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The Galapagos is dedicated towards preserving wildlife and encouraging native animal species to prosper. It ticks all of the boxes for a responsible animal ecotourism site. When visiting—unless part of an approved conservation group—you are not allowed to get within 6 feet of an animal. All of the human areas in the islands are made to not interfere with the nature and wilderness, and some islands do not have any buildings.

Everything man-made in the Galapagos is done with utmost respect and care for the animals and the environment, and when visiting you are expected to respect that. Those there are dedicated to the care and conservation of the unique animals.

Not only of the most boring and places I personally visited, but this place has tigers laid out and chained with barely any space to move. They are lying lazily in the sun, clearly drugged. I did not realize they were drugged when I visited, but, in hindsight, they clearly were—the tigers would not allow anyone near them otherwise. Chained to allow people to take pictures with them, they did not seem very happy. I also saw a person poke a needle into a tiger to get it to sit up for a picture.

Incredible, and while people follow rules, some don't. That is the reason for the loss of a rating. It is somewhat devoted to conservation of animals and their habitat, but at the same time, it caters to tourists as well.

This is a great place to sightsee animals. The people here are devoted to conservation and preserving the islands for as long as possible. There are only human inhabitants on only some of the islands, so many islands are purely wild.

The bus guides I went on were great and did not come close to polar bears or deviate from the path, keeping to the main road, and we did not get out near the bears.

Here, you get into a bus and drive out around to where polar bears usually are, looking for them. I saw many, I think there are a lot in the area so they are pretty easy to see. It is in their natural terrain, so animals can go wherever whenever, and we do not interact with them at all. The bus drives one way and then loops around back, as you enjoy the ride.

In the area, there are some tourist operators who get close to the bears, so stay away from those as it is not good for the animals (those ones would, of course, get a terrible rating).

This is a great place! They do not mess with the tigers, just letting them live.

There are certain tracks you can choose to book a tour on a safari jeep. There is no control over where in the forest they roam and so they are free to do as they please. You are not guaranteed to see any animals, and indeed, we saw none. Others did, however, and it partly depends on which track you go on, as sometimes a tiger has a kill or is spotted more near one and so the likelihood of seeing one is more likely on those paths (which paths the tigers are spotted in changes, of course, as the tigers move around). In addition, many people will go early in the morning (or late at night) because that is when tigers are most active and seen around the tracks. Nothing has been done to the tigers that is negative, this place is also very dedicated to conservation and protecting the animals.

The trails are the only path you are taken on, the rest of the forest is left untouched by tourists and guides.

However some tourists and the guides do feed the birds on the way, which is why I took a star off, as that is a potentially harmful interaction. This is still a great place, however!

This is a great place to experience a variety of animals that are only otherwise seen in zoos, from Zebra and Giraffes to Lions and Cheetahs.

Although the animals are in their natural habitat, during peak holiday seasons, I felt that some of the big 5 game animals were being crowded as they were roaming around and trying to hunt.

I took one star off, not because animals aren't technically being treated right, but because I feel that the over crowding around the big game animals might have some impact on them in the longer run.

It largely depends on which guides you have, and how much they follow the rules. You are not allowed to go off path unless you are with a ranger, however some do, which is the main problem—

as it restricts the animals when they hunt sometimes.

This is another great place to experience a variety of animals that are only otherwise seen in zoos, from Zebra and Giraffes to Lions and Cheetahs.

The biggest difference between this and Masai Mara is that while in the Masai Mara Jeeps with a special permit are allowed to go all over the Savana, including closer to the animals than others, in Serengeti you are required stay on trails unless you are a ranger. That adds to the charm of it and keeps the animals totally free, without jeeps chasing them and crowding them. If the animal wants to be alone, it can just move off the trail a bit.

This site is terrible for the animals. Dolphins are in pools much smaller than what they are used to in the wild—which is not good for their health, physical or mental—and are trained to post for pictures and to allow children to ride them and anyone to touch them. This nearly always involves inhumane training.

Dolphins are supposed to be free playful spirits, not forced to live in a pool that is terribly small to them compared to the vast ocean waters they should be in. They are also not supposed to just allow anyone to touch and ride them. At this place, I was allowed to pet them, they were trained to pose certain ways for pictures, perform tricks and give all us children rides around the pool in careful laps and planned out ways and routes. They had to have been trained to do so, and they do not naturally allow just any person near them like that. In reality, to come near them, each person would have to earn the dolphin’s trust individually, if not then it is very possible they have been inhumanely trained to allow that.

This is a slightly more unique place, as they do guarantee that you are going to see dolphins, or at least basically do. That is mainly because of the amount of dolphins that inhibit the waters off the coast of Kona. In addition, the tour guides know what places to go to to spot dolphins. We set off into the open ocean on a boat and cruised along to a couple different favorite locations. When we spotted dolphins, the boat would stop a little ways off, but still relatively close to them. We would hop out with our snorkeling gear and swim and gaze at the dolphins. It is important to note that the ocean was very deep here, we could not see the floor in most, if not all areas. So the dolphins had quite a ways down they could go if they wanted to avoid us. Also, we would stay at the surface and not come too near the dolphins. If they came near us, that was ok. The dolphins were quite playful and friendly.

What I loved about this was that we were observing them in their natural habitat from a respectful distance and not intruding. They were allowed to do whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted, run off or come close, whatever they wished.

Another thing I really liked was that if if too many boats happen to be at the same place (more than like two or three), some would leave and look for dolphins elsewhere as to not overwhelm them or crowd the waters and allow them to be free. However, occasionally there would be a spot with too many boats over crowding. It only works when everyone follows the rules, which is why a star is lost.

Overall, this, to me, was far more enjoyable than the the dolphins at Cabo.