Ethical ways to interact with wildlife when travelling overseas

It's only natural to want to see cute monkeys and mighty elephants when you're travelling. But how close is too close?

Tigers in temples. Elephant rides. Monkey selfies. If you've travelled, you've probably encountered animal interactions like these. But how close is too close? And, if you're concerned about their welfare, what are the best ways to see animals - so often a holiday highlight - responsibly?

According to Sue Badyari, CEO of World Expeditions Travel Group, the best wildlife and animal encounters are those where visitors spectate from a distance with the animals in their natural environments. In other words, look but don't touch.

"It's never good to ride on elephants as they will have endured some form of abuse to bind them into submission," she says. "[And avoid] watching dancing bears, feeding monkeys at a temple site or taking selfies with a lion at a supposed conservation facility. Such activities involve captivity, exploitation and unnatural living conditions."

World Expeditions, Intrepid Travel, G Adventures and The Travel Corporation are part of the Coalition for Ethical Wildlife Tourism. Booking wildlife adventures through them is an assurance you're taking part in an ethical tour. Doing your own research is also important, says Suzanne Milthorpe, head of campaigns at World Animal Protection: "Avoid venues that exploit captive wild animals for activities like riding, touching, bathing or taking selfies with them," she says.

Here are some suggestions of animal-friendly encounters around the world.

Safaris are the perfect way to see the wildlife normally reserved for our favourite David Attenborough documentaries. The big five - elephants, rhinoceros, lions, leopards and African buffalos - once hunted to near extinction, can be found in South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya. Also likely to be spotted are any number of other beasties, including wildebeest, hyenas, giraffes, cheetahs, hippos and antelopes of all kinds.

If you're looking for a quest that includes a conservation component, Bench Africa offers the Big Tusker Safari in Kenya's Tsavo National Park. Big tuskers are African elephants with tusks weighing more than 45 kilograms each. There are only about 24 left in the world, but Tsavo has 27 emerging tuskers. The itinerary also includes a visit to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Voi reintegration unit, where rescued orphan elephants are released back into the wild to find a herd.

Whether watching penguins coming in from the sea on Phillip Island or spying wombats on Tasmania's Maria Island, there are animal experiences in every state. Even encounters like swimming with whale sharks at Ningaloo or visiting sea lions on Kangaroo Island are carefully monitored to keep visitor numbers manageable and people at a safe distance from the animals.

For day tours and longer adventures, a good place to start is Australian Wildlife Journeys, which brings together tourism operators who combine responsible encounters and exceptional hospitality.

Few people go to Europe to see wildlife, but if you're there and keen, there's the chance to see brown bears in Finland and Bulgaria, watch whales in Iceland, or observe puffins and seals on Wales' Skomer Island.

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Animal welfare isn't always high on the agenda in parts of Asia, with World Animal Protection finding that of 34 venues featuring wild animals in Bali and Lombok, most didn't even meet the animals' basic needs.

Author and podcaster Bianca Caruana, who runs The Altruistic Traveller website, suggests searching out initiatives that use tourism dollars to preserve at-risk wildlife. "One such organisation in Northern Thailand is the Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary," she says. "They aim to bring formerly exploited elephants - like those that have been used for tourist rides - home to the forests to live an existence that closely imitates life in the wild."

Undoubtedly, this region of the world has some of the most spectacular wildlife experiences on the planet. There's the Amazon rainforest, of course, as well as the Galapagos Islands, inextricably linked with Charles Darwin's The Origin of the Species. More accessible than both is Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetlands. Jaguars are what most visitors come to see, but from boat and canoe tours you can also spy giant river otters, anacondas, anteaters, capybaras and exotic birds.

From watching polar bears in the north near the Canadian town of Churchill to the monarch butterfly migration from mid-November in the Mexican state of Michoacan, there's wild adventure right across this continent. The world's first national park, Yellowstone, is always popular for its 200 species of wildlife, as is Alaska's Denali National Park, with its black bears, wolves, caribou and moose.

For bang for your buck, though, Canada's Vancouver Island offers populations of black and grizzly bears, as well as the rare white kermode bear, sea and river otters, seals and sea-lions, whales and orcas, grey wolves, dolphins and cougars.

Even with the best of intentions, we can find ourselves in situations where animals aren't cared for properly. In these instances, advises Suzanne Milthorpe, take photos or videos and send them to a trusted animal protection organisation in the region.