An inter­na­tional team of researchers has devel­oped a remark­able new roadmap for find­ing and pro­tect­ing the best remain­ing hold­outs for thou­sands of rare species that live only in Mada­gas­car, con­sid­ered one of the most sig­nif­i­cant bio­di­ver­sity hot spots in the world.

An inter­na­tional team of researchers has devel­oped a remark­able new roadmap for find­ing and pro­tect­ing the best remain­ing hold­outs for thou­sands of rare species that live only in Mada­gas­car, con­sid­ered one of the most sig­nif­i­cant bio­di­ver­sity hot spots in the world.

In their con­ser­va­tion plan, the researchers, led by con­ser­va­tion biol­o­gists at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, not only included lemurs—those large-eyed, tree-hopping pri­mates that have become poster chil­dren for conservation—but also species of ants, but­ter­flies, frogs, geckos and plants.

Alto­gether, more than 2,300 species found only in the vast area of Madagascar—a 226,642-square-mile (587,000-square-kilometer) island nation in the Indian Ocean—were included in the analy­sis. Cen­tral­iz­ing and ana­lyz­ing the sheer quan­tity of data avail­able to develop a map of con­ser­va­tion pri­or­i­ties pro­vided an unprece­dented ana­lyt­i­cal chal­lenge. The results are described in the April 11 issue of the jour­nal Science.

First, a mas­sive team of researchers col­lected highly detailed data to learn the exact loca­tions of thou­sands of ani­mal and plant species across the island. The researchers then used soft­ware spe­cially devel­oped for this project, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a com­puter sci­ence researcher at AT&T, to esti­mate the com­plete range of each species. A sep­a­rate opti­miza­tion soft­ware, cus­tomized for this project by researchers at Finland’s Helsinki Uni­ver­sity, was used next to iden­tify which regions are most vital for sav­ing the great­est num­ber of species. Species that have expe­ri­enced a pro­por­tion­ally larger loss of habi­tat due to defor­esta­tion were given top pri­or­ity in the result­ing con­ser­va­tion plan because they are at greater risk of extinction.

“Never before have biol­o­gists and pol­icy mak­ers had the tools that allow analy­sis of such a broad range of species, at such fine scale, over this large a geo­graphic area,” said Claire Kre­men, UC Berke­ley assis­tant pro­fes­sor of con­ser­va­tion biol­ogy and the project’s co-lead researcher. “Our analy­sis raises the bar on what’s pos­si­ble in con­ser­va­tion plan­ning, and helps deci­sion mak­ers deter­mine the most impor­tant places to protect.”

The team’s work demon­strates that rely­ing on a sin­gle group of species for a con­ser­va­tion plan does not pro­vide ade­quate pro­tec­tion for other species groups.

“Pre­serv­ing bio­di­ver­sity in the midst of tremen­dous pres­sures, such as habi­tat destruc­tion and global warm­ing, is one of humanity’s great­est envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges in the 21st cen­tury,” said Kre­men, who worked on this project with New York-based Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety, where she is an asso­ciate con­ser­va­tion­ist. “Con­ser­va­tion plan­ning has his­tor­i­cally focused on pro­tect­ing one species or one group of species at a time, but in our race to beat species extinc­tion, that one-taxon approach is not going to be quick enough.”

Accord­ing to some esti­mates, about half of the world’s plant species and three-quarters of ver­te­brate species are con­cen­trated in bio­di­ver­sity hot spots that make up only 2.3 per­cent of Earth’s land sur­face. Mada­gas­car, a devel­op­ing coun­try off the south­east coast of Africa, is one of the most trea­sured of these regions of biodiversity.

An esti­mated 80 per­cent of the ani­mals on Mada­gas­car do not occur nat­u­rally any­where else on Earth. Half of the world’s chameleons and all species of lemurs are endemic to this island. They are joined by whole fam­i­lies of plants, insects, birds, mam­mals, rep­tiles and frogs that are found only in Madagascar.

“The diver­sity of Mada­gas­car is not yell well under­stood, as a large num­ber of species has been recently described, and new dis­cov­er­ies are made every year,” said study co-author David Vieites, a post­doc­toral fel­low at UC Berkeley’s Museum of Ver­te­brate Zool­ogy and in the Depart­ment of Inte­gra­tive Biol­ogy. “For exam­ple, since our study began three years ago, some 50 new species of amphib­ians were dis­cov­ered. Sadly, because of the high rate of habi­tat destruc­tion, huge num­bers of species will go extinct before sci­en­tists have a chance to doc­u­ment them.”

Fresh atten­tion was paid to Mada­gas­car when, in 2003, the country’s gov­ern­ment announced an ambi­tious goal of tripling its exist­ing pro­tected area net­work from about 5 mil­lion to 15 mil­lion acres (20,234–60,700 square kilo­me­ters), or about 10 per­cent of the country’s total land surface.

“Mada­gas­car is one of the poor­est coun­tries in the world, which makes the government’s com­mit­ment to bio­di­ver­sity even more remark­able,” said Ali­son Cameron, co-lead researcher of the project, and post-doctoral researcher at UC Berkeley’s Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence, Pol­icy & Man­age­ment. “Gov­ern­ment lead­ers have devel­oped a very pro­gres­sive vision for social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment, in which the nat­ural land­scape is viewed as a valu­able resource.”

The MacArthur Foun­da­tion sup­ported this project with a joint grant to UC Berke­ley and the Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety, whose staff in Mada­gas­car work with gov­ern­ment offi­cials there to incor­po­rate the results of this study into con­ser­va­tion pol­icy. The Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety has already estab­lished sev­eral new pro­tected areas within the country.

Ulti­mately, a diverse group of 22 researchers from muse­ums, zoos, herbaria, uni­ver­si­ties, non-governmental orga­ni­za­tions and indus­try con­tributed to this new analy­sis. The authors received help from an addi­tional 62 non-authored col­lab­o­ra­tors who, in turn, were part of much larger research teams that col­lected the data used in this study.

Another co-author affil­i­ated with UC Berke­ley is Brian Fisher, an adjunct pro­fes­sor at the campus’s Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Sci­ence, Pol­icy & Man­age­ment and chair of ento­mol­ogy at the Cal­i­for­nia Acad­emy of Sciences.

For their analy­sis, the researchers uti­lized decades worth of field data painstak­ingly col­lected through­out Mada­gas­car by intre­pid biologists.

“Sim­ply iden­ti­fy­ing the species on the island and deter­min­ing where they are located is very dif­fi­cult,” said Kre­men. “The ter­rain is rough, there are few roads, and we often had to hike 18 miles (30 kilo­me­ters) to get to the field site. Once there, we’d live for months in a tent under a tarp, endur­ing leeches and tor­ren­tial rain­falls, eat­ing rice and beans, to doc­u­ment the range of ani­mal and plant species in a spe­cific area. This is truly hard-won data.”

The rich data source allowed the researchers to map out the habi­tat of 2,300 species through­out every square kilo­me­ter of the island. “We spend years of our lives col­lect­ing this data, and peo­ple some­times won­der why we do it,” said Kre­men, who per­son­ally spent the greater part of eight years pri­mar­ily col­lect­ing field data in Mada­gas­car. “It is grat­i­fy­ing to know that the data col­lected may lit­er­ally put some species on the map for protection.”

Based upon this work, some sur­pris­ing areas emerged as con­ser­va­tion pri­or­i­ties, includ­ing coastal forests and cen­tral moun­tain ranges, which had large con­cen­tra­tions of endemic species. Such regions, the researchers noted, have his­tor­i­cally been neglected in favor of large tracts of forest.

“Ear­lier efforts at con­ser­va­tion plan­ning focused on whether a pro­tected species was included in a des­ig­nated area, but that region may not include a sig­nif­i­cant frac­tion of the species’ pop­u­la­tion for it to remain viable in the long term,” said Cameron, who also pro­vides tech­ni­cal advice to the Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety and the gov­ern­ment of Mada­gas­car. “In con­trast, our analy­sis goes fur­ther by max­i­miz­ing the pro­por­tion of every species, so that they achieve max­i­mum con­ser­va­tion, within the tar­get of 15 mil­lion acres set by the gov­ern­ment. This is a huge shift in approach, made pos­si­ble through advances in com­puter tech­nol­ogy that allowed us to cen­tral­ize such a large amount of data and to ana­lyze it all together.”

The researchers noted that sim­i­larly rich sources of data exist in other parts of the world, and that their method of analy­sis could be eas­ily trans­ferred to other high pri­or­ity regions for conservation.

—Sarah Yang for UCBerkeley

Sanc­tu­ary Lodges & Camps—founded by Aber­crom­bie & Kent as envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able lodgings—has expanded into Zam­bia with five new properties:

Sussi & Chuma is built among huge ebony trees, just upstream from Vic­to­ria Falls in the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park. The 10 lux­ury tree houses have pri­vate views of the Zam­bezi River. Chuma House is an exclu­sive two-bedroom villa located near the lodge.

Lechwe Plains Tented Camp in the Lochin­var National Park, north of Lusaka, is a photographer’s par­adise. Located on the Chunga Lagoon, this World Her­itage Wet­land offers incred­i­ble birdlife and tens of thou­sands of Kafue Lechwe (ante­lope), an aquatic ante­lope of excep­tional grace.

Kulefu Tented Camp in the Lower Zam­bezi National Park is on the wildest stretch of the Zam­bezi. Eight spa­cious tents are set on plat­forms at the river’s edge.

Puku Ridge Tented Camp in the South Luangwa National Park is a real wilder­ness expe­ri­ence under can­vas with excit­ing wildlife oppor­tu­ni­ties. This superb prop­erty is located on a ridge over­look­ing game rich floodplains.

Chichele Pres­i­den­tial Lodge was orig­i­nally built by Pres­i­dent Kaunda and refur­bished as an early colo­nial “Gentleman’s Lodge”. The hill­top set­ting in South Luangwa National Park over­looks plains teem­ing with wildlife.

“Though rel­a­tively unknown out­side Africa, Zam­bia offers a diverse range of envi­ron­ments with pro­lific wildlife,” said Aber­crom­bie & Kent Group Chair­man and CEO Geof­frey Kent. “Walk­ing safaris were pio­neered in Zambia’s Luangwa Val­ley; if you have only seen ani­mals from inside a vehi­cle, you will find walk­ing with big game a thrilling expe­ri­ence. Night dri­ves are also a spe­cialty and the best means of see­ing some of the more elu­sive noc­tur­nal species, includ­ing leopard.”

The com­pany also oper­ates Olo­nana in Kenya’s Masai Mara; Swala in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park and Kusini in the Serengeti; Gorilla For­est Camp in Uganda’s Bwindi Impen­e­tra­ble For­est; and four prop­er­ties in Botswana (Sanc­tu­ary Chief’s Camp, Sanc­tu­ary Chobe Chilwero, Sanc­tu­ary Stanley’s Camp, and Sanc­tu­ary Baines’ Camp).

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Aber­crom­bie & Kent or call 1-(800) 554‑7094.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of Zam­bezi Kulefu Camp by Yolandi Scanes, cour­tesy of Aber­crom­bie & Kent

Twenty-nine ani­mal con­ser­va­tion­ists who have ded­i­cated their lives to sav­ing the Earth’s endan­gered species have been nom­i­nated to receive the bien­nial Indi­anapo­lis Prize, the world’s lead­ing award for ani­mal con­ser­va­tion. The nom­i­nees’ work spans the globe, rep­re­sent­ing a range of species from insects to mam­mals, and includes amphib­ians, ele­phants, bats, wolves and sharks, among many oth­ers. The Nom­i­nat­ing Com­mit­tee will review the appli­ca­tions and select the six final­ists, who will be announced in the spring of 2010. The Prize Jury will then deter­mine the win­ner who will be announced in mid-2010 and hon­ored at the next Indi­anapo­lis Prize Gala, to be held Sep­tem­ber 25, 2010, in Indianapolis.

Twenty-nine ani­mal con­ser­va­tion­ists who have ded­i­cated their lives to sav­ing the Earth’s endan­gered species have been nom­i­nated to receive the bien­nial Indi­anapo­lis Prize. The nom­i­nees’ work spans the globe, rep­re­sent­ing a range of species from insects to mam­mals, and includes amphib­ians, ele­phants, bats, wolves and sharks, among many oth­ers. The Nom­i­nat­ing Com­mit­tee will review the appli­ca­tions and select the six final­ists, who will be announced in the spring of 2010. The Prize Jury will then deter­mine the win­ner who will be announced in mid-2010 and hon­ored at the next Indi­anapo­lis Prize Gala, to be held Sep­tem­ber 25, 2010, in Indianapolis.

In addi­tion to receiv­ing the $100,000 Prize, the recip­i­ent is also awarded the Lilly Medal, an orig­i­nal work of art that sig­ni­fies the winner’s con­tri­bu­tions to con­serv­ing some of the world’s most threat­ened animals.

The 2008 Indi­anapo­lis Prize was awarded to leg­endary field biol­o­gist George Schaller, Ph.D. Schaller’s accom­plish­ments span decades and con­ti­nents, bring­ing fresh focus to the plight of sev­eral endan­gered species—from tigers in India to goril­las in Rwanda—and inspir­ing oth­ers to join the crusade.

“Fol­low­ing in Schaller’s foot­steps will not be easy, but the cur­rent nom­i­nees are excep­tional,” said Michael Crowther, pres­i­dent and CEO of the Indi­anapo­lis Zoo, the orga­ni­za­tion respon­si­ble for ini­ti­at­ing the con­ser­va­tion award. “These con­ser­va­tion­ists are all liv­ing their own unique and fas­ci­nat­ing adven­tures that bat­tle the odds, but achieve great victories.”

The nom­i­nees for the 2010 Indi­anapo­lis Prize include many indi­vid­u­als work­ing to con­serve the diverse wildlife of Africa:

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Ph.D.: (Save the Ele­phants) Founded Save the Ele­phants; devotes his life to the cause of ele­phant conservation—from tes­ti­fy­ing before Con­gress to lead­ing anti-poaching aid pro­grams in Africa.

Jack Hanna: (Colum­bus Zoo and Aquar­ium) For more than 30 years, Hanna has been the pub­lic face of zoos, bring­ing the con­ser­va­tion mes­sage to mil­lions of peo­ple world­wide; pas­sion­ately ded­i­cated to Rwanda’s endan­gered ani­mals and its people.

Lisa Hywood: (Tikki Hywood Trust) Works tire­lessly to pre­serve Zimbabwe’s wildlife—including cap­tive breed­ing, man­age­ment and mon­i­tored release of endan­gered species and con­ser­va­tion edu­ca­tion in under-privileged, rural areas.

Lau­rie Marker, D.Phil.: (Chee­tah Con­ser­va­tion Fund) Founded the Chee­tah Con­ser­va­tion Fund; led a con­ser­va­tion pro­gram from hum­ble begin­nings in rural Namibia to an unpar­al­leled model for preda­tor conservation.

Gre­gory Ras­mussen, Ph.D.: (Painted Dog Con­ser­va­tion) Dili­gent advo­cate of the crit­i­cally endan­gered African wild dogs; founder of the Painted Dog Con­ser­va­tion, which strives to increase the range and num­bers of wild dogs in Zim­babwe and else­where in Africa.

Lente Lidia Roode: (Hoed­spruit Endan­gered Species Cen­tre) Estab­lished the Hoed­spruit Endan­gered Species Cen­tre, a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides a safe haven for orphaned and sick ani­mals, com­plete with an edu­ca­tion cen­ter, res­cue unit and breed­ing program.

Addi­tional nom­i­nees work­ing out­side of Africa:

Karen Eck­ert, Ph.D.: (WIDECAST: Wider Caribbean Sea Tur­tle Con­ser­va­tion Net­work) Ded­i­cated to research, mul­ti­lat­eral marine resource man­age­ment and the inter­na­tional con­ser­va­tion poli­cies for sea tur­tles for more than three decades.

Ger­ardo Cebal­los, Ph.D.: (Insti­tuto de Ecolo­gia, Uni­ver­si­dad Nacional Autonoma de Mex­ico) Leader in design­ing con­ser­va­tion strate­gies for endan­gered species and threat­ened ecosys­tems; con­ducted the first geo­graph­i­cally explicit analy­sis of pat­terns of pop­u­la­tion and species extinc­tion in a major tax­o­nomic group (mammals).

Nigel Col­lar, Ph.D.: (BirdLife Inter­na­tional) Researched and com­piled a unique and com­pre­hen­sive dataset on glob­ally threat­ened bird species that was pub­lished in ground­break­ing regional Red Data Books worldwide.

Ruth M. Elsey, M.D.: (Louisiana Depart­ment of Wildlife and Fish­eries) Fos­tered pro­grams to enhance the sur­viv­abil­ity and sus­tain­abil­ity of the Amer­i­can alli­ga­tor, in addi­tion to par­al­lel efforts for other crocodilians.

George Fen­wick, Ph.D.: (Amer­i­can Bird Con­ser­vancy) Founded Amer­i­can Bird Con­ser­vancy; ded­i­cated to cre­at­ing and sus­tain­ing glob­ally sig­nif­i­cant bio­di­ver­sity reserves, tack­ling policy-based threats to birds and gen­er­at­ing fund­ing resources for the bio­di­ver­sity community.

Rod­ney Fox: (Rod­ney Fox Shark Expeditions/Fox Shark Research Foun­da­tion) Mir­a­cle sur­vivor of one of the world’s worst shark attacks; regarded as a world author­ity on Great White Shark research, obser­va­tion and conservation.

Birute Mary Galdikas, Ph.D.: (Orang­utan Foun­da­tion Inter­na­tional) More than 35 years of advanc­ing research on wild orang­utan ecol­ogy and behav­ior; estab­lished reha­bil­i­ta­tion and release pro­grams and saved mil­lions of acres of trop­i­cal rain for­est in Kalimantan.

Paul Gar­ber, Ph.D.: (Uni­ver­sity of Illi­nois Urbana-Champaign) More than 30 years of ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment to research, con­ser­va­tion and edu­ca­tional pro­grams involv­ing the mon­keys of Latin America.

Mau­rice Hornocker, Ph.D.: (Sel­way Insti­tute; Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus, Uni­ver­sity of Idaho) Devoted his career to under­stand­ing the eco­log­i­cal role of wild cats and advo­cat­ing for the con­ser­va­tion of large car­ni­vores, includ­ing the first-ever field inves­ti­ga­tion of cougars.

Rick Hud­son: (Fort Worth Zoo; Inter­na­tional Iguana Foun­da­tion; IUCN Tur­tle Sur­vival Alliance) Ded­i­cated advo­cate for rep­tile con­ser­va­tion, includ­ing ground­break­ing work with the Jamaican iguana and the coor­di­na­tion of the largest tur­tle res­cue event in history.

Rod­ney Jack­son, Ph.D.: (Snow Leop­ard Con­ser­vancy) Con­ducted an in-depth radio-tracking study of snow leop­ards in the 1980s; ded­i­cated to build­ing local com­mu­ni­ties’ capac­ity as key play­ers in con­serv­ing the species.

Jana John­son, M.S., Ph.D.: (Moor­park Col­lege, The But­ter­fly Project) Founded The But­ter­fly Project, a cen­ter for endan­gered but­ter­fly prop­a­ga­tion and research; helped the Palos Verdes blue but­ter­fly pop­u­la­tion, once pre­sumed extinct, grow from 200 to 10,000.

James Earl Ken­namer, Ph.D.: (National Wild Turkey Fed­er­a­tion) Devoted leader in wild turkey research, sci­en­tific wildlife man­age­ment and forg­ing coop­er­a­tive con­ser­va­tion part­ner­ships to grow the wild turkey pop­u­la­tion from 1.3 mil­lion to 7 mil­lion in less than 30 years.

Thomas H. Kunz, Ph.D.: (Boston Uni­ver­sity) For more than 50 years, has sig­nif­i­cantly and instru­men­tally con­tributed to the con­ser­va­tion and teach­ing of bat ecol­ogy, phys­i­ol­ogy and behavior.

Amanda Lol­lar: (Bat World Sanc­tu­ary) Estab­lished Bat World Sanc­tu­ary, the largest reha­bil­i­ta­tion facil­ity in the world ded­i­cated exclu­sively to bats; cre­ated the first nutri­tion­ally sound diet for debil­i­tated bats.

Edward Louis Jr., Ph.D., DVM: (Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo) Tire­less con­ser­va­tion advo­cate of island bio­geog­ra­phy, includ­ing the dis­cov­ery of 30 per­cent of known lemurs to date.

Stephen McCul­loch: (Har­bor Branch Oceano­graphic Insti­tu­tion) Cre­ated leg­is­la­tion to fund sev­eral ongo­ing marine mam­mal research and con­ser­va­tion pro­grams while work­ing to con­struct the first teach­ing marine mam­mal hos­pi­tal, sci­ence and edu­ca­tion center.

Rodrigo Medellin, Ph.D.: (Uni­ver­sity of Mex­ico) Gal­va­nized bat research through­out Latin Amer­ica by using a mul­ti­pronged approach includ­ing research, edu­ca­tion, pop­u­la­tion biol­ogy, mol­e­c­u­lar ecol­ogy and com­mu­nity involvement.

Patrick T. Redig, DVM, Ph.D.: (The Rap­tor Cen­ter, Col­lege of Vet­eri­nary Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­sity of Min­nesota) Ded­i­cated more than 35 years to pro­tect­ing rap­tor pop­u­la­tions though exten­sive field work, bench research, clin­i­cal work, pro­fes­sional teach­ing and com­mu­nity service.

Patrick Rose: (Save the Man­a­tee Club) Worked to help edu­cate oppo­nents, build coali­tions and focus on spe­cific pro­tec­tion goals for man­a­tees, includ­ing pro­tect­ing the manatee’s habi­tat and advo­cat­ing for strong growth man­age­ment laws.

Carl Safina, Ph.D.: (Blue Ocean Insti­tute) Brought ocean con­ser­va­tion into the envi­ron­men­tal main­stream by using sci­ence, art and lit­er­a­ture to inspire “sea ethic.”

Simon Stu­art, Ph.D.: (IUCN-World Con­ser­va­tion Union) Devel­oped the IUCN Red List Cat­e­gories and Cri­te­ria, which assesses the extinc­tion risk for species.

Amanda Vin­cent, Ph.D.: (The Uni­ver­sity of British Colum­bia) First per­son to study sea­horses under­wa­ter, doc­u­ment exten­sive com­mer­cial trade, and ini­ti­ate a sea­horse con­ser­va­tion project, Project Seahorse.

The bien­nial $100,000 Indi­anapo­lis Prize rep­re­sents the largest indi­vid­ual mon­e­tary award for ani­mal con­ser­va­tion in the world and is given as an unre­stricted gift to the cho­sen honoree.

The Indi­anapo­lis Prize was ini­ti­ated by the Indi­anapo­lis Zoo as a sig­nif­i­cant com­po­nent of its mis­sion to inspire local and global com­mu­ni­ties and to cel­e­brate, pro­tect and pre­serve our nat­ural world through con­ser­va­tion, edu­ca­tion and research. This award brings the world’s atten­tion to the cause of ani­mal con­ser­va­tion and the brave, tal­ented and ded­i­cated men and women who spend their lives sav­ing the Earth’s endan­gered ani­mal species. It was first awarded in 2006 to Dr. George Archibald, the co-founder of the Inter­na­tional Crane Foun­da­tion and one of the world’s great field biologists.

In 2008, the Indi­anapo­lis Prize went to Dr. George Schaller, the world’s pre­em­i­nent field biol­o­gist and vice pres­i­dent of sci­ence and explo­ration for the Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety. The Eli Lilly and Com­pany Foun­da­tion has pro­vided fund­ing for the Indi­anapo­lis Prize since 2006.

A flurry of South Africa travel pack­ages are being announced now that the 2010 World Cup is only eight months away. Here’s a 15-day adven­ture from Africa Adven­ture Con­sul­tants that com­bines 10 nights in Cape Town (or other cities), two soc­cer matches in Cat­e­gory 1 (best) seats, and a four-night game safari at Thorny­bush Pri­vate Game Lodge in Thorny­bush Nature Reserve near Kruger National Park. The land-only price is $7,820 per person.

Africa Adven­ture Consultant’s pres­i­dent Kent Red­ding is see­ing an uptick in book­ings for the period sur­round­ing the World Cup. “Now is cer­tainly the time for soc­cer fans to make World Cup Africa travel plans, as we’re already see­ing lim­ited avail­abil­ity at some hotels through­out South Africa. With the recent news from Lon­don regard­ing bogus tick­ets, it’s also impor­tant to pur­chase your travel pack­ages from rep­utable operators.”

In addi­tion to World Cup Africa travel, Denver-based African safari expert Africa Adven­ture Con­sul­tants orga­nizes safari adven­tures through­out East and South­ern Africa, with des­ti­na­tions includ­ing Tan­za­nia, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Rwanda, Zam­bia, Vic­to­ria Falls and Ethiopia.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Africa Aven­ture Con­sul­tants or call 1-(866) 778‑1089.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Thorny­bush Pri­vate Game Lodge

South­ern Africa is one of my favorite regions on Earth. The topog­ra­phy is diverse, ani­mal viewing—including the “Big Five” of African ele­phant, rhino, lion, leop­ard, and Cape Buffalo—is almost too easy, and the peo­ple are incred­i­bly engag­ing. That’s why I was very intrigued to learn about the new Zam­bezi Queen riverboat—built in 2009—that is now offer­ing safaris on the Chobe River in north­east Botswana.

The Zam­bezi Queen

If you’re addicted to HBO’s series No. 1 Ladies’ Detec­tive Agency that’s set in Botswana, you know the country’s south­ern bor­der is buf­feted by South Africa, to the west and north is Namibia, to the east is Zim­babwe. (A very small por­tion of the north­ern bor­der is also shared by Zambia.)

Vis­i­tors from all around the world are drawn to sev­eral regions of Botswana: the Kala­hari Desert at the cen­ter of the coun­try, the lush Oka­vango Delta in the cen­tral north, and Chobe National Park to the north­east. It’s at Chobe National Park that you’ll see the largest pop­u­la­tion of African ele­phants (num­ber­ing close to 120,000).

The steel hulled Zam­bezi Queen river­boat explores the Chobe between Namibia’s Caprivi Strip and Chobe National Park and ties up just miles from where four countries—Botswana, Namibia, Zam­bia, and Zimbabwe—meet. (It’s an easy trip to the dra­matic Vic­to­ria Falls from here.)

This brand new river­boat houses 14 cab­ins, all with pri­vate bal­conies. Four are mas­ter suites with air con­di­tion­ing while the remain­ing 10 state­rooms are cooled via ceil­ing fans.

You’ll enjoy the pool on the top deck (for­ward) as well as the din­ing room and lounge with floor-to-ceiling win­dows that are per­fect for spy­ing game all day long.

Onboard guides will take you on safaris via ten­ders (three alu­minum high-speed boats) that allow for super up-close view­ing of ani­mals. Land-based game view­ing from 4x4 vehi­cles is also an option in Botswana’s Chobe National Park. If you’d like to see what local vil­lage life is like, the Zam­bezi Queen can arrange for a tour. And, there are two fiber­glass boats for those who wish to hook some tiger fish and bream.

Two– and three-night safaris are avail­able and are priced in South African rand. Pair your voy­age aboard the Zam­bezi Queen with one or two game lodge stays in Botswana; the Royal Liv­ing­stone in Zam­bia for Vic­to­ria Falls; or lodges in South Africa’s Tim­ba­vati or Sabi Sands Pri­vate Game Reserves.

For more infor­ma­tion, talk with your travel agent or con­tact Zam­bezi Queen at +27 (0) 21 438 0032.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Zam­bezi Queen

Today is the first day guests will check in to the new sole-use safari villa, The Home­stead, at &Beyond Phinda Pri­vate Game Reserve in KswaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

If you’ve got a fam­ily of eight or a group of friends, this four suite villa—with its ded­i­cated staff, includ­ing a pri­vate ranger, tracker, but­ler, and pri­vate chef—may be the per­fect spot to mix ele­gant accom­mo­da­tions and high-quality game drives.

You’ll have exclu­sive use of an open 4x4 safari vehi­cle and that means you can go on game dri­ves when­ever you wish—day or night. When you’re not out in the bush, you’ll enjoy loung­ing by the infin­ity pool, exer­cis­ing in the gym, or relax­ing in the beau­ti­ful pub­lic areas of The Homestead.

Rates dur­ing low sea­son are approx­i­mately $3,300 per night for up to four guests or $4,700 per night for five to eight guests. Rates rise in high season.

&Beyond, for­merly CC Africa, owns and oper­ates 46 lux­ury lodges and camps and cre­ates per­son­al­ized travel expe­ri­ences in South Africa, Namibia, Zim­babwe, Botswana, Tan­za­nia, Kenya, and India.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit &Beyond or call 1-(888) 882‑3742.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of &Beyond

Orient-Express Safaris oper­ates three lux­ury camps in North­ern Botswana: Eagle Island Camp in the Oka­vango Delta, Savute Ele­phant Camp in the Chobe Desert, and Khwai River Lodge adja­cent to the Moremi Game Reserve.

Now, in addi­tion to offer­ing tra­di­tional safari expe­ri­ences, Orient-Express is also offer­ing the chance to be guided by ani­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tor Anna Breyten­bach, who will unlock the secrets to track­ing ani­mals in the wild. You’ll soon be scout­ing like a local as you fig­ure out how to tell which ani­mal left the tracks, what direc­tion it’s mov­ing in, and when it was last in the area. Anna will also teach the art of ani­mal com­mu­ni­ca­tion so you’ll be in tune with ani­mals you encounter in the wild and in your every­day life at home.

Vaca­tions with Orient-Express Safaris may also include a boat trip through the Oka­vango in the heart of the Delta to visit a tra­di­tional Noxa vil­lage, or a Khwai River vil­lage. Trav­el­ers also meet with envi­ron­men­tal­ist Onx Manga, who explains what the lives of the Bush­men were like thou­sands of years ago while vis­it­ing ancient and rare Bush­men paint­ings and the for­est of African Baob­abs (giant “upside down” trees, which are thou­sands of years old).

These unusual expe­ri­ences are just a hint of what awaits you in Botswana.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Orient-Express Safaris or call +27 21 483‑1600.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Orient-Express Safaris

South African Air­ways Busi­ness Class Seats

If you were already plan­ning on pur­chas­ing busi­ness class seats for an upcom­ing South African Air­ways flight, this is a deal that will save you a bun­dle. Through SAA’s “Treat Your­self and Your Sweetie” pro­mo­tion, you’ll receive a free com­pan­ion busi­ness class ticket (plus taxes and fuel sur­charges) with the pur­chase one busi­ness class ticket for $9,750 from New York or Wash­ing­ton, D.C. to Johan­nes­burg, Cape Town, East Lon­don, or Port Eliz­a­beth. Slightly higher fares are avail­able to other parts of Africa.

Seats are lim­ited. Com­pan­ion must travel with ticket pur­chaser on the same dates and flights. Min­i­mum stay of five days. Travel must be com­pleted by June 15, 2009.

Call 1-(800) 722‑9675 to book tickets.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of South African Airways

Town & Coun­try Travel’s Adam H. Gra­ham just returned from Botswana and writes about his expe­ri­ence for the magazine’s web­site. The story fea­tures two new lux­ury camps—Xaranna and Xudum—in Botswana from &Beyond.

Read “Beyond Botswana: Two New Lux­ury Safari Camps and a Name Change to Boot.”

Photo of Xudum Lodge cour­tesy of &Beyond

I love 60 Min­utes because they often pre­pare seg­ments about dif­fer­ent areas of Africa, delv­ing into the continent’s wildlife, pol­i­tics, health crises, and eco­nomic devel­op­ment. Last night reporter Scott Pel­ley reported from Mozambique’s Goron­goza National Park.

The imagery was stun­ning and the nar­ra­tive told the story of Mozam­bique and its decades-long war and health prob­lems typ­i­fied by malaria and HIV. The seg­ment also intro­duced us to Amer­i­can entre­pre­neur Greg Carr, who fell in love with this coun­try years ago and is spend­ing much of his per­sonal for­tune (he helped develop the con­cept of voice­mail in the mid-eighties) to help turn Goron­gosa National Park into a tourism suc­cess story.

“The idea is take the beauty of the park and use that to do human devel­op­ment. Attract the tourists who will spend the money to cre­ate the jobs and lift every­body outta poverty,” said Carr. “For an entre­pre­neur, it’s kind of a com­pelling opportunity.”

The park was once con­sid­ered a must-visit spot for safari-goers, but war, poverty, and poach­ing changed that. In the 1960s, Goron­gosa nur­tured 500 lions, 2,000 ele­phants, 14,000 Cape buf­falo, and 3,000 hippos—among other ani­mals. Those pop­u­la­tions were dec­i­mated by poach­ers and now eco­nomic devel­op­ment and wildlife pro­tec­tion is required to return Goron­gosa to her for­mer beauty.

Accord­ing to 60 Min­utes, Carr has ear­marked $40 mil­lion of his per­sonal wealth to the project and through his non-profit, the Carr Foun­da­tion, he has an agree­ment with the Mozam­bi­can gov­ern­ment to assist with the devel­op­ment of Goron­gosa for the next two decades.

If you missed Scott Pelley’s report on Mozambique’s Goron­gosa National Park on 60 Min­utes, you can watch the seg­ment online.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com