Head upriver by boat deep into the jungle, where you can enjoy a campfire dinner before drifting back downstream, spotlight-searching for the rare and endangered species that live in this area of rich biodiversity.
The Nam Nern Night Safari is a 24-hour, boat-based tour into the core of the Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park. The highlight of the trip is the nighttime wildlife-spotlighting, when long-tail boats drift down the Nam Nern River looking for wild and endangered animals before returning visitors to the ecolodge within the national park.
This innovative and adventurous journey is not only one of the few opportunities in Laos to view rare wildlife, but the trip is designed to support alternative livelihoods for local people and generate community support for conservation of tigers and other wildlife.
Nature activities during the tour include bird watching, wildlife tracking, nighttime wildlife spotting, discovery of medicinal plants and an early morning hike. Visitors to the Night Safari overnight in one of our two-person traditional Lao bungalows in the ecolodge, built and managed by the community and overlooking the Nam Nern River from the forest edge.
Night Safari features in The Telegraph
“Today, the wildlife of Laos is threatened by trafficking but an award-winning community project is providing hope to a significant population of endangered Indochinese tigers, and to the poachers-turned-protectors of the area,” writes Claire Boobbyer in her feature on the Northern Heritage Route in the UK’s The Telegraph newspaper.
“Pulling up at the ecolodge we were greeted by hundreds of canary yellow and midnight blue butterflies sucking at the salt on the bank.”
How many tigers are there in the wild?
Learn about the status of tigers in eight priority areas in this report produced by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Download the report here.
Vongphet, from Navene Village, is a research technician who uses his knowledge of the forest and wildlife as a former hunter to place camera traps in key locations to collect data on populations of important species such as tigers, bears, dhole and gibbons.
On the Nam Nern Night Safari, former hunters and fishermen are your skilled guides who will receive a cash bonus for every animal spotted, and they freely share their knowledge of wildlife behavior, medicinal plants, traditional agriculture and history.
The Night Safari funds ranger patrols, conservation education, schools and community development. Direct financial incentives for conservation and an active management role mean local villages view conservation as a collaborative partnership.
The Night Safari is on YouTube
Night Safari on Youtube
Check out this video clip on Youtube featuring the Nam Nern Night Safari produced by Tiger Trails.
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