Six of the best wildlife-spotting locations in South and Southeast Asia
There are plenty of ways to see the world’s most fascinating and rare animals without doing them any harm. Here are some of the region’s hot spots
From the Tonkin monkeys of Vietnam to the leopards of Sri Lanka, South and Southeast Asia has an abundance of incredible wildlife to draw in tourists. The tarsier sanctuaries on Bohol in the Philippines are protected enclosures, but large enough for the tiny creatures to feel wild. National parks offer a chance to see animals in their wild and natural state. In some places, such as the Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia, wildlife tourism can even contribute to preventing poaching, protecting the environment and the local wildlife.
Any animal lover will want to experience these amazing creatures without doing them any harm.
There are a few simple rules to follow: look, but don’t touch; keep your distance and try not to disturb the animals. It helps to always travel with a reputable operator, one that has a good record and policy on animal welfare. If in any doubt that you might be causing stress or harm to animals, raise the issue with your guide.
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What was once one of the last strongholds of the Khmer Rouge is now one of Southeast Asia’s great wildlife conservation success stories. The Cardamom mountains are home to some of the densest and most wildlife-rich rainforests in Southeast Asia, the second-largest contiguous rainforest in the subregion.
There was good news in 2016 when the Cambodian government designated more than 1,600 square kilometres of land across the mountains as a national park, now the Southern Cardamom National Park. It joins six existing national parks to create a vast 18,210 square kilometre protected area, a vital wildlife corridor and one of the last remaining habitats for wild Asian elephants, Indochinese tigers, clouded leopards, Asiatic black bears, Malayan sun bears, Irrawaddy dolphins, Siamese crocodiles and many more precious species.
Rainforest Trust, Wildlife Alliance and their local partners have worked to protect the biodiverse region from logging, mining and industrial development, while locals who previously poached the wildlife are now employed as local rangers and guides, protecting the animals they once hunted.
