From the Arctic to the Amazon, these wildlife cruises let you get closer than ever. Photo / Delfin Amazon Cruises
From the Arctic to the Amazon, these wildlife cruises let you get closer than ever. Photo / Delfin Amazon Cruises
From birds and reptiles to marine giants and iconic species in Africa, Antarctica, and the Amazon, a small-boat cruise offers unparalleled encounters with wildlife. Brett Atkinson shares 10 of the best
Manta rays, turtles and reef sharks around Raja Ampat
Southeast of the famed Spice Islands, Indonesia’s Raja Ampat region is renowned as one of the world’s best destinations for diving, but the area’s underwater spectacle is also easily accessible by snorkellers. Exploring on the Ombak Putih, a traditional wooden sailing ketch, experiences with SeaTrek Sailing Adventures include swimming with black-tip reef sharks in the metre-deep shallows off remote Pulau Yilliet (Yilliet Island), or gazing through gin-clear deeper waters to see the tell-tale profile of manta rays tracing leisurely underwater arcs off Pulau Dayang’s Manta Point. Emerging from the shadows on Raja Ampat’s still-pristine reefs, sea turtles are also regularly spotted.
Even equipped with a massive telephoto lens, sometimes the best strategy is to put down your camera. On a Pangolin Photo Safaris experience, there are simply too many elephants crossing Botswana’s Chobe River to take them all in through the limited vision of a camera’s viewfinder. Here, in Namibia’s Caprivi Strip, which is part of the massive five-country Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, elephants can roam free. Wildlife action usually includes adolescent males play-fighting mid-stream, tiny metre-high babies slipping and sliding in a riverine mud pool, and older elephants using their trunks as snorkels to travel deeper into the river.
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An elephant in the Chobe River. Photo / Carol Piper
Bears, otters and whales in Alaska
The largest cruise liner to visit Alaska accommodates almost 5000 passengers, but the best way to explore America’s biggest and northernmost state is on a smaller, more agile expedition boat. Experiences with UnCruise Adventures are on vessels taking a maximum of around 80 passengers, with craft like the 84-berth Safari Endeavour able to access remote coves framed by quicksilver waterfalls, squeezing through entrances just a few metres wider than the boat. Once inside these sheltered anchorages, there’s a greater chance of seeing bears patrolling grassy riverbanks, hundreds of sea otters floating together in a ‘raft’, or humpback whales feeding in cooler, northern waters.
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A brown bear in Alaska. Photo / Carol Piper
Dugongs and crocodiles in the Kimberley
Measuring almost 430,000 sq km, Australia’s Kimberley region is the country’s most remote wilderness area. Luxury expedition cruises on the True North take in the Kimberley’s massive landscapes – also venturing on the boat’s own helicopter to isolated river canyons – but it’s on the vessel’s smaller adventure boats that the region’s wildlife is best experienced. Patience is key to seeing Koolama Bay’s resident population of dugongs – just seven of the sirenians are thought to populate the bay – and it’s a thrill to see their whiskers revealed in morning sunshine. Beyond occasional sightings of the common ‘logodile’, crocodiles are also seen basking in Kimberley sunshine or cruising past in turquoise waters.
In the Kimberley, crocodiles can look like floating logs—locals call them "logodiles." Photo / True North
Sloths and river dolphins in the Peruvian Amazon
Just south of the equator, the sun rises faster in the Peruvian Amazon, making a post-dawn departure from the Delfin III a great time to see local wildlife. The luxury vessel’s experienced adventure boat drivers expertly position their craft along shaded river banks in Peru’s Pacaya–Samiria National Reserve, ideal locations to take in forest denizens including sloths, moving almost imperceptibly in diffuse morning light, scarlet macaws high in the forest canopy, and squadrons of wood storks migrating south from North America. At the entrances to blackwater creeks tracing sinuous pathways further into the jungle, river dolphins tinged with a grey-pink hue gather to feed.
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A pink-tinged river dolphin in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo / Delfin Amazon Cruises
Hector’s dolphins and New Zealand fur seals in Akaroa Harbour
New Zealand’s cutest wildlife guides are definitely the canine crew from Akaroa Dolphins. Leading the savvy four-legged team are Albie and Buster, both very experienced at getting very excited when the harbour’s Hector’s dolphins can be spotted from the bow. The dogs, especially Miniature Schnauzer Buster, usually sense the dolphins before they can be seen, and kekeno (New Zealand fur seals) and seabirds are regularly spotted on two-hour nature cruises. Look forward to commentary on the harbour’s Māori and colonial history, and don’t be surprised if English Springer Spaniel Albie also lines up for a freshly-baked treat from the boat’s galley.
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Boobies and marine iguanas in the Galapagos Islands
Below the water attractions around Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands include swimming with reef sharks, sea lions, and penguins – attracted by the cooler Humboldt current flowing down South America’s west coast – but expedition cruising on the La Pinta also includes seeing blue-footed boobies and marine iguanas along the craggy cliffs of Isla Ferdandina. Boobies, a close relation of New Zealand’s gannets, undertake courtship rituals right beside carefully prescribed walking tracks, while closer to the ocean, hundreds of marine iguanas crowd lava terraces formed by Pacific eruptions. Still an active shield volcano, the island actually last erupted in 2024.
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Marine Iguana. Photo / Brett Atkinson
Seals and seabirds in Fiordland
Also known as Ata Whenua (Shadowland), it’s a special thrill to experience Fiordland cruising through the shape-shifting banks of mist that often frame the region. Expedition journeys on Fiordland Discovery’s Fiordland Jewel luxury catamaran venture deep into a remote and rugged destination also explored by Captain James Cook on the HMS Resolution in 1773. Fur seals and dusky and bottlenose dolphins are often seen on kayaking excursions from the boat, and beyond the sheltered havens of Rakituma/Preservation Inlet and Tamatea/Dusky Sound, ocean-going seabirds, including albatrosses and mollymawks, bank and cartwheel above the boat’s stern as it travels along New Zealand’s southwestern coast.
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Dolphins and Fiordland. Photo / Fiordland Discovery
Polar bears, walruses and reindeer in the Arctic
Arctic adventures with Quark Expeditions will find you on ice-strengthened vessels with a just 200 fellow passengers as you sail across the North Atlantic. Enjoy the view of seabirds and marine and terrestrial wildlife amid landscapes including fiords, glaciers and coastal cliffs, or board an inflatable Zodiac or fly on one of the Ultramarine’s two helicopters for remarkable views. En route to the Arctic Circle, avian residents of the Scottish island of Fair Isle include puffins, guillemots, and storm petrels, while further north, the waters around Jan Mayen Island are feeding grounds for blue and humpback whales. Located entirely within the Arctic Circle, Spitsbergen’s polar bears, walruses and Svalbard reindeer make the Norwegian island the wildlife capital of the Arctic.
Departing from the southern Argentinean port of Ushuaia, adventures with Aurora Expeditions venture from Tierra del Fuego across the Drake Passage to the Antarctic Peninsula. With daylight between 18 and 24 hours, there are plenty of opportunities to be immersed in southern wildlife. Sometimes shadowed by seals and dolphins, twice-daily excursions in Zodiacs cruise past soaring ice cliffs and leviathan icebergs to land on pebbly beaches alive with the intense spectacle of thousands of penguins. South of the Antarctic Circle, the frigid waters are packed with marine life, including tiny, shrimp-like krill that attract humpback and minke whales during the feeding season from November to February.
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