Today I’m taking a look at 7 of the best wildlife experiences that the world has to offer, from far away to close to home. Not since I wrote 7 of the best travel photo blogs have I struggled so much with the pick. But that’s the beauty of writing 7 of the best, right? I can always come back with seven more…especially after this Galapagos trip and my recent adventures with the king of the swingers…

So, this shortlist highlights the unusual and the beautiful of the big wide world out there. Enjoy!

7 of the Best Wildlife Experiences

1) Take a night safari in Borneo

It’s not every day you find a baby crocodile swishing through the water by your side. But it is something that happens every night, or thereabouts, on a night safari from Borneo’s Sukau Rainforest Lodge. Up above,  amid the branches and the shadows and the tricks of the mind…are monkeys. Many, many monkeys.

2) Catch the Big Five in South Africa

The plane trembles like a bumblebee with vertigo as it lilts and lifts through the sky cavity around Joburg. The ground, a blurred marble of ochre and olive, continues on. And on. And on.

It’s only a short hop by air from Johannesburg to the Madikwe Game Reserve in African terms, but of course, for those of us from smaller isles, it’s hard to believe just how much space there is out there on the ground.

3) Swim with sharks in The Maldives

Sometimes, you have to work hard to see wildlife. And when I say sometimes, I mean most of the time. You have to creep past snakes in the darkness and risk frostbite to glimpse a tiger. You have to play basketball with the base of your spine along a rickety dirt track to see a zebra, lion or rhino. You have to hike for days to see a condor, paddle for miles to see a seal and at the absolute minimum jump into the sea to eyeball a turtle.

Not so in the Maldives, a chain of one thousand or so islands with a reputation for showing guests the luxurious side of life. The diving grabs all the headlines, requiring paperwork to prove that you know how to breathe, but you don’t even need to go that far.

You can swim with sharks at the shore. Or sit back on a deckchair and watch…

4) Admire the Puffins on Skomer Island, Wales

Roam around the raw and rugged cliffs of Britain’s only Coastal National Park in Pembrokeshire, West Wales. The Puffins on Skomer Island are so beautiful you’ll want to get up close and give them a cwtch (actually, probably best to just admire them from afar).

5) Arrange a Mokoro Safari in Botswana’s Okavango Delta

The Okavango Delta in Botswana (the largest delta in the world) is home to elephants, impala, giraffe, hippos and warthogs aplenty. Its watery nature means that there are virtually no roads – so the only ways of getting around are by boat or by plane. Both versions will give you a truly amazing experience: either up close with the reeds and the animals in a traditional mokoro , or gazing down at the swirls of the delta from the sky.

6) Go whale watching in Alaska

The tail, that majestic symbol of all the monsters of the deep, rises, pauses, holds, waits, lingers above the water before plunging down again, throwing up a signature of spray. Very few animals have the ability to stir emotions in us with their everyday movements. The humpback whale is undoubtedly part of this very special group.

7) Hang out with Buffalo in Hong Kong

On Lantau Island at the mouth of the Pearl River, the buffalo come to sleep. Twilight drifts over the neon lights, the gleaming spires and the synthetic shopping malls elsewhere in Hong Kong. But in this part, at least, twilight signals a change of pace. A string of fairy lights sums up the illumination on the beach, where wild buffalo scuff the sand and settle down as the light fades for a snooze with an oceanfront view.

So, what do you think? Which wildlife experiences should make the best in the world list?