Lonely Planet Guide to where and when to see the greatest wildlife wonders

Seeing sand cats sunbathing in the Sahara or catching a glimpse the climbing coconut crabs of Christmas Island are some of the highlights of a new guide on the world's greatest wildlife wonders.
Richard Alleyne, The Telegraph 8 Aug 09;

From the million wildebeest stampeding across the Serengeti in June, to killer whales surfing Argentinian beaches in March to the "greatest shoal on Earth" – the sardine run off South Africa in June, the book highlights nature's most spectacular must-sees.

The Lonely Plant Year of Watching Wildlife is a collection of 192 of the world's best wildlife watching events and destinations.

These are presented chronologically in a yearly calendar. Each week, a different destination is profiled which offers some of the best, and most unexpected wildlife gatherings in the world.

A profile destination is followed by three interesting animals from other places across the globe and features practical information including when to visit, population size and which species are protected or endangered.

Each event is also given a difficulty ranking to show how involved travellers can get to the action and how difficult their journey will be.

A spokesman for Lonely Planet said: "This is a great moment in history to go on a wildlife expedition. Never before have there been more wildlife destinations opening up or as many people travelling in search of wildlife, and in response many countries are developing new access points, accommodation and tours in areas that were previously difficult to reach.

He said that in response to the growing threats to the earth's ecosystems, many countries are setting aside vast swathes of wilderness faster than they can be explored or documented, providing travellers with numerous opportunities to venture into brand-new national parks or nature reserves that are practically unheard-of and see almost no visitors."

The highlights include:

*January: Iguana breeding season on Galapagus and wolf watching in Yellowstone Park

*February: Diving off the reefs of Raja Ampat Islands of Indonesia to see more than 1,000 species of fish and hundreds of corals

* March: Killer Whales eating seal pups off the Valdes Peninsula in Argentina.

*April: Sea Otters pups in Monteray Bay, San Francisco. Millions of birds resting during migration on High Island on the Texas Gulf Coast

The boiling seas of millions of herring spawning off the Alaska coast.

*May: Snow leopards in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and birdwatching in Finland

*June: The world's biggest feeding frenzy that is the sardine run in South Africa – described as the "greatest shoal on earth".

A million wildebeest migrating across the plains of the Serengeti to the Masai Mara

*July: Brown bears fishing on the famous Brooks Falls in Alaska and Great Whites feeding on seals in South Africa. Basking sharks congregating off the Isle of Man.

* August: 10 million Atlantic Puffins gathering off Iceland

*September: Dolphin watching at Shark Bay, Australia and hundreds of sharks sleeping in underwater caves near Cancun, Mexico.

*October: Rutting red deer on the Isle of Rum, Scotland, watering hole gatherings in the Ngorongoro creator, eastern Serenegeti.

*November: Red crab migration on Christmas Island, Australia, (120million)

*December: Gorillas in the mist in the Congo, and hammerheads gathering in their thousands off the coast of Costa Rica