Award-winning, non-profit and ethical wildlife conservation volunteering. Advancing citizen science and conservation since 1999 – for nature, not profit.
This year everything is different. The country is effectively closed and so are all its beaches. This means there are no international volunteers or citizen scientists with us this year.
The main threat for our sea turtle nesting beaches is through illegal poaching. But COVID-19 has stopped us dead in our tracks and we currently have just our key local staff of one biologist and two research assistants struggling to patrol 7 km of beach to save as many nests as possible. But our funding, which comes from expedition contributions, is now lacking too, so we are struggling to pay our local staff. We are grateful to a couple of our local guides who have offered to work for free for the peak nesting season. Another piece of good news amongst all the mayhem is that our lobbying and education work with the government is finally paying of. So this year, just in time, we also have more support from the coastguards, who are also more available because all beaches are closed to the public.
So all in all, we are surviving here. So far we have managed to save round half of all nests overall. This is a far cry from the around 70% we can achieve with volunteers and underlines how critically important they are in what we do, but it is nevertheless impressive, given the very difficult circumstances.
Here are the latest figures from Pacuare:
125 leatherback nests this year – 67 protected in hatchery (54%)
53 females identified
740 hatchlings released from 15 nests so far
Emergence success rate 73%
5 green turtle nesting activities with 2 nests protected in hatchery (40%)
1 green turtle killed by poachers
Overall percentage of leatherback and green turtle nests saved so far 47%
By comparison, 67% of leatherback and green nests were saved in 2019 with the help of citizen scientists
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Biosphere Expeditions fundraiser so far. This is a crucial component to our success in spite of the pandemic this year. Please keep giving, if you can. The peak nesting season is still to come and every cent or penny will count!
Nicki Wheeler
Volunteer Coordinator
Latin American Sea Turtles
Usually by this time of the summer we’re already getting started with our expedition here in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan. In fact, mid-June is my favourite time to be up in our study area as the wildflowers are in full bloom and the mountains are at their most beautiful. More importantly for our research though, the number of shepherds is minimal, which increases the potential of seeing our study animals. This year though is obviously very different. It is increasingly challenging to create plans too far in the future, and as such, we were not sure that the lockdown in Kyrgyzstan would be lifted by this time of the summer. So instead, our community expedition will be taking place at the end of July for a total of eight days with the main goal of camera trapping and extending our community-based conservation work. Without our international citizen scientists, there won’t be much time for us to do the normal surveys that are a big part of the project year after year.
One of the first teams, in 2017
Both the people and the data they collect will be sorely missed! It makes you realise the importance of people from around the world coming to join us each year, working hard towards the goal of snow leopard conservation. It will be a very different expedition without them.
Saturday morning started a bit grey and damp, but the south of Pico was looking brighter. First we spotted a Cory’s shearwater with a damaged wing, at one point it looked like some monofilament was wrapped around it. We called the university and they said someone would come to collect it. But as we fuelled the boat, the bird came closer so once we finished, with no sign yet of the people from the university, we decided to catch it. Using a net, normally used to collect skin or poo samples from whales, we managed on the second attempt. Luckily for us, there was a bird box from the rescue campaign in the autumn, when the young birds can be found on the roads, at the police office in the marina. So we boxed up the bird and left it to be collected later. The bird will be transferred to Pico where hopefully it can be re-rehabilitated and released.
Off we went, just ahead of the rain showers. The lookout, Antero, had seen a sperm whale in front of the vigia at São Mateus, before we left, so that was our destination. As we reached the south, the wind dropped off and the sun came out. It was summer! Removing a couple of layers of clothing, we were scanning the horizon looking for a blow the lookout had directed us to. We found the whale and got the camera out just in time for the fluke. As it dived, I shouted “1198”!! She is one of our very well known females, first seen in 1989. Her group had been seen a few days previously closer to Lajes on Pico. The lookout then said we should go a few miles ahead where there were more whales. I did think this was strange, since usually the “family” of 1198 tend to swim fairly close together. But you don’t disagree with the lookout, so off we went. We just missed a mother & juvenile diving, but soon found another few whales, then another one and so on! We even saw what I think were two young males. By the end of the day, we had 13 different flukes from 16 encounters, but not another member of the 1198 family. So I will just have to wait a little while longer to see “1019”, one of my favorites, first seen in 1988. Apart from one of the animals I suspected were male, all of the other flukes were new to the catalogue. The “male” had been seen by the university in 2004. I will be in contact with them to see if it was identified as a male at the time. I doubt it, because the animal we saw was not a “mega” male, which are the very large, up to 18 m, animals. This was maybe 14 or 15 m most, so in 2004, it would have still been with its family group most likely.
In between some of the sperm whale sightings, we also saw a very energetic group of bottlenose dolphin, with at least one very small calf. We didn’t spend very long with them, because a sperm whale came up to the surface. As we were trying to leave the dolphin, two of them raced in front of the boat and did some amazing, 5-6 m leaps into the air!
About 45 min after the bottlenose dolphin, we came across a group of pilot whales. The group was split into a group of three large animals and another of five or six smaller ones. The three large ones just rested at the surface about 50 m from the boat, waiting for the others to catch up. And when they did, the whole group moved off and dived.
We kept following sperm whales and just as we started to see repeat whales and were thinking of heading for home, I spotted another blow. As we headed over a second whale appeared and they headed towards each other. Heads were coming out of the water, mouths were open and we saw what at first glance appeared to be a turtle that they were playing with. That turtle turned into something much more dangerous, a big tangle of rope. The two juveniles continued to play with if for another five minutes, before moving off, leaving the rope behind. On the boat, we gave a collective sigh of relief. It would have been disastrous if the rope had gotten stuck in one or both of their mouths. Although there is a knife on board as well as a mask, disentangling a whale can be quite dangerous.
Another four whales had come to the surface in the meantime and our two juveniles went over to join the adults, maybe complaining that we had removed their “toy” from the water. It appeared that the group was going to socialise and since the wind had started to pick up, we headed for home. We arrived home, happy and tired after 56.5 miles and 6 hours at sea.
How an almost dead landscape is transformed back into a wildlife paradise by livestock – by Christiane Flechtner
Kenya – Kunsang Ling looks through her binoculars. What the Canadian sees makes the corners of her mouth move upwards: “A cheetah with six young animals,” shouts the 38-year-old to her team in the 4×4 vehicle. Just a few years ago, this region of Kenya consisted of little more than barren earth. Dead, dusty land devoid of life. But little by little, the grey is changing into green – and with it zebras, wildebeests and antelopes are reclaiming their former territory.
Counting wildlife from the back of a 4×4 (c) C. Flechtner
The Canadian is one of twelve international citizen scientists on a wildlife conservation expedition to Kenya, conducted for the second time by the non-profit nature conservation organisation Biosphere Expeditions. The organisation is known for its successful involvement of lay helpers in species conservation projects worldwide and has been working hand in hand with people and biologists in various project areas since 1999 – including the Enonkishu Conservancy in southwest Kenya. “We want to help scientists to conduct their research projects successfully,” explains Malika Fettak, the NGO’s expedition Leader in Kenya. “To this end, we recruit motivated people who help collect data and help hands-on during their holidays.”
Widlife of Enonkishu, all photos (c) C. Flechtner
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Kenya is one of the countries with the highest population growth worldwide. From 1960 to 2017, the number of inhabitants rose from 8.1 million to 49.7 million – an increase of a full 513 percent. In the next 25 years, the number is expected to double again. The country is groaning under the burden of a overpopulation and the associated expanding infrastructure, which increasingly encroaches on animal habitats. In just three decades, the species-rich country has lost almost 70 percent of its wildlife – on the one hand through the destruction of its habitat, and on the other through the effects of climate change with extreme droughts.
The 1,700-hectare area of Enonkishu Conservancy, located around 240 kilometres south-west of the capital Nairobi, also since ceased to be a habitat for wild animals. It is a buffer zone between the famous Mara Serengeti ecosystem and civilisation.
The land belonged to 32 different landowners, who used it as farmland for corn or bean cultivation and cattle breeding – and overused it enormously. The excessive number of livestock led to extreme soil erosion. In order to counteract the devastation, the landowners joined together in 2009 to form a community and transformed the area into a conservancy, a protected area jointly managed by the local population.
The thousands of years old behavioural patterns of wild animals served as a model for rewilding of the area: “Here, the great migration of the wildebeest through the Serengeti has been imitated on a small scale,” explains the expedition leader. The wildebeest not only loosen the soil with their hooves, but also fertilise it with their dung. Then they move on, and the grazed green grass can grow again. “Here in Enonkishu, they leave this task to the cattle – they systematically let them graze in certain areas and then drive them on. Within just a few years, dead earth transformed into a green oasis, from which not only the landowners benefit, but also the wild animals,” says Fettak happily.
The job of the expedition participants is to collect data to provide figures to document the return of the wild animals. While Kunsang, together with Matthias Herold from Germany, Sirpa Lahtinen from Finland and Kathy Haan from the USA, observes the waterhole for several hours from a hide using binoculars, GPS devices and rangefinders, ranger Albert Ngetich, together with Canadian Brian Oikawa and Dutchman Paul Serail, set off on foot to the summit of Kileleoni Hill to observe the area from a bird’s eye view. The third group checks camera traps for pictures of nocturnal animals.
Waterhole obervation (c) C. FlechtnerHill top obervation (c) C. FlechtnerOn the way to a research activity (c) C. FlechtnerChecking and setting a camera trap (c) C. FlechtnerChecking and setting a camera trap (c) C. FlechtnerChecking and setting a camera trap (c) C. Flechtner
The results are quite impressive: The wildlife numbers have proliferated within a year. “The whole thing has developed a momentum of its own,” says the expedition leader. “The landscape has turned into a paradise where farm animals and wildlife can live peacefully side by side,” says Fettak. A positive side effect is that tourists are also discovering the area for themselves and supporting Enonkishu with their entrance fees to the protected area.
It may even be possible to find imitators of the sustainable concept elsewhere. It would be good for the densely populated country, and with the acceptance of wildlife and its benefits for people, this will be a chance to increase already scarce wildlife habitat bit by bit.
“It’s not a safari”, Biosphere Expeditions warned in advance. It was an adventure.
Cheetah (c) Paul Serail
Those who go on safari are driven around the savannah for a day by a guide. I went to Kenya for science. With twelve citizen scientists we counted zebras, wildebeest, giraffes and other cool animals in the Enonkishu Conservancy nature reserve.
How far is that wildebeest? Editor Paul Serail, third from left, measures the distance. (c) Paul Serail
Then you should also set out on foot. And not all animals on the savannah are harmless. As I walked into the bushes to take a pee, an irritated elephant hooted furiously nearby. Oops. During another walk I really had to run it twice for an elephant.
Hippos are the most dangerous
How do you get through your expedition safely? Tip 1: stick together. Tip 2: keep your distance from the animals.
But what should you do if the animals do not keep their distance from you?
Hippos are the cause of most casualties in Africa. A hippo usually flees to the water. Therefore, make sure you never stand between a hippo and the water.
If you leave elephants alone, they will leave you alone. Mostly. (c) Paul Serail
Elephants pretend to attack
Stressed elephants often perform a fake attack, then stop and make themselves big. They shake their heads “no” and rake the ground with one foot. They can also trumpet at the same time. The right solution: get out.
Buffalo, especially the bulls, have a short fuse. (c) Paul Serail
If you stay, it can happen that an elephant really attacks. He does this without sound, with folded ears for extra speed and with the tusks ahead. Running makes no sense, because the elephant will win that competition. Stand still, make yourself tall and yell, “Stop!” It works, I am told.
Buffalo do not fake attack. You better stay far away from the animals to avoid misery.
Whoever runs away from a lion is prey
Has she already eaten? (c) Paul Serail
If a lion comes across as slightly interested, stand still. It will be difficult, but otherwise the hungry hunter sees you as prey and you don’t want to be that. It can be wise to make yourself big and shout loudly. Then you come across as a threat, rather than a meal.
Other expedition pictures, all (c) Paul Serail
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Do you also want to go on an expedition? You can. Biosphere Expeditions organises volunteer trips in nature. From diving to coral reefs to the mountains where snow leopards live. And everything in between.
The wind has been blowing quite hard from the north all last week and yesterday (Sunday) was the first chance to get out again. The lookout on the south of Pico only saw a few small groups of dolphin, so we decided to stay to the south of Faial, where the waves were a bit smaller than the north side. It was a good choice!
We found a co-operative group of common dolphin, including some very small calves, where you could still see the fetal folds. Fetal folds are the “zebra” like stripes formed from the baby dolphin being bent inside of the womb, before birth. The brighter the stripes, the younger the animal. These marks will fade after a few months.
Just after the dolphin, we saw the second loggerhead turtle of the day! Not in “Turtle Time” for those of you wondering! 🙂 After the turtle dived, we put the hydrophone in for the second time and got a surprise. We had already passed a group of sperm whales! So we headed back the way we came and after about five minutes, I spotted three animals surfacing not too far from the boat! Yes! Then a small calf popped up and joined them and then another two! There were six sperm whales at the surface, including two calves; one suckling and the other not. Two of the four adults had been photographed in 2015, the other two are new to science.
Luckily, they didn’t all dive at the same time; one, then two sequentially and finally the fourth adult left the surface. The small calf was left at the surface and the larger one had shallow dive. WOW!! Now we understood why we hadn’t heard them on the hydrophone the first time we listened, they had all been up at the surface at the same time! We followed their clicks and waited for a second showing of the flukes, just to make sure we got the ID photos. And once they had all gone again, it was time to start back towards the harbour.
We passed very close to the Morro, the big white rock that you have to avoid hitting when landing or taking off from Horta airport! It is very impressive. No more animals were spotted, but I will be going out again soon, tagging along with Rui & Monica from the University of the Azores again. This time, they are going to be trying to tag a sperm whale.
Weather looks good, let’s hope the animals are waiting for us. Today Monday, 8 June is World Oceans Day.
The world remains in the grip of the coronavirus. Many countries that we operate in continue to keep their borders shut and some are still expecting their first peak, let alone a second wave. In fact, in many countries that we operate in, things are predicted to get worse before they get better. And a vaccine will take time, or it there may never be one.
Because of all this, we have decided to defer the citizen science elements of all our 2020 expeditions to 2021. These are:
An overview over all expeditions is on our website as a list and a map.
Please note that project work has not been cancelled. It is only the citizen science element that has been deferred to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Project work with local staff only will continue and you can see on our appeal page what is planned in terms of community expeditions and project work. If you can, please support our efforts to raise funds for this!
You can also read about community expedition efforts already under way in the Azores and Tien Shan.
We continue to feel very strongly about the need for continued conservation efforts and supporting our local partners and staff despite, or indeed because of, the unprecedented and very difficult circumstances. We hope you agree. If you do, please give to our coronavirus appeal to enable our local partners & staff to do just this.
Sperm whales to the south, sperm whales to the north. Not a lot in between yesterday (Friday).
I joined the University of the Azores again to look for baleen whales. The lookouts had only seen sperm whales to the south of Faial when we left the harbour. Since there was no lookout in the north, we went to search the area which wasn’t covered by a lookout. We spotted the first turtle of the day about 3 miles offshore and then found a mixed group of common and striped dolphin. They were not interested in the boat, so we kept going. Shortly afterwards, we spotted our second turtle of the day. This was a fairly large turtle and Rui decided to launch the drone to get some overhead photos. There is a project planned to have an unmanned aerial drone surveying the waters around the island for wildlife. But before that can happen, they need to write some algorithms to decipher the footage they will get. The photo of the turtle was only taken from 15 m height and it is tiny!
Unfortunately, during the flight one of the engines malfunctioned, so the drone couldn’t be used again during the trip. We kept heading to the NW of the islands, until the lookout on the north called to say he was on duty and and had spotted sperm whales closer to the coast and couldn’t see anything else, despite good visibility. So we headed in to get some photo-ID of the sperm whales on our way to the south coast. The vigia directed us to a group of three and then spotted a big blow about two miles further out. It turned out to be a male sperm whale and it didn’t wait for us to get in position to get a fluke photo. So we turned towards the south once again, but ran into sperm whales once more! A group of two, then a juvenile and another single all within a mile. So after another three flukes, we finally made it to the south coast, only to find that the wind had slightly changed and increased, making it impossible to do any work. So we had to call it a day. On the way home, we came across another tw loggerhead turtles. Still smiles for me, because although we weren’t actually looking for sperm whales, we found them once again and managed to get five ID photos.
Wednesday started out very grey and overcast. It was not looking very promising to go to sea, but still we headed out towards a small bank to the south of Faial and just as we arrived and deployed the hydrophone, the first blow was spotted! As we got closer, it was apparent that it was a baleen whale, since the blow was going straight up in the air. The next time the whale surfaced, the white flippers were seen through the water. “Humpback”, I shouted! The first humpback I have seen in 2020.
At this time of year, they should be on their way back north to the feeding grounds. This whale may have been coming from the Cape Verde islands or the Caribbean, likely on its way to Norway or Iceland. I notified the Azores university of the sighting, since they had been waiting for something to be seen before they left the harbour and we continued to track the whale. Unfortunately, it did not show its fluke, but I did manage to get dorsal fin photos and just have to hope that it is distinctive enough to find a match. When the university boat arrived, we left and headed to the West of Faial.
Before we had left in the morning, I was planning to head to the west if the lookouts hadn’t seen anything. I know that the “Winter Whales” usually hang around for a couple of weeks. The unknown factor, was if they had already been hanging around for a while when we saw them the other day or had just arrived. We will never know the answer to that question, but as we approached the Condor Bank, we picked up some sperm whale clicks on the hydrophone. About an hour later we spotted the first blow. As the whale fluked, my hunch proved correct. We had found the “Winter Whales” again! The first two whales we saw were the same two we had seen the other day, but we did manage to get a third fluke that was different. Given the hazy spotting conditions, we were lucky to see each whale twice. The juvenile that we saw a few days ago with one of the females was not seen on this occasion, indicating that it is getting to an age when it starts to forage for itself, only occasionally returning to suckle from its mother.
As it turned out, one of the Winter Whales was 2448, first seen in 2003. The one with the two small nicks on the left end (see photos) is 3483, first seen in 2007.
3483
And the one with the small scallop on the right near the notch is 2808, first seen in 2004.
2808
About five minutes after we started to head for home, I spotted some dolphin splashes . This turned into the first sighting of bottlenose dolphin, one of our resident species. Unfortunately, they were not going to escort us towards Horta, but were on their way to the west, so after about five minutes, we both continued on our separate ways.
Hopefully I can get out again soon, because towards the weekend it looks like a bit of wind before a couple more sea days next week.
Friday was one of those days you won’t forget for some time!
The morning started off quite drizzly and wet, so we delayed the departure. I was invited by Rui and Monica from the University of the Azores, IMAR, to join them aboard the boat I had been going out in.
The lookouts hadn’t seen anything and the south of Faial lookout had actually re-located to the north of the island. We headed out to the south-west. Monica and Rui wanted to find a fin whale to attach a short-term tag to, which records any vocalisations and also data during a dive, such as orientation and acceleration.
We had been going for about an hour when a back of a whale was spotted in the swell. We stopped and waited and waited a bit more. Blow! It turned out to be a sperm whale. Not what we were looking for, but we went to get the ID. As it fluked, I was pretty sure that I recognised it. We didn’t wait for any more, instead heading now to the south of Pico where the weather was clearing. We found a small group of common dolphin that came over to the boat and some a little further out appeared to be feeding.
We decided to head a bit further to the southeast, but by 13:30, we hadn’t found anything and started to head back to the harbour.
As we approached Faial, the lookout spotted the sperm whales again, so we headed over to have a look. Another project the university has, is to use a drone to collect samples of the blows, the famous “Snot Bot”! Although in Portugal (and therefore the Azores), drones are not allowed to be used by the general public, the use of this one (as wel as it biopsy darts and application of a tag) is approved under a research license. As Rui and Monica prepared the drone, we followed a whale along the surface. As it dived, I gave an excited shout! This group was the “Winter Whales”, so named, because we have seen them once in December, 2007. Once this encounter was over, we went back to Faial and everyone went their separate ways, but about 30 minutes later, the lookout Anteiro called to say he had seen a mother and baby blue whale! So we all raced back to the boat and off we went again!
The whales were off the South of Faial heading to the west. Monica & Rui prepared the tag and the biopsy dart (to collect a sample of the skin/blubber for analysis). Unfortunately, the mother was not very cooperative and every time we got almost close enough to deploy the tag, she turned away. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, it was decided to leave the pair to continue on their way. We did get the photo ID shots from both sides for both individuals and they have been sent off for matching.
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The calf did some absolutely incredible lunges/breaches while we were watching that made for some unbelievable sights. I don’t think I will forget that for a very long time!
 
Biosphere Expeditions: blogs from the frontline of wildlife conservation and the fight for a more sustainable planet 