Margarita Steinhardt

Everybody knows about lions, tigers, jaguars and other big cats, but did you know that most of the wild felines are small cats? But because they don’t have high profiles in the media, the small cats receive less than 1 percent of the total conservation funding available for wild cats. Like most small cats, it hunts small mammals, birds and reptiles. If, like me, you believe that the small cats deserve more attention and protection, visit Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation website where you can learn about various conservation projects and contribute to small cat research.

The world’s largest hot spring, the Champagne Pool is a deep-green acidic pool rimmed with bright orange sinter terrace. Moving further away from the visitor centre the wooden walkway is replaced by a natural trail that meanders through the forest past eroded cliffs, boiling waterfalls, alkaline and acidic pools and a large sinter terrace that from a distance looks like the steaming rice terraces. The second largest lake on New Zealand’s north island, Lake Rotorua is warm and quite acidic due to the geothermal activity of the region. Despite these challenging conditions, the lake it is home to an array of bird species including the threatened New Zealand dabchick and the world’s most threatened gull species – the black-billed gull.

Here’s the pick of the bunch: World heritage-listed and internationally renowned for being the world’s largest coral reef system, as well as for its snorkelling and scuba diving tours, the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland is abundant in natural wildlife wonders. Pristine waterways, the country’s largest fringing coral reef, whale sharks, dugongs, dolphins, rays, humpback whale spotting and swimming opportunities characterise the natural drawcards of Ningaloo Reef. At around 1200 square kilometers, the world heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest, in northeast Queensland, is part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest on the Australian continent. The national whale-watching capital of Australia, alongside its neighbouring Hervey Bay, Fraser Island is the world’s largest sand island, stretching over 120km.

Today, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy is home to 600 species of plants, 140 species of birds, 30 species of butterflies and a number of reptiles. The most famous of the National Parks in Telangana, Mrugavani is a beautiful park, located in Chilkur near Hyderabad (20 km from the bus station). The reserve is also home to the leopard, jackal, wild dog, Indian fox, jungle cat, leopard cat, giant squirrel, sambar, nilgai, chital, palm civet, small Indian civet, porcupine and flying squirrel, as well as 120 species of birds and at least 10 species of frogs. Once you have checked out the national parks in Telangana, you can also visit one of the following parks which are not too far from Hyderabad but fall outside of Telangana State.