Coron Calauit Safari — African Wildlife in the Philippines

Calauit Island is one of the Philippines' most extraordinary nature secrets — a 3,700-hectare island game preserve that has been home to free-roaming African wildlife since 1977. That year, President Marcos ordered the translocation of 104 animals from Kenya — giraffes, zebras, Calamian deer, beisa oryx, waterbuck, bushbuck, and Eland — to the island as a conservation project. Today over 500 African animals roam the island alongside endemic Philippine species, creating a completely unique wildlife experience found nowhere else in Asia.

The day begins with a 2-hour speedboat journey north from Coron town through the Calamian Islands. On arrival at Calauit, you board a safari jeep for a guided drive through the reserve, where giraffes approach the vehicle close enough to feed by hand, and herds of zebra and Calamian deer graze in the open grassland. The Calamian deer (Axis calamianensis) is found only in the Calamian Islands and is listed as endangered — Calauit is the most accessible place to see them in the wild.

The return journey stops at Bulog Dos Island for lunch and snorkelling, and at the dramatic cliffs of Black Island, a cave-riddled limestone rock rising from a pristine beach. It's a full 10-hour day but covers an extraordinary range of landscapes and wildlife encounters.