Award-winning, non-profit and ethical wildlife conservation volunteering. Advancing citizen science and conservation since 1999 – for nature, not profit.
Here’s our first diary entry from Bishkek. It’s in the 30s C here, so hot and sunny. The mountains will be a relief. As you can see, we’re getting ready for you and we hope your preparations are going as well as ours 😉 Safe travels, group 1. We’ll see you at the Futuro 08:00 on Monday.
Here’s a first report of the season by our expedition scientist Fabian Carrasco:
The leatherback season started on 26 February with the first nesting female. Unfortunately she was poached. Later we had a nest in situ on 1 March. Her tracks were hidden by the waves in a couple of hours and the eggs remained safe from poachers. Our patrols with local assistants and international research assistants have started and in the past 43 days we have recorded 52 successful nesting activities:
* 1 natural nest (in situ)
* 25 nest relocated in Styrofoam coolers
* 9 nest relocated higher up the beach between markers 95-104
* 19 poached nests
* 1 nest saved by the Coast Guard and Police O.I.J.
Among the nests relocated in styrofoam coolers is one of green turtle (from 2 April). The others nests are from leatherbacks. No hawksbill have been seen yet.
The fist hatchlings are due between 1 and 8 May at marker 79.
Welcome to the Costa Rica 2017 expedition diary! My name is Ida Vincent and I will be your expedition leader. This will be my second year on this expedition and I look forward to being back at the Pacuare field station and working together with Latin America Sea Turtles (LAST).
The field station is located just behind the beach where the turtles nest and during our time in Pacuare we will work closely with the onsite biologist from LAST, Fabian Carrasco, who will be training us in sea turtle monitoring. Lucy Marcus, expedition leader in training, will be assisting me throughout the expedition and we all look forward to meeting you on 8 May.
Lucy and I will already be in Pacuare helping to prepare the field station for you arrival, however, Nicki Wheeler from LAST will be meeting you at 09.00 in the lobby of Hotel Santo Tomas. Make sure to be on time as our first night of patrols starts that very evening and there is a lot to learn prior.
Have another look through your dossier and check your packing list, remember that your head lamp needs to have a red light mode.
Hopefully you will all have read the 2016 expedition report too, so you already know why we are there and do what we do. As you can read in the report, support from citizen scientists such as you is critical, so thank you for your support and see you in a couple of weeks!
Ida
Citizen scientists help for the sixth year in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve
Biosphere Expeditions, the international award-winning non-profit conservation organisation, has just finished its sixth annual survey expedition in the wildlife haven of the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR).
Seventeen citizen scientists and conservation professionals from nine nations in Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East joined forces to survey the biodiversity of the sand dunes not far from the glittering metropolis of Dubai. Together they counted 31 bird, 11 mammal & reptile, 11 insect and 15 plant species. Amongst them 104 Arabian oryx, 77 Arabian gazelle, 4 sand gazelle, 140 palm trees, 843 ghaf trees, 28 acacia, 12 Sodom’s apples and a whopping 8,000 or so broom bushes.
Greg Simkins, Conservation Manager of the DDCR, says: “The annual survey with Biosphere Expeditions this year was the most productive we’ve ever had. This joint effort by people from across the globe is important for us. The data that the citizen scientists collect help us to manage the reserve more effectively. For example, by adjusting oryx feed or working out how many gazelles the reserve can support. And on top of this it is both rewarding and humbling to have so much interest and support from so many places around our planet.”
Expedition leader Dr. Matthias Hammer, who is also the founder and executive director of Biosphere Expeditions, adds: “We have wildlife conservation projects all over the world. This one really stands out because of our excellent working relationship with the DCCR. It is a pleasure to work with Greg and to see how our survey efforts translate into direct and immediate conservation and management solutions.”
The United Arab Emirates, and Dubai in particular, are well known for its rapid development over the past 50 years as well as for mega-construction projects such as the Palm Islands and the Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building). Less well known is the diversity and beauty of the natural environment, from the dugongs and corals in the Arabian Sea to the serene splendour of the sandy dune inland desert. Also little known is that the largest piece of land given to any single project in Dubai was for the establishment of the DDCR in 200; at 225 km², 4.7% of Dubai’s total land area, and the expedition’s study site.
“Stepping into the DDCR is like stepping back in time”, says expedition participant Tessa Merrie. “You see the Dubai desert as it must have been before lots of camels and guns killed off the native wildlife. You can see oryx standing majestically on the dunes and gazelles flitting across the sands. It was also a joy to live out in the desert for a week in a beautiful ghaf tree grove, surrounded by rose-coloured sand dunes.”
The Arabian oryx is the largest of the antelopes in the region and it is very well adapted to the extremely arid environment. Oryx once roamed all across Arabia, but the advent of firearms saw their rapid decline. The Arabian oryx is classified as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List. Re-introduced into the DDCR in 1999, the population has steadily grown from the original 100 individuals to over 400 today. For the next phase of the oryx project, local scientists need a greater understanding of how oryx fit into the DDCR’s natural environment, which habitats and plants they prefer, what the social structure of the herd is and how this is affected by the environment. “This can only be achieved through monitoring, for which Biosphere Expeditions provides the manpower”, says Simkins.
Other species seen by the expedition included a very rare Gordon’s wildcat, as well as Arabian hares and Macqueen’s bustards. There was also an exciting sighting of four short-eared owls, a first for the DDCR. The expedition also surveyed vegetation such as the beautiful ghaf tree.
Biosphere Expeditions is an award-winning not-for-profit conservation organisation, and a member of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and of the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Governing Council & Global Ministerial Environment Forum. Achievements include the creation of protected areas on four continents, scientific and lay publications, as well as capacity-building, training and education all over the world. Biosphere Expeditions conducts citizen science projects in wildlife conservation and research. Citizen science is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists. Formally, citizen science has been defined as “the systematic collection and analysis of data; development of technology; testing of natural phenomena; and the dissemination of these activities by researchers on a primarily a vocational basis.”
A journalist from National Geographic also took part in the expedition, as well as an assessor from the World Tourism Council, as Biosphere Expeditions has been shortlisted for the very prestigious “Tourism for Tomorrow” Award.
The 2017 expedition was kindly supported by Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa, as well as Platinum Heritage Luxury Tours & Safaris. The next annual expedition will run from 20 – 27 January 2018 and “anyone is welcome to join”, says Dr. Hammer. “The more citizen scientist we have helping us, the more we can achieve”, concludes Simkins.
More information about the expedition can be found on www.biosphere-expeditions.org/arabia.
Here’s a selection of images of the expedition:
This year’s expedition is over and we have all left our cosy base in Švošov. Tomas and I dropped the team at Kral’ovany station and waved everyone goodbye when the train left for Bratislava. We spent a couple of hours more at base checking and sorting out equipment, putting some of it in storage for next year and packing the rest to be taken back. I arrived back home yesterday, dropping three equipment boxes into the Biosphere Expeditions storage facility on the way.
Before saying farewell, let me tell you what happened on the last couple of expedition days: Three teams each day collected camera traps in Rákitov, Blatná and Turecká valley. The main Lubochňa valley was surveyed once more in two sections. Another attempt of finding the green connecting trail in Raková valley failed. 😉 New on the species list we recorded a trout found near Blatná lake – frozen, unfortunately.
As usual, Tomas summarised the second group’s results after the de-brief on Friday evening: Team 2 surveyed 22 cells and 13 transects walking a total distance of 177.7 km, an average mileage of 13 km per team per day, respectively. Lynx was recorded 6x, wolf 19x and bear 32x. Compared to the week before, the number of wolf recordings is much lower. “It is very likely that two out of the three resident wolf packs have moved to the other side of the mountain ridge”, Tomas explained. The tracks that were found in Turecká valley and reports from forester friends both corroborate this hypothesis. By contrast, the bears are active, because plenty of food is available (i.e. beech nuts), so there is no reason to hibernate. Of couse Tomas will look much closer into all data collected in due corse, when writing the expedition report.
Preliminary overall results after two expedition weeks are: We recorded 20 lynx, 66 wolf and 98 bear signs, the latter number a record in the six years the expedition has run at this site. The 8 (wild)cat tracks we discovered reveal the presence of another small predator in the Velka Fatra National Park. Nesting golden eagles were seen three times. And we also collected 10 samples of wolf, lynx and bear urine and/or scat for DNA analysis. Finally, another great result we found on one of the camera traps: Once more a lynx was photographed, this time during the day and in colour. The picture is good enough for identification of the individual, it shows the whole animal and its unique coat patterns.
So another successful expedition and a big thank-you to everyone involved in the project. František and Ludmilla, thanks for making us feel at home and keeping us very well fed at your house. Noro, thanks a lot for being a great mate & guide and sharing your plum juice. Everyone on the teams, thank you so much for in putting your time, sweat, skills and money into this project, which simply would not happen without your support. I hope you enjoyed our time in the Carpathian mountains as much as Tomas & I did and I hope to see some of you again somewhere sometime!
Very best wishes
Malika Fettak
Expedition leader
Gone are the misty days. The sky is blue during the day and clear at night. We recorded – 8 degrees C on the weather record sheet on Wednesday morning. Although the snow is covered by a layer of ice in most places, we were still able to find fresh animal tracks on our surveys.
Martin, Timothy and I walked Čiernávy valley on Tuesday and found wolf, bear and many, many foxes. On the way out, we walked past an active wood-cutting site where a massive tree blocked. By the time we came back, it had disappeared.
In Turecka valley Saskia, Vincent and Noro found fresh wolf tracks and replaced a couple of camera traps.
Ed, Connor, Holger and Tomas found another bear “playground”, fresh wolf tracks nearby and recorded an otter track. “Technical problems” with the snow shoes slowed them down on the way back, they said. They walked the more than knee deep snow without aid – well done guys, that’s expedition style! 😉
Noro’s team had somehow manipulated the GPS – their odometer reading was 30 km. After some discussion during the de-brief, we agreed on a total distance walked of around 35 km for all teams.
We will be collecting camera traps from Thursday onward, in order to have brought back to base all 18 of them by Friday afternoon. On the cameras that have been replaced on Wednesday we found a great video, have a look:
Besides quite a few pictures of fox, wolf and wild boar were also recorded by the cameras, but no more lynx. Keep your fingers crossed for more good results in the coming days.
Team 2 consisting of Ed (U.S.) in his second week, Sakia (NL), Connor, Martin and Tim (UK), Holger (D) and Vincent (S) have arrived safely on Sunday and are preparing to head out for the first full survey day. As ususal everyone ran through briefing and training sessions over the last two days. On the training walk on Monday, we went up and around Blatna lake again, tried the snow shoes in various terrains, recorded fresh wolf tracks, collected wolf urine from a marking place, saw a golden eagle and had a nice cup of hot chocolate at Pod Lipami. Everyone is now well prepared for the surveys to come.
Video by ORF journalist Christian Cummings about our Slovakia lynx, wolf and bear expedition. A radio programme about this will be broadcast on Sat, 25 Feb 2017 on Austria’s ORF FM4 (see http://fm4.orf.at/chriscummins).
On our last survey day on Friday the teams again walked more than 40 km overall, checking parts of the main valley, collecting some of the camera traps that were set on Tuesday, but also placing a couple more in promising spots, i.e. near a fresh wolf kill.
The snow conditions have worsened over the last few days. It’s been thawing during the day and freezing at night. In many places the snow is covered with a solid layer of ice, so fresh footprints and tracks are much more difficult to spot.
In the evening Tomas summed up the provisional results of the first week:
It was almost midnight when we went to bed after a shot of Tatra tea or Frantisek’s homemade ginger/honey vodka. The week has gone so quickly!
Thank you everyone of team one, you’ve done a great job collecting a huge amount of data every single day on long distance walks equipped with snow shoes, clipboards and GPSs. Thank you so much for putting a lot into this project, which could not happen without you. It was a great pleasure to meet you all. Safe travels or enjoy your onward trip.
Team 2, I will meet you at Bratislava station at 9:00 on Sunday morning.
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