Two Tien Shan snow leopards captured on camera trap
“It’s a nice office you have here.” Barry’s words brought me right back to Earth as I sat sipping hot tea from my thermos. We are currently journeying back from servicing our final camera trap of the season, and I am jotting down notes while looking across the valley at giant glaciers that are normally hidden from view from our base camp. We are in raptures high up in the Jiluu-Suu (“hot water”) valley, taking it all in.
We’ve hit the halfway mark for our final group of the season. Camp is quiet as all the team are out exploring the area. I find myself at camp in a period of quiet reflection.
One more result from the snow leopard volunteer expedition
Group 2 has put in a big effort all round. The weather has settled, so we returned to Archali for further surveys. Emil and Kate took the pass on foot, overnighting at 3748 metres. The rest of us, five expeditioners in total, drove around into Archali to meet them.
Better weather
We have now surveyed extensively in two of the three valleys with some new camera traps in place. Finishing the second snow leopard volunteer expedition week, we alternate big days with easier ones consisting of local interviews. These gather important local insights into raising livestock and the surrounding wildlife. Reports of face to face snow leopard encounters continue, but no hard proof yet.
While the archipelago escaped a mass coral bleaching event in 2025 following severe thermal stress in 2024, the findings reveal a starkly uneven recovery landscape across the central atolls.
The coral reef conservation report’s release comes at a crucial moment as escalating ocean temperatures, an approaching El Niño cycle and localised human impacts threaten tropical coral ecosystems worldwide.
Most people spend their teenage years discovering who they are. For Savannah Lehnert, sixteen was the year she found herself deep in the Amazon rainforest of Madre de Dios, Peru, working as a volunteer alongside scientists on a conservation expedition that would stay with her long after she returned home.
A father-daughter journey begins
When she joined Biosphere Expeditions with her father back in 2011, she became one of the youngest citizen scientists, but she was far from out of place.Â
Citizen scientists in action: Savannah and her father in the Peru Amazon
The beauty of Biosphere Expeditions teams is that they bring together people (or citizen scientists) from all walks of life and every stage of adulthood, united not by age or profession, but by a shared passion to protect wild animals and places.
‘I was very compelled by the adventure of visiting the Amazon and working with conservation biologists and other volunteers to protect endangered species in an incredible landscape.’
Some of snow leopard conservation group 2 out on a survey
It’s Sunday, midway through group 2. As I write this on our rest day, some of the team are catching up on laundry, some are out with our camp manager in search of petroglyphs, and our scientist is in the zone collating the data we’ve gathered so far. We deserve the break, after some bad weather over the last week.
Our second group of team members has settled into base camp, marking the successful completion of our first full day in the high mountains of the Tien Shan. The morning began with an introductory lecture led by expedition scientist Emil, setting the stage for the conservation work ahead. Following the briefing, team members plunged straight into practical preparation, undergoing comprehensive equipment checks and mastering essential navigation skills required for traversing rugged terrain safely.
Group 1 is done, with excellent results, thank you! We thought 2025 would be hard to beat, but we have made a good start thanks to the efforts of our first snow leopard research group.
It’s been a whirlwind of activities over the last four days on our snow leopard project: Interviews with locals, an overnight survey in neighbouring Archali valley, as well as our usual cell surveys. And, yes, more snow leopard records.
