Category: Expedition Blogs

With three of four groups now over (thank you all groups so far), I thought I would give you an overview of the media coverage so far (see below), as well as some background story on how controversial the topic wolf is in Lower Saxony, and indeed the rest of Germany and the Continent.

Some of you will not be able to read the German coverage, so let me give you a trend. The national and international coverage is by and large accurate and positive, including, crucially, from one of the most reputable weekly news-magazines in Europe (Der Spiegel). By contrast, local coverage is often misleading and negative (with the notable exception of the Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung article), claiming we are a profit-driven travel company just trying to make quick buck from the wolf, leaving public paths to trespass on private property, questioning our science, etc.

We think the reason for this is twofold. Firstly, the local press are struggling and therefore depend on more sensationalist news to sell, so they love a controversy, even if there does not need to be one. Secondly, we believe that the Hunter’s Association of Lower Saxony first and foremost, who are the most outspoken against the expedition, often wield significant influence in their local communities, including editorial staff. Perhaps this is why blatantly fake news and borderline defamatory statements are given print space. For example, that you, our expeditioners, will be bored of walking along public paths after a couple of days and start trespassing on private property in search of wolf signs, or that wolf signs are unlikely to be found on paths, but are mostly hidden in inaccessible undergrowth. This sadly shows little understanding of how we work and indeed of how wolf biology works, which is surprising for hunters who often claim to be the only ones truly aware of animals and their habits.

Still, we have invited all parties, including the hunters, to enter into discussion with us based on mutual respect, courtesy, professionalism and facts (about the expedition and Biosphere Expeditions, as well as wolf biology). So far this offer has not been taken up by the hunters, who are so crucial to wolf survival after all. We hope they will come round eventually. And we hope to show them, through our work and conduct, that we are not a marauding horde of thrill-seeking tourists, contemptuous of the hunter’s efforts to gather wolf information and thrashing through the undergrowth in a desperate search to spot a wolf face-to-face. Instead you citizen scientists are a valuable addition to the official wolf monitoring programme, adding significant chunks of new data in a cooperative, inclusive and professional manner.

I hope the hunters and other people not understanding, or not wanting to understand, what we are about may eventually see this and I thank you for inching ever closer to the day on which we may see pigs fly 😉

Best wishes

Dr. Matthias Hammer
Executive Director
Biosphere Expeditions

International coverage (in English) – Geographical Magazine (UK) – coming soon

National coverage (in German) – Der Spiegel, Wanderlust, NDR TV, NDR (radio I), NDR (radio II)

Local coverage (in German) – Cellesche Zeitung, Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung, Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, Weser Kurier

Another great expedition week is over. The scientific facts and figures of last week are: we surveyed 217 km of forestry trails on foot, collected 29 wolf scats, of which 14 will be submitted for DNA analysis. We also recorded seven more signs of wolf in ten different 10 x 10 km cells. These results alone have greatly exceeded our expectations, but we are still hoping for more, group 4!

During next week we will continue to survey specific areas of interest, all of which have been identified as areas where “something is going on”. Our hopes are that by the end of this year’s expedition our preliminary conclusions can be corroborated by more data to be found by group 4.

Group 3 ended with a lovely night around the campfire, a few shots of Heidegeist and Inge’s inspiring performance of how a wolf scat datasheet can be transformed into 10 Euro notes. Have a look at the pictures for more impressions of our week.

Thank you so much team 3 for coping more than well with both bad weather and poor tracking conditions, while never losing your motivation and high spirits. All of you have qualified as true expeditioners and researchers!

For Peter and I it was a great week in many more ways than one.

Team 4, I hope you have been inspired. See you tomorrow morning at Bremen airport!

It was a late night review after dinner yesterday. Once everyone arrived back at Gut Sunder (the overnighter team returning from Kenny’s place in the rural area of Luechow-Danneberg, the rest of us from a place near Hamburg where we met shepard Holger looking after one of his heards guarded by three of his dogs), it took until dinner time to sort out findings, download tracks and finish up datasheets & pictures for the review of the last two days.

So much has happened in only a couple of days! Very proudly, his face a broad grin, our expedition scientist Peter presented the “wolf highway track”. Within a distance of not even 3 km he and Julia collected 11 wolf scat samples of various sizes and ages (ranging from small to XXL, and fresh to old). Running out of gloves and plastic bags for collection was a first on this expedition. Congratulations! And, Peter, you have finally made up for not finding anything since the expedition started! 😉

I guess I should mention that the overnighter team was much luckier with the weather than the rest of us was. They had a break from the rain at least during the survey on Wednesday. Everyone else endured another day of rain and rain and more rain and wet shoes and feet and ­ just everything wet!

During the review we also found out that wus Anja booked a last minute room at Kenny’s hotel when she found out that there was availability. We need to talk 😉

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We continued our field work with team three on Sunday after the training sessions and returned to the most promising area in the rural district of Celle on Monday. Four teams spread out for an intensive survey and found and collected thirteen scat samples. On Tuesday one of our teams consisting of Fran, Verena and wolf ambassador in training Baerbel had help from Valeska and her dogs. They are trained to find wolf tracks & scats and use their amazing sense of smell to do so. As a result four more scats in the area were found and collected, two of which were very fresh and quite small. Considering all wolf signs we found so far, there is a chance that a pack with puppies is around. This will need more investigative work to prove convincingly.

Peter, Anja, Michael & Julia spent last night in a tent within the rural area of Luechow-Danneberg. We hope they didn’t suffer too much from the rain, of which there has been a lot over the last few days. This is unlikely to change before the end of the week.

Another incident offered us the chance to experience another side of living with wolves. When wolf ambassador Theo was called yesterday morning to investigate a sheep that was allegedly killed by wolves, Anne, Fran, Ben, Inge, Moni, Martin, Stefan & Verena and I were able to assist with investigations at the farm. Besides very wolf-like signs of the kill we found & recorded wolf tracks around the fenced area.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The second expedition week is over, everyone left NABU Gut Sunder on Friday. Once again, Peter summarized the findings of the week before we left: 12 wolf scat samples sit deep frozen in his fridge by now, thereof 6 fresh samples are also kept in Ehtanol for DNA analysis. For the first time one of the teams spotted, measured and recorded a wolf track of more than 100m of direct register trot (complying with the official wolf monitoring criteria). The finding has cost Peter a crate of beer… 🙂 Overall the survey teams recorded twelve more tracks and nine more scats that couldn’t be classified as wolf signs without a doubt. All findings, datasheets and documentation pictures will be handed over to the Wolfsbuero after the expedition for approval. Thirteen different 10 x 10 km cells were visited in four and a half survey days and the total distance covered on foot and by bike is 322.45 km.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thank you very much, team 2! Once more we were a great bunch of people from all over the world learning from each other & working together towards a common goal. Some of you came over for a week from places as far as India & Singapore, others kindly provided their private vehicles for transport. And, of course, all of you contributed a lot to the research by covering hundreds of kilometres on foot and by bike surveying and collecting samples. I hope the week out there around bogs and in the forest was great fun.

Writing this I am at my desk back at home where I will spend the next four days. I hope you’ve all had a safe journey back home, too, or enjoy your onwards travelling. I hope to see some of you again some time. Keep in touch!