I don't know if I'd go to another country specifically for an animal, but I did decide to go to one of the only independently verified certified tiger sanctuaries in Thailand so that I could see and touch a tiger without feeling bad about their living conditions.
It was crazy to touch a tiger. It was crazy to see one, but it was really wild to touch one. Because they sure as hell were not sedated. One of them started sneaking up on me around the perimeter of the enclosure and after I tapped the guard on the shoulder and pointed him out, the guard had to like air-poke it back with a stick basically and asked me to walk back toward the exit, which was an insane security situation to find myself in.
I remember later I was standing on the outside of the reserve looking at some of the tigers along the fence posts because there were like covered huts around the perimeter of the reserve that the tigers lived in, and this couple walked up with their baby in a little carriage and all of the tigers' heads whipped toward the baby and followed it up and down the sidewalk the entire time the couple was pushing the baby around. The couple got uncomfortable pretty quickly and decided to leave. It was so clear all the tigers wanted to eat that baby.
Oh you know what, honorable mention panda, i did go to the Sichuan Panda reserve specifically to see the pandas, although that was not a very difficult trip and I was already living in Chengdu, there's a train that goes straight to the reserve.
I've been to the Komodo Dragon island! Saw that photo and was like hey I've seen them! I didn't travel to Indonesia to see them but we were honeymooning and since we were that close decided to do an excursion. They are so cool and nuts that we could just like be as close to them as we were. Like our guide just had this long stick with a v at the end and I'm just thinking if they really wanted to fuck us up that stick isn't doing shit. But the dragons we saw were mostly chilling. We did hear a woman got bit the day before and had to be helicoptered out of there...komodos can take down a water buffalo. They'll just bite their prey and poison them and then just patiently follow them forever until their prey keel over and die. Then meat's back on the menu! Man Komodos are so cool. Anyway, I highly recommend seeing them but also I didn't get bit, might be a different story if I was that other lady.
Ooh yeah, that is very cool! they are so fast and aggressive(especially in my mind) that I don't think I'm going to go to the island.
There's a zoo here in yogya, and that'll probably be the viewing route i go.
If you like big lizards in general and get the chance, lumpini Park in bangkok thailand is a lot of fun, there are at least a couple dozen 3 to 5 ft monitor lizards walking around the park and chilling in the little lakes and ponds around the park right in the middle of the city.
They're also very chill and you can see them walking around or swimming. But if they want to run, they are lightning fast.
I didn't know the monitor lizards were going to be there and i was sitting in the shade of a tree, then I saw a monster swimming through the water toward me and then walk out of the water toward me and I was like what the f*** is happening hhahhaha, and then finally my brain organized things and I realized what was happening.
That's so funny about the long sticks, the de rigeur defense against deadly animals.