After spending years traveling the world and studying in Antarctica, Jessica Pociask has returned to East Lansing to help her business partner, Akos Hivekovics, run Wildlife and Nature Travel.
Wildlife and Nature Travel is a small tour company — no more than 12-16 people are allowed on each tour — that specializes in international educational trips.
“When the trips are over, our clients are like family and often stop to visit each other on their way to other travels,” Pociask says.
They run trips all over the world including the Congo, Gabon, Komodo Islands, Kamchatka and Greenland. For each destination, they have knowledgeable staff 
that have either lived in or studied in the country to assist with the tours.
The trips coincide with the migratory patterns of the animals in the country being visited. Generally, tours are run in two parts starting at the beginning of the year, taking a break in the summer, and then touring again in the fall and early winter.
By the end of this year, Hivekovics and Pociask will have run 16 tours. They have 25 tours planned for 2010.
“Traveling is pretty intense as it is,” says Pociask. “But just as we drop off one group, we say hello to the next.”
Wildlife and Nature Travel is focused on lessening the negative impact of travel on the regions visited by its tour groups. They support the tribes they visit as well as area conservation programs. Wildlife and Nature Travel is also heavily focused on photography.
Hivekovics started the company in 2006 and Pociask started running trips with him in 2007. When they’re not leading tours, they spend half of their time in Hivekovics' native Hungary, and half of their time in the states.
They returned to East Lansing so Pociask could continue her education. Since Wildlife and Nature Travel is an Internet-based company, Pociask and Hivekovics do not need to invest in a storefront.
Source: Jessica Pociask, Wildlife and Nature Travel
Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.
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