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TANGENTS

Watching Wildlife

BYIHTISHAM KABIR
As human civilization has grown ever more mechanized, an instinct leep within us has created a reaming for the wild and the intamed. Thus, watching wildlife n their natural habitat has pecome a sought-after and ewarding adventure in today's vorld. It combines the jxcitement of the unexpected vith surprises and revelations of he unknown. It is impossible o describe the thrill and jxcitement of finding an unsual Jr rare animal in its home turf. Depending on the terrain and he risks involved, many nethods have evolved to allow is, Homo sapiens, to watch our ellow passengers on this planet >oing about their normal business.
Perhaps the best known wildlife watching activity is the \frican safari. Wild animals roam reely in safari parks sprinkled hroughout the continent - parks vhich have been designed so that ourists can spot and observe hese animals in safety. Visitors vatch these animals do so by >oing on a "game drive" through he park in a vehicle, usually a eep. Sometimes drives are also ivailable at night for viewing locturnal creatures. In all cases, a strict safety rule is followed - you nay never leave your vehicle luring a game drive, and all photography must be done from within the vehicle.
Another type of wildlife vatching involves tracking the inimal through the forest. The visitor follows an experienced racket, often through rough errain without trails, to find the arget animal. This was the case vhen I went looking for, and bund, the famous Mountain Gorillas in Uganda. Back in Bangladesh, I have tracked the primates of the forests of Sylhet, particularly Hoolock Gibbons, in his way. Compared to game irives, the tracking method is
nuch more arduous and is mdertaken in territories devoid ?f dangerous animals.
The wildlife watching ixperience in our own Sundarban s different. There are no roads to irive on. Further, the terrain is nuddy and spiked with arrays of pneumatophore roots, making it virtually impossible to walk hrough most of this vast forest.
Therefore, visitors observe wildlife from their boat. Since Sundarban is crisscrossed by lumerous canals and creeks large ind small, boats are the natural md efficient way to explore the brest. Exploring by boat also •ninimizes the risk of nasty incounters with wild animals.
This style of wildlife spotting is similar to other wetlands. In the world's largest wetland, the ’antanal in Brazil, I saw jaguars, iapybaras, monkeys and deer in he forest and giant otters in the iver from a high-speed boat that
eharted the immense Paraguay River and its tributaries searching For wildlife. There were several tourist boats, and when one spotted a jaguar it immediately radioed the information to athers. Boats are also used for wildlife viewing in Okavango delta of Botswana, another prime wildlife area.
Boats are the preferred method af watching birds in numerous places, such as the Danube delta in central Europe, Lake Kirkini in Greece, Smolla in Norway, the bird-filled lakes of Florida and aur own Tanguar Haor and Baikka Beel.
However, unlike wetlands elsewhere, in Sundarban there is a special bonus: the magical and pristine beauty of the forest adds a new dimension to your experience.
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