Going on holiday is the difference between living and existing
Alice Gully of Aardvark Safaris has joined calls for the Government to get overseas travel moving again
18 February 2021 • 9:29am
Alice Gully believes Africa has faced discrimination when it comes to the UK s travel policy
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These are desperate times for the travel industry, a sector that supports 2.5 millions livelihoods in the UK, and countless more abroad. Having endured a miserable year, hopes were high that 2021, helped by the rollout of the vaccine, would see a return to something approaching normality. Instead, thanks to strict new testing rules, the scrapping of the travel corridors list, and the introduction of quarantine hotels for arrivals from 33 “red list” countries, Britons have never been more fenced in.
An elephant in Botswana
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The best laid plans of mice and men – as the oft-paraphrased Robert Burns quotation runs – have a habit of going awry. You would certainly be thinking this way if you had spent most of 2019 preparing to launch a tour operator, and had tentatively opened for business in the November – only to find yourself overtaken by global troubles almost immediately.
“Yes, it’s far from ideal to be building a new travel company during a pandemic,” Charlie Potter says, with a wry smile and a resigned raising of the eyebrows. “And I’m sure that, if there hadn’t been a pandemic, we would be much further down the line than we now are. But we made a decision at the start of this journey that what we are doing is worthwhile – and something that needs to be done. And we are determined to get there.”
Rewilding effort sees jaguars return to Argentina s Iberá wetlands for first time in 70 years
The return of the jaguar is a dramatic development in a nation famous for intensive agriculture and ranching
Jaguars, the largest wild cats in the Western hemisphere, are found in 18 countries
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The release of jaguars into the Iberá wetlands of central Argentina earlier this month, following a 70-year absence, marks a significant moment. For centuries, development in this famously fertile southern nation has been largely defined by clearing land for growing crops and grazing, and protecting stock from predators.
A female jaguar Mariua, brought to Argentina from Brazil by Tompkins Conservation in early 2019, was allowed to step out into the wild on January 6. Early the following day she returned for her two captive-born cubs, Karai and Pora. She had apparently made a kill – of a capybara – during that first foray and was taking the cubs to share it. (The news of her
Covid is threatening Africa s gorilla trekking industry – but responsible tourism could be the cure
We now know that gorillas can catch Covid, but conservationists believe the pandemic could offer a silver lining
Two gorillas at San Diego Zoo have caught Covid-19
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Primatologists have always thought it safe to assume gorillas could catch SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – and their suspicion was finally confirmed this month.
When two western lowland gorillas at San Diego Zoo Safari Park began coughing, the zoo tested the troop’s faecal samples and found evidence of the virus. It’s thought they caught it from an asymptomatic staff member who later tested positive. In a statement, the zoo’s executive director, Lisa Peterson, said: “Aside from some congestion and coughing, the gorillas are doing well.”
A wading crane
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We stand on a raised bank on Hickling Broad, clapping hands and stamping feet against the December chill. A blackbird sounds its excitable pre-bedtime “chink, chink” alarm. After a day of mist and drizzle, the winter light is fast draining into dusk. Time to be heading home, you might think. But the day’s defining performance is still to come.
First, a dark shape appears, drifting low over the marsh. Our binoculars reveal the signature shallow-V flight profile of a marsh harrier, returning to its communal roost. No sooner have we picked out three more, straining the limits of our vision, than a clarion bugling diverts our gaze to a line of larger birds emerging from the south. Deep wingbeats and outstretched necks identify these as cranes, Hickling’s speciality. Their high, rolling calls bring a brief blast of northern taiga before they, too, drop down into the reeds.