Call of the Wild:World travelers plan a wildlifesanctuary for Northern Michigan By Rick Coates Traverse City native Jessica Pociask caught the travel bug early in life. As a sophomore at Traverse City West High School, she traveled through Europe playing the violin and after graduating early, she spent three weeks in Iceland visiting a friend. In the back of her mind she knew she wanted to pursue a profession that would allow her to travel. Shortly after high school, she launched a videography business out West and traveled the country for her clients. She spent her spare time backpacking through Central America, touring Ireland and Europe. In 2002, Pociask decided to pursue a degree in parks and recreation and tourism at Michigan State University. It was during that time she met Akos Hivekovics, her future husband and business partner in Wildlife And Nature Travel (W.A.N.T.). “While at MSU I participated in a study abroad program in Antarctica where I was part of a team studying climate change,” said Pociask. “I met Akos as he was the lecturer and ornithologist (scientist who studies birds) on the trip. We hit it off and eventually corresponded for six months upon my return to MSU. We shared our mutual passions for travel, wildlife conservation and adventure in general. He was in the early stages of developing this concept of Wildlife Nature And Travel.”
ORNITHOLOGIST Hivekovics, born in Hungary, is one of the top ornithologists in the world, traveling to more than 120 countries studying bird habitat and leading travel expeditions. He is also known for his wildlife photography and has authored two books. He asked Pociask to join him on a trip to the Balkans and eventually assisting him in an expedition through Africa. In 2006 the couple launched their nature and travel business. Growing up in southwest Hungary (near the Croatian border), Hivekovics didn’t necessarily want to lead travel expeditions at first. “As soon as I was able to speak I told people I wanted to be a wild animal hunter in Africa,” said Hivekovics. “Fortunately my parents were very conservation-minded and they would say to me ‘that is very nice, you can go to Africa but you should go there to save the animals, not shoot them.’ By the time I was six, I had developed an interest in biology and by the time I was 12, I was spending every weekend volunteering at an ornithology station near my home banding birds.” While in high school, Hivekovics started a nature preserve in his hometown. A television program interviewed him about his project which eventually led to others wanting to help him and eventually, while still in high school he found himself receiving sponsorships and invitations to travel to other countries to do research. “I ended up starting a business where our specialty was population estimates,” said Hivekovics (who eventually attended and graduated from Szent Istvan University, in Godollo, Hungary). “We would go deep into jungles and indentify whether a bird was rare, or if it was common, or if it was even still there.”
ENVIRONMENTAL TOURS While Hivekovics and Pociask are now into the wildlife and nature travel business leading tours, they still have a conservation and environmental focus. “I am leading a tour group this summer to Liberia in search of a species that has not been seen in over 25 years,” said Hivekovics. “It is the Liberian Greenbul and this bird has not been spotted since 1985, so we are offering a tour to give people an opportunity to learn how this process works of searching for a lost species.” Pociask interjects: “We have the travel and tour business which there is a conservation arm to it,” said Pociask. “So what we are trying to do is also help cultures that are natural resource exploitation dependent to change. What we are trying to do is to help these cultures transition from destruction of natural habitat to preserving them by developing a tourism industry.” The couple has built an international clientele and many of their tours sell out months in advance; they even have some tours in 2011 completely booked. They could have located their business anywhere but they chose Traverse City for a second phase of their business plan and because of Pociask’s fond childhood memories of her home. “Growing up here I have always felt a pull back to Traverse City when I have lived away,” said Pociask. “No matter where I have been in the world I have always felt that I would come back here. I feel there are a lot of people who have like-minded views of sustainability here, people who believe in fair-trade and have a worldly view.” The couple came to Traverse City two years ago but their travels have not allowed for them to spend as much time as they would like locally. “Someday we will be positioned with our business to have others leading the tours, but for now we are at the helm. It is what sets us apart from others. We have customers from 40 different countries and most become repeat customers,” said Hivekovics. “We go to great lengths to research each tour we lead; we do the tours ourselves before we take anyone else. We also are very personal in our approach. We don’t just take a group, rush them through and drop them off while the next group is waiting for us. So as we grow our business we need to have people leading the tours who have the same philosophy we have.”
WILDLIFE SANCTUARY One major reason why the couple is looking to have others lead the tours is because of a major endangered wildlife sanctuary they have planned for Traverse City. “For that lack of a better name right now we are calling it Esperanza Park. It will be a two story complex (the size of a couple of football fields) that will house, for the purpose of saving from extinction, 60 amphibian and 24 bird species,” said Hivekovics. “The world is full of species that are endangered from a fungus that attacks their skin and this is a type of fungus that has spread to every continent and is eliminating amphibians very fast. So there is a massive movement around the world to collect up breeding populations of these endangered amphibians until this fungus is eliminated. Just to give you an idea, in the past 12 years about 1,000 species have disappeared and there are 200 species that now are at the rare and endangered level. So this facility we are building will be a captive breeding and research center.” The two see this project as a major year-round tourist attraction for Northern Michigan. “This project will bring international attention to Traverse City and the region and attract travelers,” said Pociask. “This will be a very modern, futuristic facility, LEED certified, all glass, solar powered and ‘green’ as possible. It will have multiple uses as there will be conference rooms themed after each continent for conference and events. So this project will attract top wildlife researchers and certainly will be a huge tourist attraction.” They have a rendering of the building and additional details on the project at their website. Pociask and Hivekovics have yet to establish an exact location or a date when they anticipate the facility to be completed. They are currently working with community leaders and researchers currently and encourage anyone interested in the project to contact them immediately.
LOCAL PRESENTATIONS One of the immediate benefits of the couple relocating to Traverse City is the public presentations they have made and will continue to make available to schools and organizations. Pociask recently gave a presentation at the Traverse City Public Library on her trip in January to the Tien Shan Mountains of the Kyrgyz Republic in search of the endangered and elusive snow leopard. Hivekovics followed a week later with a presentation on the penguins of Antarctica. They plan more presentations in the future. “We are always willing to give presentations when we are available,” said Hivekovics. “We have well over 100,000 photos from our trips and really specialize in getting unprecedented access of wildlife with keeping our carbon imprint to a minimum.” Currently Pociask is leading an expedition through the rainforest and mountains of Ecuador while Hivekovics is on a sold-out Galapagos Islands Yacht Cruise tour. While their tour schedule is full through 2011 (space remains for some tours) they are always looking for ideas. “We bumped into Mike Nolan of Nolan’s Tobacconists and talked to him about a trip to Cuba and tying in Cuban cigar factories,” said Pociask. “But he said the mystery over Cuban cigars was over and that a trip to Nicaragua would be better. So next February we are planning a Nicuraguan Cultural and Safari tour. On April 8, we will have a presentation at Nolan’s about the trip that will include visiting one of the top cigar manufacturers. We still have a trip planned for this summer to Cuba.”
MOUNTAIN GORILLAS Wildlife and Nature Travel has several interesting trips planned for the coming months, while some are sold out, such as the Zambia photo safari and Komodo Dragon Expedition, others have space available. Two trips of interest include the East Africa Photo Safari and the Uganda Mountain Gorilla expedition, both in June.” Tours range from $1,500 to $15,000 per person depending on location and access fees and the length of trip with tour guides, accommodations and meals are included in the price. Flights are an additional fee. “For example it costs $500 per person per day to gain access to the area where the gorillas are,” said Pociask. “There are a lot of taxes and access fees associated but these fees are how these countries move away from destroying wildlife habitat to preserving it by creating a tourism industry.” Hivekovics agrees: “For many people these are trips of a lifetime,” said Hivekovics. “We go beyond the typical cookie-cutter tour group that herds their customers through like cattle and has them put their camera on automatic to rattle off pictures quickly so they can get to the next location. We take our guests deep into jungles and the wilderness to experience wildlife in their natural habitat. They get to understand the culture of the areas we are visiting and the importance that wildlife and habitat have to the region. We let the animals dictate the speed in which we travel; as a result we have seen mating rituals and animal births.”
To learn more about upcoming trips or plans for their major endangered species research center in TC, visit www.wildlifeandnaturetravel.com or call them directly at 231-392-1388.
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