This is a mangrove area in the Delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges Brahmaputra  and meghna rivers in the bay of Bengal.

The Sundarbans forest reserve of Bangladesh is the largest mangrove forest in the world. This consists of four protected areas, Sanderbans West south and East, which are all in Bangladesh, and Sundarbans national park in India. The total area consists of around about 10,000 square kilometres. 290 species of birds 120 species of fish 42 species of mammal 35 species of reptile and 8 amphibians are found within the reserve. Unfortunately, although killing or capturing of anything other than a few species of fish and invertebrates, there is a constant pattern of hunting and as a result the ecological quality of the forest is declining.

Being low lying it is also greatly at threat from rising sea levels.

Across the four national parks there are thought to be about 180 tigers making it highly important for their conservation. Unfortunately this area is also known for Tiger attacks with about 40 people killed between 2000 and 2010. Other than the Tiger, other cats living in the reserve include the jungle cat, the fishing cat, and the leopard cat. The Indian tigers mostly live on chital deer, Indian muntjac and wild boar. Extinct species from the area include the javan rhino that lived there until before the 1900s. Indian rhinos were also once found here along with water buffalo.

Apart from housing the highest point in Africa, this park covers 650 square kilometres. Fauna found within the reserve include cape buffaloes, African elephants, grey dikers, tree hyrax and a number of other rodents. In the montane forests leopards, and even lions, blue monkeys, colobus monkeys and olive baboons can also be found. Civics mongoose the bush pig dick dick and have its dikers also live in the mountain forest but these are hard to see.

If you are in the region this is a well worthwhile place to visit. Indeed if you go to climb the mountain, it is a good idea to spend a few days seeing the wildlife on the lowest slopes as well. This will show that there is value in preserving these animals.

Covering 22,270 square kilometres or 8600 square miles, it takes its name from the Etosha pan which covers 23% of the park. The park is home to hundreds of different species of mammal and is a particular stronghold of the black rhino, though 46 were poached in 2022.

The park hosts 114 mammal species along with 110 reptile species and over 300 bird species. These include African elephants, an internationally important number of southwestern black rhino as well as a few southern white rhino recently reintroduced. Buffalo is locally extinct, but lion leopard and caracal are all common, while cheetah are present but uncommon and servals are rare. Although Cape wild dogs are locally extinct it appears to be the only animal that has been lost.

In other words apart from the Etosha pan it is an incredibly important and large remaining reserve in Africa, and as such it’s continued protection and indeed enough visitors going to keep it in its current state is important.

It Consists of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching across 2,300 kilometres and an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres, 133,000 square miles. It is the largest single structure created by individual living organisms, it supports a resoundingly wide variety of life. A large part of the reef is protected in the Great barrier reef marine park which limits the impacts of humanity including both fishing and tourism.

It’s greatest threats are runoff man-made pollutants climate change which is causing mop coral bleaching and dumping of dredging sludge and cyclic pollution outbreaks of the crown of thorns starfish. It has lost more than half of its coral cover since 1985, and this does not take into account a widespread bleaching event in 2020. There is a variety of interesting wildlife including giant clams manta rays, maori wrasse, sharks of a variety of species including wobbegongs tiger sharks hammerheads and even the enormous whale shark along with more common species such as black tips white tips and grey reef sharks, clownfish turtles and a fish called a potato cod. Also during Australia’s winter and spring from June to November up to 10,000 Whales migrate North from Antarctica called the waters to the warm shallows of the Great barrier reef, while many species make this migration you are most likely to encounter humpback whales and dwarf minke whales. Other species often seen include dugongs, leafy sea dragon sea snakes, parrot fish crocodiles and sponges.

One of the 17,58 islands that make up the country of Indonesia, this island is particularly notable as being the home of the komodo dragon (they can also be found on a couple of small islands nearby). Covering an area of 291 square kilometres, there are less than 2,000 people on the island.

As well as the roughly 1400 adult komodo dragons on the island, there are also javan deer (non-native) water buffalo, banded pigs, civets, cockatoos and crab-eating macaques.

There is a famous beach on Komodo as it is naturally pink, with the sand made up of a mixture of white sand and red sand formed from pieces of Foraminifera.

The price of visiting has greatly increased in recent years going from £11 to more than £206. The local government’s stated aims were to reduce visitor numbers and protect the endangered lizards from overexposure to humans. However local workers say it will scare off tourists, and make it hard for them to make a living. Indeed at one point authorities were intending to ban Taurus from the park completely before changing their plans to limit entry to those who’d signed up for costly membership schemes.

Caribou migration from British Columbia in the west to Newfoundland in the east and from the US border to Ellesmere Island north of the Arctic circle.

The number of caribou involved in our thought to be around 2.4 million split into eight large migratory herds. These herds move from the tundra in the far north to the sparsely tread coniferous forest in the south. The length of the migration from north to south can be as much as 500 miles.

As well as the caribou, there are a wide range of predators that hunts the caribou along their route including wolves black and grizzly bears links coyote and golden eagles.

The caribou can cover as much as 50 miles in a day.

This is a forested area interspersed with open grassland, rocky outcrops and wet meadows. The area supports a wide array of wildlife including elk, moose, deer, black bear, porcupine, grouse, pine marten, fisher, wolverine and mountain lion. It is an active volcano with a number of glaciers and other fascinating geological features worth looking at.