You’ll not only be watching wildlife, but helping to study it, on these trips with Earthwatch Expeditions. Since 1971, the company has brought curious, passionate nature lovers into the field as participant researchers, working alongside scientists studying and protecting wildlife and habitats around the world. On an Earthwatch Expedition, you might find yourself tracking turtles, counting dolphins, spotting sloths, monitoring sharks, recording owls, observing orcas and much more.
Earthwatch offers expeditions as close as Maine and Arizona, and as far as Africa and the Amazon.
Group size is small, led by world-class scientists. The experience and access do not come cheap.
Among their offerings:
- At the edge of Hudson Bay, polar bears roam near Churchill, Canada, where the tundra, boreal forest and ocean meet—and where global warming is rapidly reshaping Arctic ecosystems. Rising air and sea temperatures are thawing permafrost, shifting wetlands and pushing trees into once-open ground, changing how wild animals—including polar bears—move and feed across the region. Join scientists on land and water to track these transformations. Survey the tundra landscape by Polar Rover and helicopter while being on the lookout for polar bears, ride behind a dog team, learn about northern cultures, and discover why the impacts of a changing Arctic climate matter far beyond Churchill. Trips are 8 days, offered in August and September, and start at about $8,000.
- In Arizona’s Chiricahua National Monument, nights reveal a rare window into the lives of owls few people ever encounter. Join researchers in listening for calls, searching for nest cavities and helping to band and release owls as part of a long-term effort to understand health and the health of their forest environment. You’ll learn to read the forest for clues about the owls and their behavior, helping scientists track where owls live and raise young, and what their presence reveals about changing forest conditions. Along with conducting fieldwork, you’ll explore the secluded peaks, canyons and sculpted formations that have earned the Chiricahuas the nickname “Wonderland of Rocks.” This expedition takes place in one of North America’s most biologically diverse environments, where four major ecosystems and five biomes converge. The 7-day trips are offered April through June and start at about $6,000.
- Kenya’s Enarau Conservancy spans more than 3,000 acres on the northern edge of the Greater Maasai Mara ecosystem, a vast wildlife refuge of grasslands and wetlands that attract elephant, giraffe, zebra, antelope and the predators that follow, including lion and cheetah. But decades of farming and overgrazing have stripped the soil and fragmented habitat. On this native habitat restoration project, you’ll help monitor these species’ return. Work alongside scientists and Maasai landowners to track wildlife and collect field data to document how degraded ecosystems bounce back. Trips are 9 days, offered January and February as well as July through November, and start at about $10,000.
