Tag: bear conservation holidays

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Our third and final Tien Shan group was full of enthusiasm and hard work. There was a real buzz around camp and everyone was motivated to get stuck in.

We have captured snow leopard on our camera traps a total of four times (total of 14 images captured) and sent back 13 scat samples to Germany to be DNA-tested whether they really are from the ghost cat. We have felt their presence and it is hard to imagine that they haven’t observed us from a distance.

We planned an overnight expedition with two of our 4x4s to the east side of the Jil Suu valley to survey a large swath of prime habitat, but we were stopped in our tracks at the first hurdle: A road that we drove just two weeks ago was now impassable due to heavy rain “redesigning” the numerous river crossings. We returned to basecamp and decided to turn our attention to the east side of the Burkhan valley instead.

Another expedition team spent two days hiking in the mountains with an overnight stay in the Archaly valley to the south of our basecamp. They were able to place camera traps at a promising 4000 m pass and we are excited to see the results next year.

We were invited to join the local shepherds at a type of mid-summer celebration where all families from the same area let their hair down for the day. They had set up yurts with mountains of food and a loudspeaker to dance to Kyrgyz techno music. We were greeted gleefully and invited to talk in front of the more than 100 people that had congregated in the Burkhan valley. The Grupa Bars addressed the crowd and talked about the work we are doing here followed by talks from the expedition leader, expedition scientist and citizen scientists. We expressed our gratitude to our neighbours for their welcoming nature during our stay in the valley and their constant assistance and co-operation.

On our second to last day, we ventured to a ridge line to place camera traps, where we had discovered evidence of snow leopard. On the steep hike up the grass slope we were fortunate to witness a large group of seven to eight ibex walking on the ridgeline far above us, their silhouettes unmistakable against the deep blue Tien Shan sky. As we approached the top of the ridge, we made an effort to limit our noise in case they were still around. Sure enought, there was a small plateau around 150 m below the ridge where there was a group of over 40 ibex resting, the largest group of ibex we have seen on this expedition. We were able to observe them for a few minutes before they were startled by something and fled across the rocky, precipitous hillside out of sight.

The 2024 has been extremely successful and our citizen scientists have collected a huge amount of data. We have surveyed over 130 cells amounting to a total area of 520 square kilometres (!), looking for signs of snow leopards and their prey and assessing biodivrsity. We have placed 17 camera traps in the mountains to capture photos until our return in 2025 and have sent 13 vials of potential snow leopard scat to Germany to be DNA tested. Thank you to everyone involved to make this possible: NABU and the Grupa Bars, our scientist Emil, our local helpers and friends in the study site, in Bishkek and around the world, and most of all our citizen scientists, whose input in labour and funding make this expedition possible in the first place. I take my hat off to you all for doing this. Thank you.

Johnny Adams
Expedition leader

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Done for 2024”

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

The last two camera traps still out in the field from 2023 are proving elusive. Perhaps they have gone “missing”. Never mind. This happens.

BUT we have an amazing snow leopard photo from another trap from just six days ago. I will share this next weekend when we return from the field to Bishkek with this final group.

Today everyone is heading out on an overnighter to increase our reach as usual.

A couple of days ago we joined a community gathering of over 100 shepherds and gave a talk to them about who we are, what we do here and why. This was a good and successful undertaking.

More details, pictures and news in a week.

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Group 3 update”

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Group 3 have arrived and are on their way to base camp.

With this group, we will retrieve the last two camera traps still out in the field from 2023, place new ones and check the ones put out in groups 1 & 2, survey more cells, conduct more herder interviews farther afield and hold a community information event at our base camp.

As always, updates from the field will be scant with no up-to-date pictures until changeover. Wish us luck for this final group.

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Group 3”

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

During the final week of group 2, we received a tip from a local herder that he had seen a snow leopard at close range on two separate occasions in the same area. The area was in the same valley that we conducted our group 1 overnight mountain expedition in, so we know the area well.

We arranged to meet with the local herder, so he could show us the location and we could scope out camera trap locations. On the day we were supposed to meet, there was heavy rain and the forecast promised a wet day. Still, Emil and I were unperturbed by the weather and made our way to meet him, but he was suddenly “busy” for the day and unable to show us the location, but gave us some very brief details about the area and some geological features to identify it by.

After about an hour of walking, we were able to identify the area specified, but were surprised as it didn’t seem like classic territory for snow leopards. There were numerous cattle in the area and it was at a relatively low altitude with lots of grass and vegetation. We scoured the area for tracks, scat or scratch marks, but couldn’t find any evidence. We placed two camera traps in the vicinity and will report back, if we record anything interesting during group 3.

Overall, relations with the local community are very good. We have now conducted 16 herder interviews, which pretty much covers the big valley that base camp sits in. During group 3, we will move further afield.

Felt souvenir production for the expeditioners, bread-making and milk production for the expedition and therefore some income generation for the community is in full swing. Our information evening we had to postpone again to group 3, but I am determined that it will happen.

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Snow leopard tip-off (sort of)”

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Our second group was an expedition of two distinct halves. The first week was characterised by expansive blue skies with wall-to-wall sunshine. The second week was a different beast altogether, with gloomy skies, rain and thunderstorms almost daily. The weather, however, did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm and motivation to conduct research and get deep into the mountains.

The first few days were filled with training and briefings before we got into the nitty gritty of the work we are here to do – research snow leopards, their prey and survey their natural habitat. We have been very successful in this aspect with 85 different cells already sampled, amounting to a total of area of 340 square kilometres surveyed.

Our scientist Emil led a group of willing expeditioners deeper into the mountains on a three-day expedition across a 4000 m pass that leads into the Jil Sul valley to the north of our base camp. This enabled us to survey cells that would be impossible to reach in just one day and to place camera traps in promising locations.

Another team conducted an overnight expedition by car deep into the valley to survey cells at a lower to mid altitude and were fortunate to find wolf scat as well as evidence of snow leopard prey species and some interesting bird sightings.

I am currently back in Bishkek making our preparations for the third and final group. Emil and I have been working hard on a camera trap plan, so there will be plenty of opportunites to get into the high mountains during the next two weeks.

Thank you to group 2 for your hard work and we are looking forward to meeting group 3 on Monday.

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Group 2 summary”

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

The weather has been kind to group 2 – we’ve had sunny days all week.

We have now retrieved all but two camera traps from last year and they have yielded lots of prey species and another wolf, but no more snow leopard photos.

We have also found an argali skull and horns, so these iconic and elusive mountain sheep are around, but rarely seen.

We have also conducted eight more herder interviews.

We have an overnight mini-expedition with an advance base camp planned for the second half of this group. This will take us north via a 4000 m pass to survey more cells and place camera traps.

Also planned is a community information evening, during which we will explain who we are, what we do and ask how the community can and wants to be involved and benefit financially from our work, for example by supplying us with produce such as milk and bread or by helping with supply runs or producing felt gifts (felting is a great tradition and skill here).

Continue reading “Tien Shan: 4000 m”

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Group 2 have arrived and are on their way to base camp.

With this group, we will search for new positions for the camera traps we have retrieved in group 1 (or putting cameras back in successful positions), retrieve camera traps still out in the field, survey more cells, conduct more herder interviews farther afield and hold a community information event at our base camp.

As always, updates from the field will be scant with no up-to-date pictures until changeover. Wish us luck for this group.

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Group 2”

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Group 1 started two weeks ago with a weather forecast of inescapable perma-drizzle, but the reality has been much kinder. There were of course the occasional rain/snow/hail showers, but the conditions have been favourable for the most part.

A main task for this group has been to collect camera traps left by the 2023 expedition on remote ridges and other far-flung places. To get to them, we have been traversing mountainsides and ridges where few have ever set foot – with the exception of previous expeditioners, adventurous local herders and Soviet cartographers perhaps.

The results have been mixed, with one camera trap having 6000 images of nothing but snow. However, others have been much more fruitful. We have captured snow leopard on two traps and a solitary wolf. We also have pictures of ibex, badger, fox, weasel, rabbit, mouse and snowcock. The search for argali continues. The team have also been busy collecting data and surveying cells throughout the Burkhan and surrounding valleys with 40 cells already surveyed.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday the group split into two halves for an overnight mini-expedition away from base camp with one half driving into the valley to the north to gather information from the local herders and survey cells and the other half venturing to a remote pass to spend the night and survey cells in the vicinity. Both groups survived the experience and were rewarded with a clear night sky full of stars with the Milky Way clearly visible. The car group was forced by strong winds to retreat to the car for a “cosy” night’s sleep. The group that slept at the mountain pass were able to find good evidence of key snow leopard prey despite the extensive presence of livestock in the area (and some rather intimidating yaks). Large groups of ibex were spotted and there were reports of a live wolf sighting although there are reservations around this due to the consumption of Kumis (fermented and alcoholic mare’s milk) on previous days.

I hope that group 2 are now prepared for the rugged Kyrgyz landscapes and excited to get started. We have found hiking poles to be invaluable as well as having the Kyrgyz dictionary downloaded for offline use on Google Translate for communication with locals.

Safe travels and see you soon.

Emil’s drone pictures:

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Group 1 summary”

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.

Continue reading “Tien Shan: More snow leopard pictures”

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.

Continue reading “Tien Shan: Keen & capable”