Well Royle Safaris can devlier on all fronts. We have 2 groups tours due for departure in early 2013 and we have limited spaces on each tour if you are interested. We have 2 spaces left on our pioneering snow leopard tour which currently has a 60% success rating in finding snow leopards. Our last tour spotting three of these beautiful cats. We also have 4 spaces left on our Tigers and Temples tour and the option for a Taj Mahal extension.

Details of the tours of listed below. But please be quick as this tours are likely to fill up quickly.

The outlined itinerary and dates for the tours are below as are the prices. If you like the look of both then we can add in a tour to the Taj Mahal in between the two tours or at the end of the snow leopard tour or the start of the tiger safari.

SNOW LEOPARD TREK FEB 2013

1st Feb 2013: Day 1: Arrival in Delhi, sightseeing if time allows (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Suncourt Yatri)
2nd Feb 2013: Day 2: Flight from Delhi – Leh, acclimatisation day (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Omasila)
3rd Feb 2013: Day 3: Leh, acclimatisation day – hiking to local stupas and getting used to walking at altitude (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Omasila)
4th Feb 2013: Day 4: Leh, acclimatisation day – possible bird watching at Shey Marshes and around (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Omasila)
5th Feb 2013: Day 5: Transfer to Zinchen on the boarder of Hemis National Park – 2 hour trek to camp site (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
6th Feb 2013: Day 6: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
7th Feb 2013: Day 7: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
8th Feb 2013: Day 8: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
9th Feb 2013: Day 9: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
10th Feb 2013: Day 10: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
11th Feb 2013: Day 11: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
12th Feb 2013: Day 12: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
13th Feb 2013: Day 13: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
14th Feb 2013: Day 14: Snow leopard tracking, observation (hopefully) – (accommodation in single man Alpine dome tents)
15th Feb 2013: Day 15: Transfer back to Leh after lunch – (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Omasila)
16th Feb 2013: Day 16: Flight from Leh – Delhi – sightseeing if time allows (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Suncourt Yatri)
17th Feb 2013: Day 17: – Transfer to the airport in time to catch your return flight home.

—if you would like to stay on we would have the 17th and 18th nights in Delhi and a day trip to the Taj Mahal in Agra on the 18th –

TIGERS AND TEMPLES FEB 2012

19th Feb 2013: Day 1: Collection from the airport – sightseeing of Delhi if time allows – (accommodation in 3* -Hotel Sunscourt Yatri)
20th Feb 2013: Day 2: Flight from Delhi to Khajuraho – afternoon to relax – (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Usha Bundela)
21st Feb 2103: Day 3: Guided tour of Khajuraho temples and then transfer to Bandhavgarh National Park (5-6 hours) – (accommodation in 3* -Celebration Van Vilas)
22nd Feb 2103: Day 4: Morning and afternoon jeep safari of Bandhavgarh NP – (accommodation in 3* -Celebration Van Vilas)
23rd Feb 2013: Day 5: Morning and afternoon jeep safari of Bandhavgarh NP – (accommodation in 3* -Celebration Van Vilas)
24th Feb 2013: Day 6: Morning and afternoon jeep safari of Bandhavgarh NP – (accommodation in 3* -Celebration Van Vilas)
25th Feb 2013: Day 7: Morning jeep safari of Bandhavgarh NP and afternoon transfer to Khajuraho (5-6 hours)– (accommodation in 3* -Celebration Van Vilas)
26th Feb 2013: Day 8: Flight from Khajuraho – Delhi – (accommodation in 3* – Hotel Suncourt Yatri)
27th Feb 2013: Day 9: Transfer to airport in time to catch you return flight home

The cost of the SNOW LEOPARD TREK is £2,525 per person. And this covers everything from arrival in Delhi to the departure in Delhi (including internal flights, accommodation, camping gear (expect for your own sleeping bag), food, guide fees, permits, vehicle costs etc. The only extras are alcohol, phone calls, laundry and other items of a personal nature.

The cost of the TIGERS AND TEMPLES TOUR is £2,245 per person and once again includes everything from arrival in Delhi to departure (expect for items of a personal nature and other things described above). If you would also like the Taj extension this is an addition £175 per person.

If you would like both tours then we would offer a discount so the combined cost would not be £4,770 per person but £4,250 per person.

Please contact us if you need any further information and we would be happy to provide any information you require.

If you are interested in finding out any information about any of these new tours or if you have a species you have always wanted to see, please contact us today and we will strive to prepare your ideal itinerary or provide you information that is currently not listed on our website.

Wild Wolverine Watching

Widely regarded as a creature of true wilderness and a phantom of the forests the wolverine is a notoriously difficult animal to pin down to any one spot. Capable of covering 30-40km in a single day and averaging 4km/h over all terrains, in all weathers and through all obstacles this medium sized predator / scavenger is one of the toughest and ‘no-nonsense’ animals in the world. With a huge bite-force, capable of cracking a moose femur; insulating hydrophobic fur, allowing them to lie on snow without even melting it and a ferociously dependant attitude, they are the perfect animal to take on the sub zero winters, high altitude cliff tops, seemingly desolate Taiga forests as well as battling for food against intelligent wolves, secretive lynx and powerful bears throughout their circum-boreal distribution. These amazing adaptations coupled with their huge home ranges (often hundreds of square miles) and naturally low densities they are seldom ever seen. Even their researchers remember individual encounters over decades of traipsing the wilderness in search of the ultimate forest wanderer. Fur trappers (who so often see the rare and elusive animals of the forests) always regarded the wolverine as the Holy Grail. Not just because their fur was so thick and water repellent but also because they next to never caught one.

The elusive nature of the wolverine along with the snippets of information people got from the rare encounter told of an unsociable, gluttonous demon-like spirit to the wolverine. However as researchers grow to understand the animal more and specialist hides like this one in Finland become increasingly frequented the secrets of this amazing animal are being to revealed. First off they are incredible travellers, capable of covering mileage across mountains, rivers, glaciers and other obstacles as if the terrain was flat. But they are anything but unsocial, recent studies have shown that the mothers are particularly caring and the young spend large amounts of time with both mother and father periodically after weaning until they are large enough and learned enough to make a go of it on their own. Sometimes three generations can be seen moving together after independence and for no ‘obvious’ reason, other that they like each other company and that the younger ones are still taking advantage of their parents of grandparents and their better knowledge of the area. There are still hundreds more unanswered questions about this species, but importantly we are getting to understand the ecology of wolverines and the timing couldn’t be better. As the boreal regions of Europe, Asia and North America increase in temperatures and snow fall decreases we are now understanding the only factor that seems to limit their distribution is late spring snow cover. This is critical for the females to build natal and maternal den sites to protect and raise their kits. It is now thought that to raise awareness of this species it is important to use the wolverine as the flagship species of the Boreal regions in much the same way the polar bear is the flagship species of the Arctic regions.

Wolverine Photogrpahy

These two tours were set up to get expert professional quality photographs of this seldom seen mammal. Both the guests were passionate photographers and both had life long ambitions to see this animal in the wild. In fact both were sceptical of being able to get close enough to wolverines to take a picture. But throughout the two tours we spent a total of 5 days in the pro photography and observation hides in the Finnish wilderness of the Kontiovaara region and had nearly 30 individual wolverine sightings of at least 3 different individuals. There are 4 resident wolverines here, 1 male and 3 females and at this time of the year the females are busy collecting and caching enough food as they will have a pair of kits hidden away under the deep snow in a maternal den somewhere in the forested hills. Along with wolverine watching we also had some great encounters with beaver, musk rat, red squirrels, mountain hares, yellow-necked mice and even a very early sighting of a brown bear mother and cub as they ran across the road near Lieksa. To see brown bears (especially a mother a cub) in the open and near a road and in the spring is particularly rare in Finland. We also saw some excellent bird species, both migratory such as the common crane, smew, European teal, rough-legged buzzard, whooper swan, Taiga bean goose and hen harriers as well as many residents such as golden eagles, northen goshawks, common ravens and Eurasian jays.

This wolverine tour will take you into the heart of the Finnish / Russia borderlands of Northern Karelia and to just about the only place is the world where wolverines can be seen with any regularity and with a little bit of luck we may be get a sneak peek into the lives of some of the resident wolverines. If you would like more information about this mammal watching tour or our other wildlife tours of Finland. Or even if you would like to hear about the other mammal watching holidays we offer, or maybe you would like to get more information regarding this wolverine watching tour and wolverine photography holiday then please contact us now.

Red Panda watching holidays and tours of Nepal

This is a new an pioneering tour to eastern Nepal and whilst in search of the rare red panda we will be enlisting the help of the Red Panda Network; they have been studying the red pandas here for years and their researchers have probably seen more red pandas than anyone else in the world over recent years.

We hope to have this tour advertised on our site within the next couple of weeks but in the meantime we are able to take enquiries and provide more detailed information if needed. So if you are interested in trekking and tracking the red panda then please contact us on 0845 226 8259 or email myself direct on martin@royle-safaris.co.uk

We look forward to hearing back from anyone interested in watching red pandas in the wild and look forward to pioneering this as well as other tours which focus on rare and elusive species. In the last 12 months we have pioneered tours to find maned wolves, jaguars, sloth bears, Iberian lynx, wolverines, harpy eagles, grey wolves as well as continuing our stunning success in spotting snow leopards on our unique snow leopard trekking holiday in India.

If you would be interested in any of these tours or if you have a species in mind that you would love to see then we are experts in arranging and tailoring wildlife watching tours to suit any requirements. As mentioned above our knowledge of the scientific community and research projects around the world means that we are ideally placed to organise rare and unusual wildlife tours.

This means having to dive with them and see how the spend 80% of their lives. One of the core components of their study is to fine out how the local people can use the water safely where their are crocodiles. The Nile Crocodile can grow to 6m long, weigh in at half a tonne and live for 100 years. They are formidable predators with adults crocodiles having the strongest bite in the animal kingdom as well indiscriminating between wildebeests, fish or humans when it comes to food.

Nile Crocodiles are found throughout Africa and in Botswana the crystal clear water of the Okovango Delta makes it one of the best crocodile watching destinations in the world. If you interested in travelling to Botswana as part of a Botswana Safari Holiday then have a look at our range of safaris and wildlife tours of Botswana.

One of the best ways of seeing crocodiles and watching crocodiles in Botswana on a safari is via a mokoro or local canoe trip. The scientists studying them here are going one better than this though and entering the water to see the crocodiles on their turf. The chief scientist on this study is zoologist Dr Adam Britton has been studying crocodiles for nearly 18 years, and headed to Botswana’s Okavango Delta to run a week-long pilot research project investigating where they hide before attacking, and how they detect prey.

His new and visionary approach is to study them by unobtrusive techniques, more observation based, which is in stark contrast to the usual study method is has been capturing the crocodile and dragging it onto the boat which is very stressful to the crocodile and has very obvious limitations.

By entering the water to watch crocodiles the team of researchers can carry out initial experiments was the only way to gather data – so diving experts Brad Bestelink and Andrea Crawford had to set strict guidelines to reduce the chances of an attack. Dr. Britton said: “Crocodiles target prey on the surface – so the main ‘danger zone’ is getting in and out of the water. So the first thing is to get to the bottom. Once on the riverbed, these man-eaters didn’t appear to see us as prey, and we could study their senses, their movements, and discover where they choose to hide, all without being attacked. We established that as long as the circumstances are right, the croc is not bothered about us observing it underwater.”

The team observed crocs “walking” on the river bottom – which helps them conserve energy, and found they could even touch the crocodiles’ tails, as long as they made no sudden movements and kept away from their heads this level of interaction is ground breaking and the possible further findings could help saves hundreds of lives throughout Africa.

One of the biggest problems when it comes to watching crocodiles in Botswana, elsewhere in Africa and Australia is that the can spend so long (hours) under then water, so one of the key questions which the team wanted answering was: Where do they hide when they are resting under the water. So the team had to dive into ‘croc caves’.

“These are areas under banks, where the banks are overhanging, where the water is fractionally warmer and the water is very still, and if you look up, the croc has a better view of what’s on the surface – silhouetted against the light.”

Dr. Britton has a hypothesis on why crocodiles gravitate and aggrevate to these spots.

“Comparing these to areas in the main channel showed, as you might expect, that those areas were preferably not only for shelter but also for hunting. It’s likely that crocodiles are using some of these areas to listen, taste and watch for signs of activity (from prey, and from other crocs) before moving out to investigate.”

By uncovering these resting places, the team are able to advise divers, swimmers and other river-users to stay in fast-flowing areas of the river, if they want to avoid a crocodile attack.

The next instalment of this series is due to be aired on BBC Two at 21:00 on Sunday 26th February 2012. This time the team will be looking at the most dangerous species of crocodile in the world. The Saltwater Crocodile of northern Australia. Royle Safaris offers excellent tours to the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia where crocodiles are high on the list of priorities. So if you are interested in trying to watch and observe the world’s largest species of reptile in the wild then check out our range of Australia Wildlife Tours and join us in out quest super sized crocodiles.

Royle Safaris offers you the chance of visiting the Sunderbans on our Bangladesh wildlife tour which explores the amazing Sunderbans forest and offers excellent chances of seeing both of these species as well as tigers, salt-water crocodiles, deer, monkeys and hundreds of birds.

The three new dolphin sanctuaries are set out to protect the last two remaining species of freshwater dolphins living in Asia: the Ganges River dolphin and the Irrawaddy dolphin. Both species have been disappearing from major portions of their range for the last few decades. However, there are sustainable populations of both species in the Sundarbans, which may now serve as a global safety net for preventing their extinction.

These 3 new wildlife sanctuaries plan to safeguard 19.4 miles of river channels with a total area of 4.1 sq miles being protected. The locations and sizes of the sanctuaries in the Sundarbans were determined according to a comprehensive study conducted by WCS and the Bangladesh Forest Department. The study found that the habitat of Ganges River and Irrawaddy dolphins were clumped in waterways where human activities are most intense; and therefore in the most urgent need for protection.

The director for WCS’s Asian Freshwater and Coastal Cetacean Programme recently said ‘Declaration of these wildlife sanctuaries is an essential first step in protecting Ganges River and Irrawaddy dolphins in Bangladesh.’

‘As biological indicators of ecosystem-level impacts, freshwater dolphins can inform adaptive human-wildlife management to cope with climate change suggesting a broader potential for conservation and sustainable development.’

It is very important to protect this pristine habitats in the Sunderbans as the Yangtze River Dolphin was declared extinct only a couple of years ago, after not being afforded this level of protection in a rapidly developing country. Royle Safaris are committed to the preservation of habitats such as the Sunderbans and the conservation and research of wildlife in Bangladesh. This is why for every Sunderbans Cruise we conduct we donate money to numerous Bangladesh conservation societies.

The freshwater dolphins in the Sunderbans are threatened by numerous threats including fatal entanglements in fishing gear, depletion of their prey from the enormous bycatch of fish and crustaceans in fine-mesh nets used to catch fry for shrimp farming, and increasing salinity and sedimentation caused by rising sea levels and changes in the availability of upstream freshwater flow.

The development of these 3 new sanctuaries is very good news. Especially considering the recent extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin whose last confirmed sighting was in 2002. Fatal entanglement in nets and habitat degradation killed off this species after having survived in China’s Yangtze River for more than 10 million years.

It is also important that sustainable Sunderbans cruises and other Bangladesh wildlife holidays and Bangladesh wildlife tours continue in this rapidly developing country to ensure the continued survival of Bangladesh wildlife especially the dolphins in the Sunderbans.

Throughout the world the freshwater dolphins are among the most threatened species because their habitat is highly impacted by human activities. River systems are under threat from dam construction and unsustainable fisheries, to name a couple of problems. In addition to conserving globally important populations of freshwater dolphins, the new wildlife sanctuaries in the Sundarbans will provide protection for other threatened aquatic wildlife including the river terrapin, masked finfoot, and small-clawed otter and of course the largest population of wild tigers left in the world. By joining any of our wildlife holidays and Bangladesh wildlife tours we will be taking you deep into the Sunderbans on a chartered Sunderbans cruise holiday and will have excellent chances of spotting wildlife including tigers and dolphins.

Since 2009 Bangladesh has been regarded as a cetacean hotspot, with the WCS announcing the discovery of the world’s largest population of nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins in the country. A portion of this population shares habitat with the endangered Ganges river dolphin, whose range extends all the way upstream to the shadow of the Himalayas in Nepal.

If you are interested in visiting Bangladesh on a wildlife holiday or even just a week long cruise of the Sunderbans tehn Royle Safaris is the only sustainable tour operator who offers fully guided (by professional zoologisits) safaris to Bangladesh. So please see our range of Bangladesh Holidays for more details and information, including full itineraries and prices.

From the Los Llanos, lowland forests, Paramo of the Andean foothills and the amazing cloud forests your expert guides will take you to the best places to spot all the rare and endemic bird life such as crested quetzals, Andean condors, barred forest falcons,bronzy inca and hundred more. All this before venturing into the amazing Henri Pittier National Park which has a bird count of over 550 species on its own! Here you can expect to see Venezuelan wood-quails, white-tipped quetzals, groove-billed toucanets, guttulated foliage-gleaner, black-throated spinetails, Venezuelan antvireo, scallop-breasted antpittas, solitary eagles, black-and-white hawk eagles and many others and many species of usually rare species are much easier to see here than elsewhere such as the white-fronted tyrannulet.

Whilst we cannot guarantee all the species in the park and elsewhere we can certainly say your life list will increase dramatically. Whether you are wanting to start your South American bird list or supplement an existing one or even trying to tick off a couple of the rarer species in this diverse continent; our birding tour of Venezuela will not leave you dissapointed.

We have several interested parties already so to avoid disappointment please contact ussoon so we can reserve you a spot.

Bird watching tours of Venezuela

Emerald toucanet on a birding tour

Crested Quetzal on tour in Venezuela

If you would like more information about any of our big cat safari holidays, big cat tracking tours, and big cat watching safaris or if you would like to enquire about a tailor made big cat holidays then please do not hesitate to Contact Us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk or call on 0845 226 8259 and we will take you through the booking process step by step.

If you would like more information about any of our African safari holidays, tracking tours, and wildlife watching safaris or if you would like to enquire about a tailor made safari holidays then please do not hesitate to Contact Us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk or call on 0845 226 8259 and we will take you through the booking process step by step.

If you would like more information about any of our safari holidays to Kruger National Park, the rest of the South Africa or anywhere else in the world or if you would like to enquire about a tailor made safari holidays then please do not hesitate to Contact Us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk or call on 0845 226 8259 and we will take you through the booking process step by step.

If you would like more information about any of our mammal watching holidays of Scotland, the rest of the UK or anywhere else in the world or if you would like to enquire about a tailor made mammal watching tours then please do not hesitate to Contact Us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk or call on 0845 226 8259 and we will take you through the booking process step by step.

If you would like more information about any of our dolphin watching holidays or if you would like to enquire about a tailor made dolphin and whale watching tours then please do not hesitate to Contact Us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk or call on 0845 226 8259 and we will take you through the booking process step by step.

If you would like more information about any of our shark diving holidays or if you would like to enquire about a tailor made shark diving tours then please do not hesitate to Contact Us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk or call on 0845 226 8259 and we will take you through the booking process step by step.

If you would like more information about any of our turtle watching snorkelling holidays or if you would like to enquire about a tailor made diving holidays then please do not hesitate to Contact Us at info@royle-safaris.co.uk or call on 0845 226 8259 and we will take you through the booking process step by step.