Tag: Bear

Hides

Hides

There are many animals that are almost impossible to see. This is for a variety of reasons, but the most common is that the animal is nocturnal and or shy.

For this reason hides are very useful. They essentially consist of something that the people can sit in, so that they are invisible to the wildlife in the area, allowing the wildlife to approach without fear.

In the UK the majority of hides are set up for bird watching, though I have also visited badger hides. In Europe the majority of hides are set up to watch bears (many were once hunting hides), though if lucky wolves can be seen from these on occasion as well. In Africa there are all sorts of animals to be seen from a hide at night – generally animals rarely seen during the day, such as Aardvark.

Some hides have beds so you stay in them throughout the night, others are used just in the evening or the morning. Also of interest is where the hide is, for instance if the hides below lies in Sweden. Due to its latitude, during the summer months it is bright enough to see for much of the night, which obviously makes visits more valuable. Other hides will have night vision googles, still more will mount infrared or visible lightsi

Here is the wildSweden bear hide. Other than bears (we saw 6), our visit included a wolf, badger fox squirrels an various birds

If you own or operate a hide and would like to be listed on this page please click here

List your wild place

Would you like to list your wildlife destination on this site?

Living alongside wildlife can be complicated. A farmer will struggle to enjoy the presence of predators, even if they have not attacked his livestock.

On this website, our aim is to allow people to benefit from wildlife that they share their land with, whether this is to bring in some extra money, or to pay for protection for livestock, or whether it is the primary use (any farmers care about the environment more than city dwellers, so our aim is to make sure that where possible protecting wildlife pays – by giving them the ability to list their land for people to see the wildlife that they farm beside). Whether you live or work in one of the worlds great wildernesses or national parks, or you own wilderness on the edge of one of these (Sabi sands, one of the oldest private reserves borders the Kruger) we want to help people find you, so that you can show them all the wonderful wildlife on your land. 

There are examples of each type of page to look at. Do look at the ecosystem you are located in/by is already listed as we can add further options, but will not list ecosystems more than once.

We follow a relatively simplistic booking process, where a form on the website will generate an email booking. We can also include a calendar showing your availability.

There is a link to a form for each category, as well as a further form at the bottom of the page for any questions. This form includes the ability to submit photos of your offering and the wildlife in your vicinity (both are of importance, unless your wildlife destination is already listed) . We work on a simple pricing structure, where we charge you 10% of the cost of any booking that you recieve through us. 

Do you run a lodge or campsite within a protected area?

As you can see we have listed a number of lodges in parts of Africa, but the aim of this site was to simplify wild travel and so we are keen to work with any lodge that would like to.

In order to list your property, we will need:

  • Pictures of your accommodation, with information on cost and amenities
  • Information on the wilderness that surrounds your property, whether it is information on a national park or reserve.
  • Information as to what wildlife can be seen in the area, with some good pictures.

Feel free to view our lodges and reserves currently public to see what your listing can look like. If you are particular about your branding look, we are happy to put up your listing as you would like. Fill in the form at the link below

Fill in the form in this link to list your wild place -campsite lodge or similar

Or perhaps you run a wildlife hide of some kind

For many people the only way they can have a chance of seeing many animals, particularly nocturnal ones, is by sitting in a hide. Many of my most memorable wildlife moments have been had sitting in a wildlife hide watching something unfold in front of me. This need not be on protected land, so long as the hide is not ever used for hunting.

In order to list your hide, we will need:

  • Pictures of your hide with information on cost and amenities.
  • Pictures of the view  people will get from the hide
  • Pictures of some of the wildlife that has been photographed from the hide, as well as information on frequency and anything else of interest.

See our one example currently live

  https://seeanimalswild.com/wildsweden-bear-hide/

Fill in the form you will find if you click on this text to list your hide (bear bird or some other hide -hunting hides not accepted)

Or perhaps you share your vicinity with wildlife

Whatever the reason that you own land, it will be part of a natural ecosystem and as such you are likely to have some animals that live on it with you. This can cause complications with many land uses such as farming, where predators may eat some of your livestock.

Many people will happily pay to have a chance of seeing some of these animals that can be a complication, and by utilising these visits you can make some extra money to help offset any financial losses from predation or damage to property.

This could range from South African farmers who share their land with cheetahs, to European farmers who might share their land with bears or wolves, or perhaps simply an active badgers sett in the UK.

Alternatively, you could own a restaurant where bush babies could be seen in the evening.

The possibilities are endless.

To be listed we will need:

Photos of your land with the animal/bird in question (or information on the ecosystem in which your land sits. It is worth looking at what is already up, as we will list ecosystems only once- so if someone has already listed your ecosystem, we can simply add your wildlife opportunity below.

Details of what you are offering and where it is

    • Accommodation (camping or hut etc). This is particularly important if the wildlife is nocturnal or is based in a particularly remote area
    • A game drive to see the wildlife at a set time.
    • A restaurant, from which wildlife can be watched. This could be anything from interesting birds, lizards or indeed perhaps a resident bush baby
    • Anything else that you can think of that follows along similar lines

Information on price

Fill in the form in this link if you see a lot of wildlife on your land and would like to be able to invite other people to see it


(opens in a new tab)

Finally, we are keen to support wildlife guides, boat trips and wildlife drives. 

Even in some of the wildest places on earth, it is very easy to spend weeks there and see none of the local animals.

A wildlife guide can make a big difference. Be it a trip on a boat to sea the marine life, or a car journey into a reserve nearby.

I am aware though, how often, it is hard to connect with local guides when you are visiting an area.

As such I am keen to list local guides, and the ability to book.

To be listed, I will need:

  • Some information about the wildlife you often see when you take people out, preferably with some pictures (and where)
  • What services you offer (are you just a guide or can you offer a place to stay as well)
  • Any other information that you would like to pass on
  • Pricing

Fill in the form in this link if you are a wildlife guide and would like to list your services on our website, or you run trips to see marine wildlife, or in reserves around your home.

 

 

if you have a question or  do not believe that your wildlife encounter falls in one of these categories please fill in the form below (we aim to be a place where the whole of the wildlife tourism industry (bar any form of hunting) if we do not serve your field let us know, we can either create a new section or instead fit it into another area.

Have a look at the listings we currently have to get an idea of what your listing will look like, and what we need.

Limpopo Transfrontier park including Kruger sabi sands and other conservation areas
Greater Serengeti
Posted on

Bear sighting in a national park in north Spain where they haven’t been seen for 150 years

Invenadeiro national park in north Spain has had a confirmed sighting of a bear, for the first time since the 19th century. It should be noted that this area is relatively wild with good populations of wolves, deer and boar. 

More importantly this pair was not transient, it actually overwintered within the National Park.

Continue reading “Bear sighting in a national park in north Spain where they haven’t been seen for 150 years”

Posted on

Cannibalism among polar bears is becoming more common

Polar bears have always had problems finding enough to eat. They can only efficiently Hunt out on the sea ice which in the past many seasons of plenty and seasons of fast. Climate change has made the seasons of fast too long to be survived by many and so they’ve had to adapt.

Polar bears succeed in killing, or find food rarely. Therefore they have to take advantage of all food they find.
Continue reading “Cannibalism among polar bears is becoming more common”
Posted on

Start of the grizzly hunt in the US has been suspended, and now permanently halted

Trump’s determination to ignore all Science on all things to do with the environment continues. In recent times, his administration has decided many species should lose their protection. The conservationists must now prove that a proposed development, for example, will harm wildlife, instead of the developer having to prove that it won’t.  Continue reading “Start of the grizzly hunt in the US has been suspended, and now permanently halted”

Posted on

Wild trip to Sweden – Part Two – Bear watching

We first headed to the area north of Västerås which is prime bear territory. Despite their size and therefore presumed clumsiness, bears are astoundingly quiet when they wish to be.

That being said, an area inhabited by bears or wolves tends to be pretty wild, and so there tends to be a feeling about the area. In the UK there are few areas with low enough density to allow this to happen but in Europe that is different. Sweden accentuates this even more, as Sweden only had a population of just under 10 million spread out over a country the size of France. This means Sweden has a population density of 24 people per square km compared to UK 407 per square km. Continue reading “Wild trip to Sweden – Part Two – Bear watching”

Posted on

Bear (Croatia)

To put this sighting in context, we had spent 3 lovely days hiking in the Northern Velebit National Park national park in Croatia, it had been beautiful, but apart from a brief sighting of two deer from a large distance away we hadn’t seen any wildlife. We were moving on and so had left the park. It was quite early in the morning and due to the remote location of the park there was little artificial noise.  About 100m beyond the front gate we stopped suddenly when we heard noise from our left. Moments later the was more noise as a large bear crashed down the steep bank and started to amble across the road. It paused briefly in the middle of the road and glared at us as we sat perhaps 10m away. It then ambled across the rest of the road and crashed down an equally steep bank. At this point I got out of the car and walked to the edge of the road and looked down into the dark of the forest. The bear had not moved from the bottom of the bank, and he turned his head and fixed me with a stare for a few seconds before disappearing further into the gloom of the forest.

See Animals Wild