Discover your inner Attenborough

Duas tartarugas de couro bebés, uma ternura.
A maior de todas as tartarugas marinhas,
em estado crítico de ameaça de extinção.

Falconry in Cardigan

Learn the original sport of kings in a day, courtesy of five-star country house hotel Ty Mawr Mansion. Experts from the Welsh Bird of Prey Centre will guide you from your first encounter with a falcon right through to the crowning moment when, at your command, your bird swoops down on to your gloved hand. Voilà!

· Ty Mawr Mansion, Cilcennin, Ceredigion's (01239 811550, welshbirdofpreycentre.com) falconry day costs £125 and includes lunch, afternoon tea and certificate.

Zookeeping in California

Learn about the mucky work of a zookeeper on a behind the scenes tour of San Diego Zoo. You'll meet the creatures then bed down for a night of howls and hoots in a canvas tent inside the grounds. Safari sleepovers are held on Saturday nights.

· San Diego Zoo (001 619 718 3000, sandiegozoo.org/calendar/zoo_safari_sleepover.html) £52 per adult, £43 per child including dinner, entertainment and breakfast.

Birdwatching in Morocco

Perfect your twitching skills among the date palms, deserts and snowclad mountains of southern Morocco. Larks, sandgrouse and bulbuls should be easy to spot, but you'll need a keen eye for the rare desert sparrows and houbara bustards lurking in the sandy wadis. A 10-day tour includes Marrakech and cultural sites.

· Naturetrek (01962 733 051, naturetrek.co.uk) from £1,195pp including flights, February-April.

Brown bears in Romania

Brasov has one of the few sanctuaries in the world dedicated to rehabilitating formerly captive brown bears and returning them to the wild. Visitors can stay for anything from a week to a few months and interact with the bears through tasks including feeding, monitoring and helping out at the "bear hospital".

· Responsible Travel (01273 600030, responsibletravel.com/Trip/Trip901556.htm) offers one week at the Brasov bear sanctuary for £895pp, including flights, additional weeks cost £120.

Dog sledding in Finland

Learn from the experts as you go out on husky-powered day trips from the comfortable Erakeskus wilderness lodge. You can then put your new-found skills to good use on a three-day expedition across the snowy wastes.

· Exodus (0845 863 9600, exodus.co.uk, tinyurl.com/2zs5np) has a week's Finnish dog sledding from £1,549, including flights.

Fly-fishing in India

Fishing in New Zealand and Canada may be world-class, but so are the prices. A cheaper alternative is India, where the Ganges is rich in mahseer. Byasghat on the Nayar river, which joins the Ganges, is famous among Indian fishermen. This trip includes visits to villages and temples and beginners will get tuition and be lent rods.

· A week's full board at hotels and camps costs from £822pp with North Wales Fly Fishing School (0702 111 4746, nwalesflyfishingschool.com). Departures March and September. Flights with Air India (airindia.com) from around £400pp.

Koalas in Australia

Join Koala experts Dr Alistair Melzer and Dr William Ellis for 13 days on the palm-fringed isle of St Bees. Learn how to track, monitor and handle the big-eared furry fellas.

Responsible Travel's (01273 600030, responsibletravel.com/Trip/Trip100838.htm) koala project costs from £1,250pp, excluding flights.

Coral in Honduras

From an over-the-water cabaña in the Coco View Resort you can explore one of the best snorkelling sites in the world alongside a naturalist from the Oceanic Society.

· Oceanic Society, San Francisco (00 1 800 326 7461, oceanic-society.org/pages/alltrips/trip12.html), offers snorkelling on Roatán island for $2,290, excluding flights.

Cheetahs in Tanzania

Cheetahs can accelerate from 0 to 100kph in three seconds, so it's advisable not to blink on this 12-day Tanzania trip run in conjunction with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). Travelling through the Arusha and Tarangire national parks and the legendary Ngorongoro crater, the tour arrives at the Serengeti, where visitors will spend time with a ZSL researcher tracking the world's fastest land animal. Fans of gazelles should look away now.

· Naturetrek (01962 733051, naturetrek.co.uk/wildlife-holidays-in-africa/detailsdb.asp?ID=284) Cheetahs of the Serengeti £2,995 including flights.

Turtles and manatees in Costa Rica and Panama

This three-week trip combines hands-on experience at projects protecting endangered turtles and manatees with oodles of time on three pristine Caribbean beaches. Somehow, there's also time left at the end to let your hair down in funky Puerto Viejo (but best steer clear of the turtle soup).

· i-to-i (0800 011 1156, i-to-i.com/volunteer-projects/turtle-tour-through-costa-rica-and-panama.html) turtle tour costs £845, excluding flights.