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By James Nicholson
Want to have the vacation of a lifetime? To have a life changing
experience? To experience animals in a way that will forever alter
the way you perceive animals?
The opportunity is only a phone call away. For thirty years, the
Saint Louis Zoo has been offering a travel program and, for thirty
years, Zoo travelers have been raving about the experience of actually
being able to see animals they’ve only met at the Zoo in their natural
environment.
Zoo travel, the Zoo’s Director of Education, Louise Bradshaw, likes
to point out is often not just a one-time experience. “We have people
who come back again and again and again. We have people who are
always on the lookout for a new experience and people who like replays
of past experiences. We work with travel agents who specialize in
unique venues. All the tours are accompanied by Zoo experts and
all feature great local guides. We’re there to help them (the travelers)
adjust to new cultures, to explain new behaviors and to put everything
they encounter into context. The cultural side of the trips is almost
as strong as the animal side of the trips.”
To understand exactly how unique these trips are one needs to examine
everything they offer. For instance, the Zoo’s signature ‘classic
Kenya’ tour not only provides the opportunity to encounter a number
of animals in the wild, it also covers the entire country (“all
of the habitats of the United States squished together,” explains
Bradshaw).
After a predictably long flight to Nairobi, tour members are taken
to a Kenyan Highland hotel to adjust. This is a tents camp where
the tents are, bluntly speaking, luxurious (where else would you
meet a private bathroom in a tent?). Zoo tour members here are destined
for “incredible food and attention and a waterhole (for animal viewing)
with a spotlight at night.” Bradshaw gleefully points out that one
can settle in “for a bottle of wine and a night of viewing.”
After adjusting their personal clocks, the group moves north to
the Samburu Game Reserve north of the Equator where they view rare
antelope and even rarer Grevy’s zebra (there are less then 2,000
left on the planet). This is an area where the Zoo and like-minded
institutions have devised programs for the locals—especially women—to
scout the zebra for environmentalists. As this is one of the few
paying jobs for the local women, one can only begin to imagine its
impact on local society.
After this, it’s south to Mount Kenya, an icon for native Kenyans
and home to the Mau Maus of the Kenyan fight for Independence. Then
they move further south to the Mara (the Kenyan term for the Serengeti)
where they will be able to witness the mass migrations of differing
species. “Your mind cannot comprehend what it’s seeing,” Bradshaw
points out. “There are literally millions of zebra and wildebeests
moving—or sitting and waiting to move. It’s really unbelievable.”
You immediately realize you’re talking to a woman who’s doing her
best to explain the phenomenon—she can vividly describe differing
zebra and wildebeest personalities—and is still in awe of what she’s
describing.
Other tours are equally as exciting. An Alaskan trip delves into
the Kenai Peninsula and provides plenty of opportunity for both
rafting and kayaking. A Kenyan Earthwatch trip puts its participants
to work with Earthwatch saving the Grevy’s Zebra from extinction.
A winter trip to Yellowstone focuses on the wolf population, while
a spring trip focuses on the grizzly bear population just as they’re
awakening from a happy winter’s hibernation. “Understanding these
two big predators really helps people understand why conservation
is important,” Bradshaw points out.
A trip to the Galapagos Islands is a nature/animal lover’s fantasy
come true—two full weeks of exploring the Islands’ plant and animal
life from a 16 passenger motor yacht. Four days are spent in the
volcanically active Western Galapagos offering plenty of time for
whale, penguin and giant tortoise watching and even providing horseback
rides to the rims of one of the volcanoes. As these are islands,
there is plenty of opportunity to snorkel with hammerhead sharks,
marine iguanas, penguins and sea lions and, well, as Bradshaw puts
it, “You want to pull your mouth piece and talk, but that’s a bad
idea.” She also advises that, although it will be perfectly obvious
that the sea lions want to play with you, it will be a good idea
not to give in to the temptation to play with them.
So why is the Zoo involved with travel? “We want to change people’s
relationships to wildlife and wild places,” Bradshaw replies. It’s
an easy step considering that zoos exist to introduce people to
wildlife they would never encounter in their own back yards. “We’ve
had people whose first experience of the Zoo was on a trip who have
gone on to become volunteers, who have sent their children to our
classes and who have subsequently made donations to the Zoo proper,”
she goes on. Obviously, a Zoo tour can be both a life affirming
and a life changing experience.
How does one learn about these tours? “We have travel nights,” Bradshaw
explains. “We give talks about upcoming trips and we often invite
people who have already been on a trip. They talk about the first
time they actually saw a ‘zoo’ animal in the wild. They tell humorous
stories about themselves, the animals or us. They talk about their
(cross-) cultural experiences. It’s really neat to celebrate thirty
years of changing people’s lives.” She goes on to explain how anxious
past participants are to share their “Oh, wow!” experiences with
both animals and people.
Pre-tour planning provides participants with plenty of time to connect
with their staff escort. “We have a schedule orientation,” Bradshaw
explains. “We walk people through the necessities of vaccines, visas,
passports and wardrobes and their various options in dealing with
all of those factors. They will have all the information they need
before they depart.” She also points out that there are a number
of experienced travelers at the Zoo who have visited the same destinations
and are willing to share their expertise. There is also a travel
committee of volunteers who have also had the tour experience who
are a “great resource. They talk about everything, from photography
to age related issues.”
“It’s just so great to see (animals) in the wild,” Bradshaw concludes.
Anyone taking one of these trips would have to concur. Like it or
not, one’s options are really limited when it comes to having a
first class nature experience of this magnitude and, liking it even
less, the options are daily dwindling for connecting with certain
species (remember the Grevy’s zebras?) in their natural habitat.
The enthusiasm is endorsed by Marilyn Brown, who recently participated
in the Zoo’s trip to the Galapagos. Her favorite part of the trip
was “being up close and personal with the animals. They’re not afraid
of you,” Mrs. Brown explains. “Not even the birds.” Having a Zoo
Curator along also had its advantages. “He helped me kayak one day,”
Mrs. Brown relates. “I’d never done that before. It really is a
trip of a lifetime.”
If you can remember the adrenalin rush the first time you sighted
a moose at Yellowstone or found a badger blocking your path during
a walk in the woods or walked out the back door and discovered a
woodchuck in your backyard, think about how you’d feel about watching
a few hundred zebra charge across the Serengeti or wondering how
rapidly you’d have to move to retrieve that dropped camera before
the lion you were attempting to photograph took a second glance
and decided you were edible. Then think about how rare the opportunity
is for a world-class institution to schedule myriad first class
tours complete with resident and on-site experts to provide you
that opportunity. Or ask Marilyn Brown. She’ll decidedly talk to
you because “Every time we talk about the trip, we get to relive
it.” How many vacations prompt that kind of testimonial? |
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