GLOBETROTTERS WRITING PROMPT

Wildlife — The Finale

From elks walking down the streets and quokkas in town to giraffes in the wild

With a strong push and ten new articles in the last two days, this month’s challenge is coming in second with 40 submissions just after last month’s street art one.

From the air presenting all kinds of birds, over the fastest, biggest or slowest land animals all the way to those creatures living in the oceans, our writers have presented them all. In writing and in pictures.

But let’s get to the point. Here are our choices:

JoAnn Ryan

It’s been so fun this month reading about so many fascinating animals encountered on your travels throughout the world. Loved reading about the pursuit of red avadavats from arun, sitting with gorillas in the Congo (formerly Zaïre) from Brad Yonaka and cutie cows in Switzerland from Bryan Dijkhuizen.

And while I indeed loved reading all of your stories, here are a few that stuck out in my mind.

Tim Ward, Mature Flâneur’s fun and quirky story about traveling with endangered birds in New Zealand:

Appreciated Jody Lynn McBrien’s fascinating and well-written tour of encountering animals on her humanitarian travels through the world:

As I wrote about previously, also loved this story by Ruane Remy about small turtles and crabs and other fascinating creatures in Barbados. It was a great story, for one thing, but I also really want to visit Barbados soon! (Gotta love the red nail polish also.)

Ultimately though, I really enjoyed this story from Roberta Patellaro, which was both fun to read but also sad when hearing about how the camels are often treated. It’s a great reminder to all of us to observe whether or not animals are being treated well wherever we travel, and not give our money to those who abuse animals:

Thank you to everyone who submitted stories this month. Hope to see you all for next month’s challenge!

Adrienne Beaumont

I loved reading all of your amazing wildlife encounters, but I’ve come to the conclusion I’m not a wildlife sort of person. I have never had any desire to go on an African Safari. Maybe it’s because the wildlife I grew up with in the Australian bush made me a “kill or be killed” sort of person. But how could I not love Erika Burkhalter’s stories of giraffes, leopards and humpback whales? Her photography is beyond compare.

I like ducks and squirrels but I’m frightened by cows and horses. They’re too big and unpredictable.

The stories that resonated with me personally for different reasons were Erie Astin’s “A Wolf Licked My Hand!”, Dan Carlson’s “From Iron Curtain to Wildlife Haven: Cycling Germany’s Green Belt”, arun’s “In Pursuit of Red Avadavats”, Serhii Onkov’s “Wildlife in Urban Area” and Kim Baker’s Wild Bird Travel Advice. Her travel advice from birds is particularly relevant to my trip. I laughed at this snippet, “So, when in a tree, or communal sleeping area, settle down, go to sleep and do your best to be a good member of the flock.”

Michele Maize

This has been my favorite challenge prompt so far as an editor here at Globetrotters. Reading your stories about seeing animals out in the wild has brought so much joy to my days. Some have made me extremely jealous, in a good way, and some have left me staring at my little laptop screen in awe.

I didn’t even know what a quokka was until I read this story from Мaria Kriskovich. I love learning about new things, especially animals, and now have to see these little mini kangaroos in person someday! Maria even has a close encounter with one of them.

I contemplated riding a camel the last time I was in Mexico but I had mixed feelings, as does Roberta Patellaro. She shares her story about her camel ride and why she won’t ride a camel again in the future. Plus, she has some great pictures of camels.

My favorite story this month comes from Erika Burkhalter. Her photos alone are a win in my book. Her writing also steals the show as she explains how she was face-to-face with this leopard. I always love Erika’s photos but this story takes the cake. She shares some stunning pictures of the leopard and many other animals in South Africa.

Jillian Amatt

As usual, I have been thrilled with all of the fascinating prompt responses you Globetrotters provided us. Usually, I only pick 3 or 4 of my favorites, but this month I just couldn’t narrow it down.

Erie Astin captured me with just her title in A Wolf Licked My Hand! I loved reading about her dream experience in Montana.

Great photographs were a very important part of this month's responses and I want to make sure to mention the photos by Erika Burkhalter in That Moment When We Found Ourselves Staring Into the Eyes of a Leopard Perched on a Branch Just Over Our Heads, Teja Bangiev in Wildlife Across 7 Continents, and Joel R. Dennstedt’s brother Stephens photos in All The Wildlife In The World. I was so captivated by all of your stunning images and the stories to go with them are great as well.

I’m always amazed by the diversity of our planet and the fact that there is so much out there that I don’t even know about. Maria Kriskovich had me enthralled with her story while I learned about Quokkas. They are so adorable and I want for nothing more than to see one in real life now! Rottnest Island. Warning: Wild Quokkas Ahead

Brad Yonaka had the incredible experience of seeing gorillas in the wild. I loved reading about his experience traveling in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) because it really reminded me of our time in Uganda over the past couple of years. Sadly, we didn’t have the resources required to do a gorilla trek, so I will just have to live vicariously through his great story and photos. Sitting with Mountain Gorillas

Tim Ward, Mature Flâneur usually makes me laugh with his brilliant writing. I really loved his story about driving around New Zealand with endangered animals in his car in Why We Travel with Endangered Birds in Our Car. Did you know that kiwis scootch their butts?

But my favorite pick was Kim Baker's story about how birds travel. She uses their behaviors as examples of how we could travel better as well. I really like her creative response to the prompt and her article comes with some great advice, not to mention some great photos! Wild Bird Travel Advice

Birds, quite possibly are the most well-traveled animals on Earth, so the next time you are thinking about joining them in the sky and getting your suitcase out, take heed, they have a lot to teach us about getting out there. — Kim Baker

Thanks to all who participated and pulled out your best wildlife encounters. I myself wrote FIVE articles this month in response to the prompt, which I’m sure is a record. Plus, I still didn’t get to others that I wanted to submit. It’s been a fascinating month!

Anne Bonfert

Guys, you really made this one difficult. As a passionate wildlife photographer, I was really looking forward to this challenge but you surpassed all expectations. Too many great stories, wildlife encounters and award-winning photographs.

As I always try to settle down on three choices, I had to neglect a lot of great prompt submissions this month but still wanted to highlight two that were a little different than the others.

The difference in Tim Ward,’s “Why We Travel with Endangered Birds in Our Car” and Belcairn’s “Watching An Endangered Species In Venice” lies in the narrative. They both took a different take on the challenge I really enjoyed.

Next is one of the first submissions we received this month and a story that happened to take place in the early '90s. While I have seen a lot of wildlife on the African continent, I haven’t gotten around to going on what they call a “gorilla trek”.

Brad describes his experiences so vividly and authentic, I felt like for the first time in my life, I did see the gorillas. He took me deep into the African bush and I felt the humidity of the jungle and then heard this unique species.

“The young one, however, comes within a few meters and makes a show of beating his tiny chest. We try hard not to laugh at the comedy of it, but silence, after all the anticipation of seeing these amazing animals, is impossible.” — Brad Yonaka

And then there is one more woman I was so looking forward to reading her submission and she gifted us with not one but three challenge stories. When I saw “Mingling with Giraffes on the South African Savanna” and “The Ethereal Experience of Listening to Humpback Whales Bubble-Net Feeding” I knew already we were in for a treat but then she topped it with one more story that touched my heart.

As someone who’s been annually on African safaris for the past eight years, I do know how rare and therefore special a leopard sighting in the wild is. Erika got lucky not only to see one but several animals of this species on one safari in South Africa.

“But that did not stop her ears from twitching or her whiskers from pulling back against her cheeks as she perused us, a jeep full of tourists on photo safari in a private reserve just outside of Kruger National Park.” — Erika Burkhalter

Once again, we thank each and every writer who has contributed to this writing prompt. The stories were all interesting and inspiring. I loved seeing all the photographs of wildlife from around the world.

If you missed the deadline and still want to share a travel story presenting wildlife, you can do so. The article will just not be part of the challenge. We are always open to travel posts.

I also encourage you to stay tuned for our next writing prompt for the month of October. We will announce it here on Globetrotters on the 1st.

The team of editors also has contributed to the challenge with the following articles. These posts never join the contest.

JoAnn Ryan with “An Abundance of Amazingly Wonderous Wild Animals”

Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages with “Our Neighbours Were Snakes, Sloths, Monkeys and Iguanas”, “He Said He Saw a Dog Monkey”, “We Laughed Hysterically When the Stork Stole Their Lunch”, “Canada Is Wild” and “Canada Gets Even Wilder”

Michele Maize with “I Am Noticing a Trend: My Vacations are Becoming Centered Around Wildlife”

Adrienne Beaumont with “Not Totally Wild, But Totally Cute”

Anne Bonfert with “The Ultimate Safari Destination in Africa”, “The Day We Drove Into a Herd of Rare Desert Elephants”, “The Ultimate Desert Survivors” and “Less Exotic but Just As Spectacular Wildlife”

And now, please give credit to all participating writers and read these awesome submissions if you haven’t checked them out yet:

Tim Ward, Mature Flâneur with “Encounters with Albatrosses (in New Zealand)”, “Why We Travel with Endangered Birds in Our Car”

Bryan Dijkhuizen with “We Stumbled Upon These Cows in the Swiss Mountains”

Luda Zueva with “Wildlife in Lion City”

Kim Baker with “Wild Bird Travel Advice”

Joel R. Dennstedt with “All The Wildlife In The World”

Brad Yonaka with “Sitting with Mountain Gorillas”

Jody Lynn McBrien with “World-Wide Wonders”

arun with “In Pursuit of Red Avadavats”

Victoria Hydespop with “Elephants, Snakes and Everything In-Between”

Roberta Patellaro with “To All the Camels I Rode”

Rhonda Carrier with “Wildlife on a Singapore Nature Hike” and “Bako Nature Park, Kuching, Sarawak”

Bell Dae with “The Scariest Wildlife in Australia are the Kangaroos”

Ronald Smit with “Creatures Great and Small”

Мaria Kriskovich with “Rottnest Island. Warning: Wild Quokkas Ahead”

Carol Labuzzetta, MS Natural Resources, MS Nursing with “Wildlife At Home and Away”

Dan Carlson with “From Iron Curtain to Wildlife Haven: Cycling Germany’s Green Belt”

Erika Burkhalter with “Mingling with Giraffes on the South African Savanna”, “That Moment When We Found Ourselves Staring Into the Eyes of a Leopard Perched on a Branch Just Over Our Heads” and “The Ethereal Experience of Listening to Humpback Whales Bubble-Net Feeding”

Aaron Paulson with “Tokyo Wildlife: Godzilla” and “Tokyo Crow City”

Ruane Remy with “Close Encounters with the Critters of Barbados”

Serhii Onkov with “Wildlife in Urban Area”

Teja Bangiev with “Wildlife Across 7 Continents”

Erie Astin with “A Wolf Licked My Hand!”

Julia A. Keirns with “Wildlife of 2023”

Your Globetrotters editing team (JoAnn, Adrienne, Jillian, Michele & Anne)