Award-winning, non-profit and ethical wildlife conservation volunteering. Advancing citizen science and conservation since 1999 – for nature, not profit.
We’ve gone through all the community camera trapping team pictures now and we have some very interesting results:
As well as young ibex playfighting
And most interestingly and excitingly of all, a young ibex being stalked/hunted by a snow leopard
Once again, well done community camera trappers!
The coronavirus has forced us to make major changes to our efforts here with the Tien Shan snow leopard expedition. All citizen science elements of the expedition have been deferred to 2021, but we are still able to push ahead with a community expedition this summer, thanks to the generosity of those who have contributed to the Biosphere Expeditions appeal. We are lucky in getting our community expedition funded through this. There are other projects out there that are not fully funded yet, so please, if you can, consider supporting those too. Anyway, thank you to all donors who have funded us!
Right now we are in the planning phase of how to pull all the different partners together here in Kyrgyzstan. As always, we have our inaugural partner NABU on board with their Grupa Bars (anti-poaching patrol) staff. Also joinung us this year will be Askat Mukabaev, who is a full-time conservation biologist at ILBIRS, another local conservation NGO here in Kyrgyzstan. Beyond that we have our community camera trap monitoring group that will be joining us as well. The expedition leader this year will be me, Amadeus DeKastle, as I’m already here in Kyrgyzstan, having lived here for a good while!
This year will be very different from previous expeditions, but at the same time, I know we are all looking forward to continuing this project and collecting another valuable data set this summer. Our community camera trap monitoring group has already collected some of the camera traps that are accessible and which have been out in the field since the end of the 2019 expedition. And we have a new image of a snow leopard in a new valley! It’s at night and blurry, but it’s definitely a snow leopard. Well done community camera trappers!
So the excitement is there to check the camera traps that are still in the field, and also to use our community expedition really to develop the community-based conservation element of our work.
We are looking forward to the expedition (and will keep you updated via this blog). For next summer, I hope that things will be back to full capacity so that we are able to experience an expedition together again.
Apologies for the delay. We’ve had some computer issues, which is why this is late.
Satuday was an amazing day! We had a plan to go to the south and west of Faial, because the lookout hadn’t seen anything to the south of Pico when we were leaving. But just as we were about to turn the “corner” to go south of Faial, he called to say that he had seen a baleen whale in front of the vigia. So off we went to the South of Pico.
About 45 minutes later we were watching the first baleen whale of 2020, a fin whale. We stayed long enough to get the ID photos and then we were off to the south of Faial again. But we hadn’t gone very far before the lookout shouted “BLOW”! He had spotted another baleen whale closer to the coast. So we changed our course and headed that way. Just as we were approaching the area he had directed us to, a huge fluke rose out of the sea, as if the whale was saying “Hey, I’m over here”! And by looking at the fluke, we all shouted BLUE WHALE!! And it was indeed, quite a large blue whale. A bit on the thin side, but that is pretty normal at this time of year, when the whales are heading back to the feeding grounds after not eating for a few months on the breeding grounds. It was a fairly co-operative whale, because we were able to get the photo ID shots from both sides. Unfortunately, it didn’t show us the tail again.
Once again, we headed for the south of Faial. This time we actually made it to the area we had originally set out for! And what did we find? A group of sperm whales! We got fluke photos from four individuals and a large calf. Along the way, we passed a group of common dolphin with a lot of calves. And on our way back to port, we came across a mixed group of common and striped dolphin.
All in all, a practically perfect day [and Lisa’s birthday – Happy birthday!, ed.]. And to cap it all off, there have been some matches too. Three whales matched to 2009, one to 2018 and two to last year!
It looks like there is going to be a bit of wind and rain this week, but hopefully we will get out towards the end of the week or the weekend to see what is waiting for us.
With the weather looking good for a couple of days and the Port Captain now allowing a registered Maritime Tourism boat to go out to sea, I was off in Thursday in a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) called Risso, with a regular whale watching skipper.
As you can see from our track, we covered a lot of miles, 67.2 to be exact. It was worth it!
Although, the baleen whales (probably two fin whales) eluded us, we did find and photograph sperm whales. Judging by their size, they were most likely young males. I have to give credit to the Vigia (lookout) Anteiro, for giving us the information that the sperm whales had been seen. Also thanks to skipper Pedro Filipe for taking me out for just the cost of the fuel.
It took us over an hour to get to the area and the first whale that was spotted didn’t stay up long enough to photograph. But with the next four animals, they were seen early enough after surfacing, that we could get into position to get the all important photo ID photos! In fact three of them appeared at the surface within 300 m of the boat! We were using a directional hydrophone to listen to their clicks and have the best information on where they might be surfacing. The skipper, Pedro, is an expert at finding sperm whales this way. We were pretty sure that there were four animals in the group and when we got the third different fluke, we decided to try for those elusive baleen whales.
After lunch, Anteiro spotted the baleen whales again, this time closer to Faial, so we made a beeline in that direction. Unfortunately, the rain blocked his view for a while and they disappeared. Along the way, we came across a group of around 50 common dolphin, which came over to bowride for awhile. And when the whales were spotted once again, still closer to Faial, off we went again. But the rain interferred once again and for today anyway, it is baleen whales 1 – Lisa 0.
The weather looks good tomorrow and hopefully Sunday too. So we will be back out on the water to see what we can find. The vigias will also be hard at work once again.
Thanks to Biosphere Expeditions, the 2020 season is well and truly under way.
Unfortunately, I have not been out. There was one small window during the week, but the yacht captain couldn’t go out. The weather has not been co-operative either. It always looks like there will be a day or two of good weather and then the window shuts. I was hoping to go tomorrow, but the forecast has increased wind now, so unlikely. It is driving me mad!
The good news is that two additional, smaller motor boats should be ready to go next week, so there will be more options for me. But the boats are not very large, so there will need to be pretty good weather to use them.
The small directional hydrophone is ready to go, so if the lookout spots sperm whales, they will not “escape” again!
Another bit of good news is that my official research permit has come through! It is valid until the end of October, so if nothing re-opens here, at least I should be able to get on the water to collect data with the help Biosphere Expeditions have provided (thank you again).
I will keep you posted. In the meantime, here’s a little video:
Our coronavirus appeal for our local conservation partners & staff stands at 38% (EUR 23,296) raised. An overview of where each partner stands is below. Thank you for your generosity so far. Please keep on giving!
ALMOST THERE
NEED MORE SUPPORT
FULLY FUNDED
We have the opportunity to reshape our economies to support life on Earth. Governments should take it.
Do Not Resuscitate. This tag should be attached to the oil, airline and car companies. Governments should provide financial support to their workers while refashioning the economy to provide new jobs in different sectors. They should prop up only those sectors that will help secure the survival of humanity and the rest of the living world. They should either buy up the dirty industries and turn them towards clean technologies, or do what they often call for but never really want: let the market decide. In other words, allow these companies to fail.
Biosphere Expeditions: blogs from the frontline of wildlife conservation and the fight for a more sustainable planet 