
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News & More
Banner Year for Whales in Baja!
Early February census numbers indicate a record number of Pacific gray whales in San Ignacio Lagoon this winter – the highest number since census keeping in the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve began in 1978. This month’s count identified 197 adults and 155 calves for a total of 312 whales.
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Videos
Video: The Top 25 Most Intelligent Nonhuman Animals
I’m always a little wary of smart animal lists for two reasons. The first is that I know without a doubt that my greyhound, Chic, is the smartest dog in the world, yet greyhounds rarely rank in the top 10 on any expert’s list of intelligent dog breeds.
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Conservation
Antarctica's Wildlife Needs Our Help!
Did you know that Antarctica is home to more than 10,000 species of penguins, whales, and seals – just to name a few – that are found nowhere else on earth? Unfortunately, Antarctica’s wildlife is facing immense pressure from commercial fishing and climate change.
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Travel Tales
Hidden Hawaii…A Magical Discovery
By Jennifer Bravo NHA Senior Destination Manager Hawaii is a land of many enchanting faces. It glitters and glows even as it smokes and smolders. Bees and butterflies dance with silk-soft flowers, which burst through walls of black razor rock.
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Nature & Wildlife
Is Animal Altruism Real?
Recently, when a group of sperm whales about a thousand miles off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal, took in an adult bottlenose dolphin, behavioral ecologists were puzzled. While cross-species interactions are not uncommon among terrestrial animals, sperm whales are not known for forging nurturing bonds with other species.
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Videos
Video: The Right Whale Encounter
The most rare of all large whales, right whales were given their common name by whalers, who identified them as the “right whales” to kill. At 50 feet long and weighing 70 tons, right whales were hunted for their plentiful oil and baleen, which could be made into buggy whips, corsets and parasol ribs.
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Nature & Wildlife
Tracking Devices on Narwhals and Other Wildlife Wear
After missing for more than eight years, Petunia, an American Staffordshire terrier, was found. She had disappeared from her home in Virginia sometime around Thanksgiving 2003. Last weekend, she was located in an animal shelter in California, more than 3,000 miles away. How do we know the dog is truly Petunia?
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Travel Tips
Eating Traditionally, or Eating Touristy?
Part of the pleasure of visiting new places is learning about local customs and tasting homegrown foods. Who hasn’t at least wanted to try haggis in Scotland, say, or “cod cheeks” in Newfoundland? It’s a way of immersing yourself in all that an adventure in a new land has to offer.
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News & More
Adventure Coming, I Can Feel It in My Bones
You’ve probably heard about people who “see” the color blue when they hear a certain note played on a piano, for instance, or experience a sweet “taste” in their mouths when they touch a peach.
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Videos
Video: Thank-You Note from a Whale
When going out into the Sea of Cortez, California, with the intended purpose of doing some whale watching, it’s probably not all that unusual to actually come across some whales. However, finding a dead humpback is rarely in the plan.
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News & More
Choosing the Sea
Two very old whales are telling us a fascinating story. They are fossils—a male and a pregnant female—that were discovered in Pakistan in 2000 and 2004. Researchers say that these 47.5-million-year-old cetaceans are beginning to reveal that, without a doubt, our modern whales originated from terrestrial ancestors.