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Wildlife travel can be difficult. You want to see the creatures in their natural habitat, without destroying it in the process. But these days there are plenty of ways to pay a respectful visit to the animal kingdom.

CARIBBEAN CRITTERS

Texan Bill Tewes has been leading dives off the main island of St. Vincent for more than 20 years. Divers use Quest boards (essentially underwater Etch-A-Sketches) to keep track of flora and fauna. For example, the 262 species spotted on a recent trip included nine types of gobies, 17 types of crab, morays, eels, manta rays and the elusive, hermaphroditic, white-masked golden hamlet.

Year-round. $1,100 to $2,800 for 7 nights and 10 dives, depending on accommodations (plus airfare). 784-457-4928; www.divestvincent.com.

EMPEROR PENGUINS IN IMPERIAL STYLE

How much would you pay to live for two weeks among Emperor penguins in Antarctica? If your answer is “Pretty much anything,” try this tour from Abercrombie & Kent. A guide takes you to a colony of about 5,500 breeding pairs of penguins and more than 3,000 chicks, getting you within 15 metres of the birds to photograph and commune with them. Home base is a heated tent, complete with luxuries such as ceramic toilet facilities.

The next trip runs Nov. 7 to 21. $41,100 a person (plus airfare to Punta Arena, Chile). 866-259-6753; www.abercrombiekent.com.

WILD HORSES IN NORTH CAROLINA

The Outer Banks – a string of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina – are home to about 100 free-ranging Corolla Spanish mustang ponies, descendants of the horses Spanish explorers brought over in the early-16th century.

A two-hour driving tour with local operator Wild Horse Adventure Tours takes you right up to the horses, and races beside them as they gallop along the beaches, where you'll also see foxes, dolphins and indigenous wild pigs.

Year-round. $55-$61. The closest airport is in Norfolk, Va., about two hours away. 800-460-4136; www.wildhorsetour.com.

GULF ISLANDS DE LUXE

On its Gulf Islands cruise, tour operator Butterfield & Robinson will bring you face to face with sea mammals, hundreds of species of birds, and even the occasional feral goat. Tours are customized, but most depart from Salt Spring Island on the Pacific Yellowfin, a 1940s wooden-hulled former Central Intelligence Agency spy boat. From there, you can sail, hike, kayak or cycle in the area. You'll see seals, otters and birds such as peregrine falcons, dunlins and brants. This is also one of the best killer-whale-watching passages in the region.

Spring to autumn. About $21,000 a person, based on groups of six. 866-551-9090; www.butterfield.com.WHALES, WOLVES AND BIRDS IN NUNAVUT

Of the many Arctic wildlife destinations, Cambridge Bay (also known as Iqaluktuuttiaq, Inuit for “plenty of fish”) has the broadest range of animals, including big game such as polar bears, musk oxen and caribou.

Here on Nunavut's Victoria Island, you can see them on guided wildlife tours. Or take a whale-watching boat tour to check out belugas, sperm, bowhead, narwhals and blues. Also native to the area are tundra and Arctic wolves, foxes and hares, barren-ground grizzlies, weasels and lemmings. And for birdwatchers, there are about 20 bird species.

From the 25-room, one-suite Arctic Island Lodge, visitors can also visit the shipwreck remains of Amundsen's 1918-1925 expedition.

Summer. $300 a night based on double occupancy (plus airfare). 888-866-6784; www.cambridgebayhotel.com.

BORNEO'S RED APE TRAIL

This route in remote Borneo – set up by the government in conjunction with Biruté Galdikas's Orangutan Foundation – gets you as up close and personal with red apes.

If you book a custom trip with responsibletravel.com, a British firm co-owned by the Body Shop's Anita Roddick, you'll also support the locals; tours are led by Iban guides.

Tours can include a mangrove swamp cruise, caving, gathering your own shoots and ferns for supper in the village of Pantu Mong, and sharing a meal at the home of a Sarawak family.

Year-round (though rainy season is November to February). $2,100 for a 13-day itinerary (plus airfare). 44 (1273) 600 030; www.responsibletravel.com.

THREE-DAY MASAI SAFARI

It's still possible to find an aristocratic, old-style safari experience (see Abercrombie & Kent's penguin tour). However, if you want to see some grand animals but don't have the time or cash to fully immerse yourself, Toronto's GAP Adventures offers an alternative. Their three-day safari, beginning and ending in Nairobi, takes you through Kenya's Great Rift Valley, the Esoit Oloololo escarpment, and the Mara savannah in seven-seat 4x4s to see and snap lions, elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, buffalo, gazelles, impala, ostriches, rhinos and leopards in their natural habitats.

Dec. 19-28. $495 (plus airfare). 800-708-7761; www.gapadventures.com.

INDIAN TIGERS

Kahna National Park, better known as the home of Jungle Book characters like Shere Khan, is the centrepiece of this package from GAP Adventures.

After arriving in Delhi, the group first sets off to Ranthambore National Park and into the Keoladeo Ghana bird sanctuary to see some of the 370 species there (think chats, jacana, kites, eagles, harriers, ibises and the nearly extinct Siberian crane). Later, it's on to the tiger-rich Bandhavgarh National Park, and finally into Kanha, billed as one of the best places to see tigers in the wild. The trip winds up in Mumbai.

Nov. to April. $915 (plus airfare and local expenses). 800-708-7761; www.gapadventures.com. Special to The Globe and Mail