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Reading the research report for last year’s Biosphere Expedition to Tien Shan reminded me of the importance of our research into snow leopards and the success of the 2022 expedition. I am looking forward to be returning to Tien Shan for the 2023 expedition, run in partnership with the conservation organisation NABU. The expedition start is fast approaching.
This is Roland, the expedition leader for group 1. I will be accompanied by Henry who will learn the ropes with group 1 and then take over as expedition leader for groups 2 and 3. Henry and I will be flying out to Kyrgyzstan soon to prepare for the expedition on the ground. We will join Taalai, our Kyrgyz expedition scientist, who also led the research on last year’s expedition, as well as some rangers from the NABU anti-poaching patrol and our new expedition cook, Azamat.
We are feeling ready. We have checked all the equipment, resupplying as needed. We have replaced the yurt and tents that were spectacularly destroyed by the storm at base camp last year. Other new equipment and supplies have been bought in Kyrgyzstan and in the UK: Henry and I will be travelling with large bags. We will set up base camp next week, ready for the arrival of group 1 on 10 July.
For those of you who are coming out this year, I hope you are as excited about the expedition as I am. If the expedition is like last year, it will be rewarding, memorable – and hard work! Get ready for good days with a lot of walking in the hills.
Some reminders:
> Study the kit list in your dossier and make sure you have all the essential items on it
> Trekking poles are also very useful; collapsible ones especially so
> Make sure you read at least the abstract of the 2022 report; it’s a good idea to also read the 2022 diary, or at least the round-up
> Make sure you bring a copy of the field guide with you
More diary entries to follow before then. In the meantime, here are some photos from last years’ expedition, to whet your appetite.
All good things must come to an end. Our Sweden Brown Bear Research Expedition 2023 has finished now. Following a review last year, it was a few days longer than our 2022 expedition, which Andrea and myself really valued. We gathered significantly more data following the initial training and Andrea was thrilled to discover by the end of the expedition we had surveyed the vast majority of all the dens on her target list for the year. Another great Biosphere Expeditions achievement!
The last days of the expedition saw us working as hard as ever, navigating very much off-piste to find winter dens and recent day beds hidden in the forests. We also found several moose carcasses or remains of moose at day bed sites, giving an insight into the types of food that at least some bears hunt or scavenge on at this time of year.
Our last night was celebrated with wonderful food, a review of everything we had achieved, with much appreciation from Andrea for the amount of quality data gathered by a hard-working team of committed citizen scientists and a late night impromptu game of Viking Chess outside as the sun dropped below the trees.
Altogether our expedition team visited 68 sites in eight days of field work. This included 38 winter dens, 3 sites where the den could not be found and 27 day bed or likely scat sites. We collected 35 scat samples to be sent off for analysis. Ten of these were ‘first scats of the season’: especially valuable samples that can reveal much about hibernation.
All this is a significant achievement and scale of effort by a top team of citizen scientists. I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to everyone on this very successful expedition – to Andrea, who explained and trained us in the research so well (and welcomed us on to her property to use as our base camp), to Louise who fed us so well and to our magnificent group of citizen scientists who threw themselves into this expedition with a great attitude, got on really well as a team and gathered a considerable quantity of high quality data. You make a vital contribution to the evidence base needed for successful conservation of Brown Bears in Scandinavia.
We have been working hard, finding bear dens in difficult places, investigating the sites where tracked bears have spent time on one spot and then returning to base to enter the hard-won data into the computer. The rewards for this work come from the pleasure of contributing to a research programme that forms the basis for brown bear conservation action – but also good company, excellent food, the beauty of the Swedish forest, and a small break we enjoyed together on day 6.
Conveniently near to a bear day bed site we needed to visit that day, is a delightful spot where the river Voxnan rushes down through a rocky gorge in a forest of pine and birch. Here we all met up for a mid-expedition celebratory lunch of pea soup and pancakes – the traditional Swedish Thursday meal – cooked on a camp fire. Some of the team insisted on immersing themselves in the cold waters of the calmer parts of the river.
Yesterday, Andrea gave one team an extra job to do. She wanted to know if a particular bear family of mother and two yearling cubs had split up or not. The GPS data from mother and one cub gave recent locations, but had not been updating recently. The second cub did not have a GPS collar, so his location was simply unknown. But all three bears did have radio tracking devices, so our mission was to try and locate all three bears in real time using a directional radio receiver and triangulate the results on a map. This took more time, care and luck than we anticipated! A bear lurking behind a rock or moving off while we are in the middle of trying to locate it can make the whole exercise very difficult. We did at least obtain some partial results showing the cubs in the same approximate area as each other, with the location of mother bear uncertain. Such are the practical realities of conservation research. Some of us ended that long day with a much-earned sauna in the woods at base camp.
Every morning we are tasked by Andrea, the expedition scientist and bear expert, to visit bear dens and day beds, at specific locations in this beautiful part of Sweden. The den sites are the locations where bears have been seen to hibernate in winter or where the GPS collars of tracked bears report that they stayed over winter. The day bed sites are simply where a tracked bear stayed for a few hours recently – perhaps only the day before – and which give us a chance to find their scat to collect for later analysis or perhaps evidence of a moose that the bear has hunted or scavenged. Bears are not aggressive and avoid humans, but just to err on the side of caution we also sometimes need to use a directional radio receiver to triangulate the latest position of a bear with a radio collar to make sure it is not still loitering in the location we plan to visit.
Finding a den always brings a thrill. Sometimes, they are obvious – a big old anthill in a forest clearing, exactly where the GPS pin shows it. Other dens need more work to find and we need to spend an hour or so fighting through the undergrowth, climbing through a maze of fallen tree trunks or investigating every rock crevice before we come across the den. Each den is unique. The expedition’s research aims include learning more about how the bears’ choice of den relates to the available habitat, any impacts of climate change and the bears’ condition. This year we have discovered a notably wide variety of bear dens. Dens built in uprooted tree roots, dens dug into the side of a hill, anthills excavated to create a cosy igloo of pine needles, open nests and rocky caves. We categorise and measure each one.
Yesterday we had our first moose sighting: a mother and calf, wandering along the forest edge. We stopped and watched: the mother walked off to a safe distance, the calf took cover in plain sight in a ditch right next to us. It was a special moment.
The first two days of the expedition are dominated by intense training, and this team has hit the ground running. Much of the training is in the practical methods used to collect data at each winter den: from the den measurements through to a methodological approach to defining the habitat around the den, as well as much information to record about bear scats. Research equipment that the team are trained to use range from the specialist densitometer, which measures the extent of tree canopy above a den, to the humble compass (you need to put Fred in the Shed).
We also train the expedition team in how not to get lost. The bear dens and day beds that they are tasked with finding are deep in the woods, often a long way from the road. As adventurer-scientists, the team have to fight their way through some pretty challenging and pathless territory – typically rocky, boggy and/or hard going (usually all three), trying to locate a waypoint on a GPS device, and ideally not losing anyone en route. Finding the way back to the car afterwards can be a difficult task when you look up after an hour of focussed survey work and being confronted with a view of indistinguishable forest in all directions. Fortunately the team are trained in various navigational techniques, complemented by cool heads and common sense, so have successfully failed to get lost so far.
We have already surveyed two winter dens – a beautiful den under a massive boulder and a very different ‘nest’ type den where a bear and her cubs spent winter covered by nothing more than a thick blanket of snow. We have also begun to collect our first bear scats, carefully labelled and stored ready for later analysis to reveal what the bear has been eating before and after hibernation.
The team have taken all this on with little rest and in good spirits. A special mention here to Torsten, who cycled over 1000 km from southern Sweden to join the expedition and immediately threw himself into expedition life without pause.
With the training part of the expedition almost over, the team is ready to devote the next week to exploring the tangled forests of mid-Sweden to record high quality data for the transnational Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project.
Greetings from base camp. I am excited to be back! The Advanced Team have assembled: Louise and I arrived here last night and Andrea, the expedition scientist, joined us today. We have bought the food and supplies for the expedition: there is a lot of it, so I hope you will be hungry.
Base camp is looking glorious in the Swedish spring sunshine. The iconic Swedish red wooden cabins are almost glowing in the morning light, the birch and pine trees are bursting with green vitality and we saw a fox running past the sauna and across the stream when we were out exploring late last night.
The snow has gone, apart from a few patches in forest clearings, revealing the grass at base camp, along with some old moose scat. Our job for the next two days is to get base camp tidy and organised ready for the expedition, and to check and prepare all the research equipment.
Andrea has been a little tense: the tracked bears’ GPS collars often only transmit their entire winter’s data after they have left their winter den and walked into an area with phone signal. Due to the late arrival of spring here, Andrea has been left waiting for these data uploads. Thankfully, as of yesterday, she now has the data and she looks positively happy now!
We are getting excitingly close to the start of the 2023 Sweden Brown Bear expedition, and preparations are going well. I am Roland, your expedition leader, and this will be my second time leading this expedition. I am really looking forward to returning. This year, my partner Louise, a professional events caterer, will also be joining us as expedition cook. It will be interesting to see what that will mean under expedition conditions. We will be working alongside Dr Andrea Friebe, the local expedition scientist who manages a long-term research programme monitoring the brown bear population in this region.
Louise & Roland
Our daily research tasks will include finding and recording the dens that the bears have been using to hibernate in over winter, as well as their day beds, which we will visit sometimes shortly after they have left them.
Andrea sent an update from the field today saying that 10 cm of snow fell last night and that some of the tracked bears have not yet left their dens, so we may have some interesting challenges coming our way…
As always with Biosphere Expeditions, we will review and adapt our plans according to the conditions we find. The weather forecast for Dalarna province, at least for the first few days of the expedition, predicts warmer conditions – up to 27 C , with some sunny, some cloudy and some rainy days. The best advice is to pack clothing and footwear ready for any and all weather conditions!
The research methodologies we use on this expedition are relatively detailed and specific, especially when it comes to surveying the winter dens. But fear not, we will provide ample training in the methods and using the research equipment in the first two days. I will send another update once Louise and I get to our expedition base, on 24 May. In the meantime, feel free to start getting excited about this expedition – I certainly am!
The 2022 Biosphere Expeditions citizen science expedition to Sweden to study brown bears together with Dr. Andrea Friebe of Björn & Vildmark and the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project has been a success for the second year running and overachieved on its aims.
In a nutshell, the expedition documented all 24 bear dens of the study site, collected over 100 bear scats, recorded 30 day beds, 8 carcasses and a multitude of other interesting events such as gnawed antlers, encounters with moose, fox, owls and other animals. Dr. Friebe now relies on this citizen science contributions each year to conduct significant parts of her work on brown bear ecology in a changing world of climate change and forestry. In her words “essentially, if the expedition was not here to do this work, it would probably not get done” and the expedition is “a showcase of how citizen science can supplement existing research projects run by professional scientists”.
All this is in evidence in the post-expedition scientific report (abstract below). The 2023 expedition has been lengthened to 10 days to be able to achieve even more and Biosphere Expeditions looks forward to returning to Sweden in May/June 2023.
This is a report about the second year of collaboration between Biosphere Expeditions and Björn & Vildmark with the overall purpose of researching the behaviour of free ranging brown bears (Ursus arctos) in central Sweden for the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project (SBBRP). This collaboration investigates, amongst other topics, how climate change as well as human activities affect the brown bear behaviour and population, and provides managers in Sweden with solid, science-based knowledge to manage brown bears.
From 28 May to 4 June 2022, six citizen scientists collected data on bear denning behaviour and feeding ecology by investigating the 2021/2022 hibernation season den sites of GPS-marked brown bears and by collecting fresh scats from day bed sites. All field work was performed in the northern boreal forest zone in Dalarna and Gävleborg counties, south-central Sweden, which is the southern study area of the SBBRP. After two days of field work training, citizen scientists were divided into three to four sub-teams each day. All study positions were provided by the expedition scientist and only data and samples from radio-marked bears with a VHF or GPS transmitter were collected.
Citizen scientists defined den types (anthill den, soil den, rock den, basket den or uprooted tree den), recorded bed material thickness, size and content, as well as all tracks and signs around the den sites to elucidate whether a female had given birth to cubs during hibernation. All first scats after hibernation and hair samples from the bed were collected, and the habitat type around the den and the visibility of the den site were described.
Twenty-six winter positions of 21 different bears were investigated. Two bears shifted their dens at least once during the hibernation season. In total, the expedition found 23 dens; two soil dens, eight anthill dens, one anthill/soil den, one stone/rock den, four dens under uprooted trees and seven basket dens. Unusually, one pregnant female that gave birth to three cubs during winter, and four females that hibernated together with dependent offspring spent the winter in basket dens. Normally basket dens are mainly used by large males.
Excavated bear dens had an average outer length of 2.0 m, an outer width of 2.2 m, and an outer height of 0.8 m. The entrance on average comprised 28% of the open area. The inner length of the den was on average 1.3 m and the inner width was 1.1 m. The inner height of the dens was on average 0.6 m. Bears that hibernated in covered dens used mainly mosses (47%), field layer shrubs (36%) and branches (14%) as nest material, which reflected the composition of the field layer and ground layer that was present at the den site. However, bears that hibernated in open dens such as basket dens, preferred branches (43%) followed by grass (26%); mosses (19%) and field shrubs (12%) as nest material. The expedition found two first post-hibernation bear scats at the den sites.
Ten bears selected their den sites in older forests, and eleven bears in younger forests, only two bears hibernated in very young forest. The habitat around the dens was dominated by spruce (Picea abies) 37%, scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) 35% and birch (Betula pendula, Betula pubescens) 27%.
As part of its intensive data collection activities, the expedition investigated about half of all winter den positions that the SBBRP recorded in 2021/2022 and collected 64 scats at cluster positions, which represents all scat samples that the SBBRP normally collects during a time period of 14 days. A detailed food item analysis will be performed in 2025 and the data will be published.
It appears that climate change is altering bear denning behaviour and may reduce food resources that bears need for fat production. Overharvesting (hunting) of bears and habitat destruction are the major reasons why brown bear populations have declined or have become fragmented in much of their range. In Scandinavia, human activity around den sites has been suggested as the main reason why bears abandon their dens. This can reduce the reproductive success of pregnant female brown bears and increases the chance of human/bear conflict. Understanding denning behaviour is critical for effective bear conservation. Further research is needed to determine whether good denning strategies help bears avoid being disturbed. Additionally, enclosed dens offer protection and insulation from inclement weather. A continued fragmentation of present bear ranges, inhibiting dispersal, together with an increasing bear population, might lead to bears denning closer to human activities than at present, thereby increasing human/bear conflict. The dens that were investigated by the expedition were visible from 22 m on average. Cover opportunities and terrain types not preferred by humans are thereby presumably important for bears that are denning relatively close to human activities, but further research needs to be done to validate this theory.
Through all of the above, the expedition made a very significant contribution to the SBBRP’s field work in a showcase of how citizen science can supplement existing research projects run by professional scientists.
Biosphere Expeditions has this year completed its first snow leopard expedition to the mountains surrounding the Archaly valley, in Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan mountain range. Expedition scientist Taalai Mambetov describes the goals for the inaugural year in this location as “our primary focus was to identify indicator species, track argali sheep and ibex, and gather evidence of the elusive snow leopard”. If successful, the expedition would be the first to scientifically document snow leopards in the Archaly valley.
Biosphere Expeditions in collaboration with NABU started the 2023 snow leopard expedition by moving base camp 135 miles from the Karakol valley (home to the expedition since 2014) to the Archaly valley. The new location was selected for its potential prime snow Leopard habitat and the fact that no snow Leopard research has previously been conducted there.
The only way to prove the presence of one of the world’s rarest and most elusive predators is either with a photo or with DNA evidence. With a new and updated scientific methodology to accompany the new survey area, the 2023 expedition had a trailblazing feel to it. Citizen scientist Tobias Müller from Germany commented that “it was great to discover new promising areas”. Surveys saw groups venturing into the mountains recording snow leopard signs, their prey and livestock numbers, while walking routes that will be walked again as transects by future expeditions.
The team placed 20 camera traps between altitude of 3700 m and 4150 m, and collected 12 potential snow leopard scats throughout the expedition. The scats will be sent for DNA testing and the camera traps will be collected at the beginning of the 2024 expedition.
Taalai’s initial thoughts on the 2023 expedition and the new study area are positive: “Our expedition was a pioneer venture into previously unresearched terrain, yielding significant findings regarding indicator species, tracks of argarli and ibex, and evidence of snow leopard. These findings hold promise for the future of wildlife research and conservation efforts in this remote and ecologically valuable region”.
Another important task in the Archaly valley was to build positive connections with the local community who use the valley to graze livestock during the summer. This year the expedition concluded with a well-received event that introduced Biosphere Expeditions, NABU and the research in the area. Going forward, the expedition will look for ways to engage the local community in a collaborative and constructive manner. Camera trap servicing teams and alternative livelihoods capacity-building are both potential projects for the coming years.
Little is known about the snow leopard population in this area, so in the coming years the expedition hopes to shed more light on the population dynamics and highlight the importance of protecting this ecosystem. Taalai’s final thoughts were: “The Archaly valley presents a valuable opportunity for research focused on snow leopard conservation and the establishment of a sustainable community-based protection programme. By conducting research, addressing human-wildlife conflicts and engaging local communities, there is a strong potential to protect this wild area while benefiting both wildlife and people. Biosphere Expeditions’ citizen science projects serve as a collaborative force, uniting the passion and expertise of professional, citizen scientists and and the community alike”.
Three consecutive groups of citizen scientists contributed to the Biosphere Expeditions Tien Shan Snow Leopard research expedition in 2022, run in partnership with NABU in Kyrgyzstan. The expedition continued the research carried out by Biosphere Expeditions and NABU since 2015 into the elusive snow leopard Panthera uncia in the Karakol Valley in the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan.
The 2022 expedition survived a number of Covid cases (all contained through practical contagion control measures) and a storm that destroyed a yurt and several tents at base camp, to successfully collect a considerable amount of data on snow leopards and their prey species in the Karakol valley.
The 2022 expedition ran between 11 July and 20 August 2022 and was supported by an experienced ranger as well as members of the NABU anti-poaching patrol, Gruppa Bars. The core research task comprised a number of small teams surveying different parts of the Karakol valley and its side valleys, up to an altitude of 4000 metres, recording any signs of the snow leopard or its main prey species – ibex, argali sheep, Himalayan snowcock and marmots. The types of signs that were searched for included direct sightings or audible calls of the animals, footprints, scat and fur. In each case, the location of the sign was recorded.
The expedition recorded many sightings of marmots and occasional sightings of ibex and snowcock. Three potential snow leopard footprints and five potential snow leopard scats were found and recorded. Samples of the scats were collected for later DNA analysis, which revealed that one of the scats was from a snow leopard.
Camera traps were placed in twenty six locations around the high side valleys, for different periods of time, as a research tool to provide evidence of the presence of snow leopards and other animals. Twelve of these cameras had been placed and checked earlier by the Community Camera Monitoring Trap Group (CCTMG) established by Biosphere Expeditions. The CCTMG is a small team of local people, trained in the use of camera traps, who are responsible for the camera traps in locations around the Karakol Valley in the periods between each expedition. By the end of the 2022 expedition, 15 camera traps were left in place for the CCTMG to service until the 2023 expedition.
The camera traps recorded two instances of snow leopards (one of which was a snow leopard passing the camera during the expedition period, the other was from the previous autumn). Camera trap images during the expedition also included ibex (eight times), marmots (five times) and snowcock (15 times).
The 2022 expedition also interviewed eleven local shepherds and their families to ascertain their attitudes to the snow leopards and about eco-tourism and its potential for generating further income for local people. These interviews revealed a substantially positive response from the local people towards the snow leopard and an enthusiasm for hosting tourists as an additional income stream to livestock herding.
The expedition provided clear evidence of snow leopard presence, through camera trap images and scat. Along with the results of previous expeditions, the 2022 expedition demonstrated a stable and healthy prey base for the snow leopard in the Karakol Valley and a positive attitude amongst local herders towards the snow leopard and the idea of hosting ecotourism in the valley. Seventy percent of the shepherds interviewed by the expedition expressed their willingness to consider a complete transition to alternative income sources, if it could rival or come close to their main earnings from livestock herding.
However, some conclusions from the research paint a more worrying outlook for snow leopard conservation in this region. In particular, no evidence of Argali sheep was found in 2022 compared to signs of this prey species in previous years. The high grazing pressure from livestock kept in the Karakol valley every summer, with especially high numbers observed in 2022, almost certainly threatens the success of ibex and argali sheep, key snow leopard prey species, through resource competition.
Overall, the 2022 expedition achieved its research objectives. Expedition leader, Roland Arnison, said “This was a highly successful expedition – our first since the end of the Covid lockdowns, and a very welcome return to the Karakol valley for Biosphere Expeditions. Our citizen scientists worked hard to collect a substantial amount of data over a huge area – we surveyed a total of 304 square kilometers of mountain terrain and recorded 156 signs of animals of interest. Excitingly, we had several direct sightings of ibex in the mountains and conclusive evidence of snow leopard in some locations.”
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