Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan
Four more camera traps retrieved, with more pictures of snow leopards!
Full report and pictures over the weekend.
Tien Shan: More snow leopard pictures
Tien Shan: Keen & capable
Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan
We’re more than half-way through group 1 and the team has proved itself keen and capable.
So far, we have retrieved two camera traps from the mountains. The batteries of one of them only lasted for a few weeks after the last expedition left it. The other performed well with the batteries lasting almost until our return and giving us a picture of a snow leopard and a wolf. This is good news already.
Some of the other camera traps have proved elusive to find – or they have been stolen. Herders feel watched and threatened by them, poachers even more so, and a camera trap spotted by a poacher is invariably a camera trap lost. These are the realities of life in a far-flung corner of the world, well away from digital overload or any kind of policing.
On the brighter side, group 1 has already covered 27 (!) survey cells and conducted three interviews. This is a great effort, well done!
Pictures and a fuller report in a week.
Tien Shan: Snow leopard!
Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan
Very good news from the field. We received this message from the field today: “Hi, all well here. We retrieved camera traps today and have sightings of wolf and snow leopard. “
This is from camera traps left in the mountains by the expedition last year, some now retrieved by group 1. Well done!
We can’t show you the pictures, as we only have text connectivity via satellite with the expedition, but here’s one from an earlier expedition.
We’ll have to wait for the real thing until group 1/2 changeover in 10 days.
Continue reading “Tien Shan: Snow leopard!”Tien Shan: And so it begins…
Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan
Group 1 is here and we are on our way.
There is zero connectivity at base camp and we will enjoy the digital detox. But this also means that I will only send one, perhaps two, short text-only updates per group via satellite. So please be patient, assume that no news is good news and wish us luck for our endeavours.
Continue reading “Tien Shan: And so it begins…”Tien Shan: Ready
Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan
We’re as ready as we can be. We have chosen a site for base camp, pitched two yurts (third one is a group 1 job), established the science, kitchen, showers, toilets etc and said hello to the neighbours. All it now needs is you.
Come prepared for all weathers. We had 2C and a snow and ice dusting at base a couple of days ago and the weather forecast for the next few days isn’t pretty.
On the brighter side, lovers of Edelweiss will be pleased to hear that it is everywhere, including base, and that our study site is as beautiful and remote as ever.
The drive there is long, but worth it in the end, so without any further ado, see you tomorrow, group 1. Your main task will be to get the camera traps back from where we left them a year ago. Fingers crossed they are still there, high up in the mountains, and have captured something…
Tien Shan: Bishkek
Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan
We’re in a muggy and rainy Bishkek. In fact, there’s been lots of rain and snow in the last few months. We’ll have to see for ourselves what this means in terms of access to our study site and where we’ll place base camp. More news on this at the end of the week.
For now, it’s the usual madness of getting equipment and paperwork ready, shopping, meetings, ticking boxes. Scientist Emil is here to help, Lukas also, former staff member and Bishkek resident Amadeus and NABU staff too.
We’re doing our thing and I hope you are too. I’ll be back with updates from the field on Saturday or Sunday evening, when we return to Bishkek.
Tien Shan: Ghosts revisited
Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan
Not long now until we return to the mountains where the ghost lives. I am Johnny Adams, your expedition leader this year for our seventh year of chasing the ghost. We have finished in one area of Kyrgyzstan and are now moving onto the next, Archaly valley, recceed by the some expedition teams in 2023 and now ready for a full on-site rotation this year.
We’ll be a week ahead of you to shop, set up and do the thousands of other things and little details that need to be done so that you can just get here and do your thing: citizen science. Please do your part too: Pack properly (see the dossier), get to Bishkek on time for your group, read up on the methodology and get familiar with the datasheets and the area. All this you can do via the pages here and here. Also make sure that you bring a copy (printed or on a tablet, best printed as electricity is hard to come by in the middle of nowhere) of the field guide with you to Bishkek. This will be your personal copy to take with you on your job every day. This, combined with the methodology, the datasheets and the map, will your tools to help us document the ghost.
I hope by now you have realised that you are not joining some cushy snow leopard safari with cocktails at your tent in the evening, but a serious undertaking. Below are some pictures of what awaits you.
Enough said. I’ll be back in touch from Bishkek in a few days with updates on the weather, preparation progress and other messages of disaster and chaos 😉
Happy packing and swotting up until then.
Johnny Adams
Expedition leader
Biosphere Expeditions: blogs from the frontline of wildlife conservation and the fight for a more sustainable planet 