Sweden : Good start

Update from our Sweden bear volunteer project

The Sweden Brown Bear Research Expedition has begun! Andrea, Gunther, Louise and Roland have been working tirelessly over the last few days to get everything set up with the necessary Covid restrictions in place. Adaptation is key to success when faced with such challenges on an expedition, and it seems to be a success so far. Even Andrea’s damaged knee (injured through a bad jump from a helicopter while darting a bear to attach a GPS tracker – she is that kind of bear researcher!) hasn’t derailed the expedition. A bionic-looking leg brace and some inner grit seems to keep her going.

Our multinational expedition team – representing the UK, Germany, Poland, Spain and the USA – have arrived, settled into base camp and hit the ground running with a busy first day of introductions, safety briefing, background lectures and practical training. By the afternoon, the team were hiking through the forest to find a bear den (recently vacated by the bear), navigating to it using coordinates in a GPS unit. It turned out to be a very snug den, excavated into an old ant hill: this type of den is considered to be a high quality one.

Louise’s Covid-adapted kitchen protocols have not stopped her producing great food for the hard working team. The outdoors briefing sessions are working out fine too, thanks to the good weather.

Tuesday will involve more training on research tasks, equipment and a full assessment of another bear den carried out by the whole team, led by Andrea. In the meantime, the team are allowed some down time whether that be in the communal log cabin, enjoying the peaceful ambience of the Swedish forest at dusk or, if they feel they deserve it, even firing up the sauna hidden away in the trees a short wander from base camp.

Sweden bear conservation holiday update