Category: News & Announcements

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Citizen Science Breakthrough: Biosphere Expeditions Establishes Critical Snow Leopard Research Baseline in the Tien Shan Mountains

Media release – 30 June 2026

Snow leopard looking over a mountain landscape
Remarkable camera trap photo taken the Biosphere Expeditions snow leopard research project

An international team of citizen scientists and professional researchers has successfully completed a landmark snow leopard research and biodiversity survey in the Teskey Ala-Too range of the Tien Shan mountains, Kyrgyzstan.

Organised by the award-winning non-profit organisation Biosphere Expeditions, the two-month expedition in July/August 2025 delivered a vital baseline report for snow leopard Panthera uncia density, habitat connectivity and spatial distribution in the region.

Working at elevations ranging from 2,797 to 4,419 meters, a team of 36 citizen scientists investigated a 392-square-kilometer study area. It confirmed the year-round residency of at least five distinct snow leopard individuals across the survey grid. This major breakthrough was achieved through a combination of camera trapping and DNA analysis of collected scats

The advance party of the follow-up expedition is heading into the field tomorrow (see expedition diary).

Read also: One of the world’s longest-running snow leopard research projects – thanks to citizen scientists

Continue reading “Citizen Science Breakthrough: Biosphere Expeditions Establishes Critical Snow Leopard Research Baseline in the Tien Shan Mountains”
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Citizen Scientists Track Apex Predator: Multi-year wildlife study in Sweden yields record data amid intensifying pressure on brown bears

Media release – 16 June 2026

A brown bear in the woods in Sweden (c) Björn & Vildmark

Non-profit wildlife conservation organisation Biosphere Expeditions has successfully concluded its 2026 brown bear research field season in the forests of Dalarna County, Sweden.

Working alongside bear scientist Dr. Andrea Friebe of the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project, an international team of volunteer citizen scientists generated critical telemetry, behavioural and dietary data tracking the region’s Scandinavian brown bear (Ursus arctos) population.

The 2026 expedition operated against a backdrop of increasing ecological tension, following a historic and highly controversial large-scale government cull during the previous hunting season. Despite a reduced regional bear density, the 2026 team completed an unprecedented sweeping survey of the study site, documenting a record-breaking 46 winter dens and successfully recovering months of localised data from deep-winter temperature loggers and remote camera traps.

Continue reading “Citizen Scientists Track Apex Predator: Multi-year wildlife study in Sweden yields record data amid intensifying pressure on brown bears”
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Conservation Travel: Ethical Volunteering’s New Frontier

Media release – 28 April 2026

Four people bent over a headlamp light at night, one of them has a small bat in his hands
Citizen scientists doing bat work at night in Malawi

As the 2026 travel season is in full swing, a fundamental shift is redefining the “adventure” in adventure travel. Moving beyond the passive observation of traditional safaris, a new generation of travellers is choosing conservation travel: a model where travellers swap binoculars for data sheets and camera traps.

In an era where biodiversity loss is increasingly linked to multi-faceted global threats, ethical wildlife volunteering has emerged as the most meaningful way to explore the planet. Leading this evolution since 1999 is Biosphere Expeditions, a non-profit organisation whose “citizen science” model has become the industry gold standard for transparency, scientific rigour, and ethical integrity.

Divers on a reef
Citizen scientists surveying a reef
Continue reading “Conservation Travel: Ethical Volunteering’s New Frontier”
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The moment conservation becomes personal: Stories highlighting the human heart of wildlife protection

Media release – 2 April 2026

Two people measuring and calming a sea turtle on a beach at sunrise
Two citizen scientists measuring and calming a sea turtle on a beach at sunrise

Around the world, ordinary people are stepping onto the frontlines of wildlife conservation. Not as tourists, but as citizen scientists, they help track species, collect critical data and support conservation of wild animals and places that would otherwise not be possible.

The new 2025 Annual Magazine from award-winning NGO Biosphere Expeditions brings these stories together, revealing the people behind global wildlife research and the real impact they are having in the field.

The Magazine celebrates the ‘Human Factor’. The volunteers, local communities and scientists whose lives have been touched by working on the frontlines of wildlife conservation.

Cover of the 2025 Annual Magazine "The Human Factor"
Cover of the 2025 Annual Magazine “The Human Factor”
Continue reading “The moment conservation becomes personal: Stories highlighting the human heart of wildlife protection”
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From Citizen to Top-Notch Science: Biosphere Expeditions Celebrates Recognition in ‘Nature Communications’, in Paper About the Status of Coral Reefs Worldwide

Media release – 17 February 2026

Biosphere Expeditions volunteers recording coral reef data in Musandam, Oman (c) Kelvin Aitken

17 February 2026 – Biosphere Expeditions, the award-winning wildlife conservation NGO, is proud to announce that citizen science data from its Maldives and Oman coral reef projects have been used and acknowledged in a recent peer-reviewed paper published in Nature Communications, one of the world’s leading scientific journals. 

The paper warns that ‘the impacts of ocean warming on coral reefs are accelerating, with the near certainty that ongoing warming will cause large-scale, possibly irreversible, degradation of these essential ecosystems’.

Continue reading “From Citizen to Top-Notch Science: Biosphere Expeditions Celebrates Recognition in ‘Nature Communications’, in Paper About the Status of Coral Reefs Worldwide”
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Citizen science helps protect Sweden’s brown bears through critical denning period

Media release – 3 February 2026

A brown bear in a forest
Bear (c) Andrea Friebe

Sweden’s brown bears are a conservation success story, but their recovery brings new challenges. A ground-breaking citizen science project that has been running in Dalarna county since 2019 shows how volunteers from around the world can help local scientists in bear conservation.

Continue reading “Citizen science helps protect Sweden’s brown bears through critical denning period”
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Bürgerwissenschaftler leisten wichtigen Beitrag zum Wolfsmonitoring in Niedersachsen während sich die Jagddebatte verschärft

Medienmitteilung – 27. January 2026
(Version auf Englisch)

Wolf (c) Christiane Flechtner

Die von Biosphere Expeditions durchgeführte Wolfsschutz-Expedition 2025 hat erneut einen wichtigen Beitrag zum offiziellen Wolf-Monitoring-Programm in Niedersachsen geleistet. Die seit 2017 jährlich stattfindenden Bürgerwissenschafts-Expeditionen sammeln weiterhin Daten, die in manchen Jahren die jährliche Datenmenge im Bundesland Niedersachsen verdoppelt haben.

Vom 5. bis 18. Juli 2025 untersuchten 19 Bürgerwissenschaftler mehrere Wolfsgebiete und legten dabei in zehn Erhebungstagen mehr als 650 Kilometer zurück.

Continue reading “Bürgerwissenschaftler leisten wichtigen Beitrag zum Wolfsmonitoring in Niedersachsen während sich die Jagddebatte verschärft”
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Citizen scientists make significant contribution to wolf monitoring in Lower Saxony (Germany) as hunting debate intensifies

Media release – 27 January 2026
(Version in German)

Wolf (c) Christiane Flechtner

The 2025 wolf conservation expedition run by Biosphere Expeditions has again made a major contribution to Germany’s official wolf monitoring programme. The annual citizen expeditions, which have been running since 2017, continue to collect data that in some years accounted for up to half of all annual wolf scat samples in the state of Lower Saxony.

From 5–18 July 2025, nineteen citizen scientists surveyed multiple wolf territories, covering more than 650 kilometres in ten survey days.

Continue reading “Citizen scientists make significant contribution to wolf monitoring in Lower Saxony (Germany) as hunting debate intensifies”
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South Africa: Expedition with Dr Alan Lee returning in 2026

We are delighted to once again collaborate. with Dr. Alan Lee as the expedition scientist. After successful expeditions with him to the Peru Amazon from 2011 to 2016 and South Africa from 2015 to 2017, we will be back with him in his native South Africa on an expedition entitled “Much more than just leopards: Surveying biodiversity in the Cape Floral Kingdom of the fynbos mountains of South Africa.”

Dr. Alan Lee

This expedition will focus on documenting biodiversity in the western Baviaanskloof wilderness area, with a particular focus on threatened and elusive Endangered mammals such as the riverine rabbit and Cape leopard, as well as birds and other fauna recorded through Coordinated Avifaunal Roadcount (CAR) transects. The work supports long-term monitoring obligations within the Cape Floral Kingdom (fynbos), a UNESCO World Heritage Site renowned for its exceptional biodiversity.

Continue reading “South Africa: Expedition with Dr Alan Lee returning in 2026”
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Dr. Matthias Hammer as keynote speaker at RGS Explore on Biosphere Expeditions’ 25th anniversary

Biosphere Expeditions’ founder and executive director, Dr. Matthias Hammer, was the Sunday keynote speaker at the Royal Geographical Society’s 2024 Explore Symposium in London, UK. His speech was about citizen science and community involvement on expeditions.

On the day at the RGS he said:

“I am honoured and humbled to be invited as keynote speaker today to the RGS, which was instrumental in getting my first student expedition off the ground 35 years ago. I would not be here today, had it not been for the RGS and Shane and Nigel Winser in particular.

I am also so pleased for Biosphere Expeditions that I should be invited to talk at the RGS on our 25th anniversary – this is a fitting tribute to all the people who have made Biosphere Expeditions what it is over the last quarter century. The honour is therefore theirs, not mine really, and I stand here for all of them – staff, helpers, professional and citizen scientists alike. My heartfelt thanks goes out to all of them.”

Dr. Matthias Hammer at Explore 2024 (c) Spike Reid