New edition of Wildlife & Conservation Volunteering, March 2012

I am very pleased with the success of the first edition of Wildlife & Conservation Volunteering (Bradt, 2009) and excited with the publication this month of the second edition (Bradt, 2012).

This new edition had been completely updated and expanded, including more organizations, updated assessments, more volunteer stories and more field adventures. There is also a new chapter on great wildlife migration events – how, when and where to see them, with more great photographs.

A conservation volunteering experience is so much more than a wildlife trip or safari, not just for the positive feel-good factor of doing something useful but because of the hands-on involvement and insights they provide into the life of wild creatures and the country they live in.

For example, Jason, a ranger on the deserted island of Curieuse in the Seychelles, told me how when he arrived for work on the morning of 24th December 2004 all the giant tortoises had mysteriously disappeared from their normal beachside habitat. Two days later the tsunami struck but the tortoises had laboriously struggled up onto the islands high ground – behaviour he had never seen before. It seems like scientists are missing a low-tech trick for a tsunami early warning system.