Asian elephants face many threats – especially loss of habitat due to encroaching development, which can lead to conflict with…

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CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

Care for Elephants

Asian elephants face many threats – especially loss of habitat due to encroaching development, which can lead to conflict with humans. Today the elephant population in Thailand is estimated at only 3,000 to 4,000. Lend a hand with the least fortune of these animals at the Elephant Nature Park outside Chiang Mai. As a sanctuary for orphaned and disabled elephants, some of which have been abused as work animals, the center invites visitors to help feed and bathe the gentle giants, as well as assist with general maintenance around the park.[…]

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SOUTH DAKOTA

Explore the Badlands

Over the past half million years, erosion has sculpted sediment deposited by the ancient sea that once stretched across the Great Plains into buttes, spires, and pinnacle formations, leaving us the Badlands. Named by the Lakota for its unwelcoming terrain that they believed was riddled with the remains of a mythological horned serpent, the striking landscape inspires awe among visitors today, especially during the magic hours of sunrise and sunset, and under a full moon.[…] 

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COSTA RICA

Rescue Sea Turtles

Commercial fishing, coastal development, humans harvesting eggs, marine debris, oil spills: The threats to sea turtles are staggering. Only an estimated one in 1,000 to 10,000 survives to adulthood, which is why conservationists around the world depend on volunteers to give these primordial creatures the best shot possible. Help conduct nightly patrols along the black-sand beaches of Tortuguero National Park on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, one of the most important nesting sites in the Western Hemisphere.[…] 

(In: Places That Will Change Your Life. Produced by National Geographic Partners, Washington, DC: 2016. Adaptado.)