Tag: conservation volunteer

Once more a team stayed out in the field for a night. This time Aman, Ulan, Volodya, Liss, Martin H. and James made it further to the east to explore a big valley. Our maps indicated an accession via a pass to a remote area higher up. They found a huge barren area, which Liss described as ‘Mars’-like. Despite this there was good evidence of ibex and even argali. The next slot has to work out where to place camera traps as there is an old pass that leads into another big valley further north. We don’t know yet if this pass is still being used to move livestock between the two valleys.

Furthermore we installed two more camera traps way up in a valley next to our base camp. All in all there are now 14 cameras placed in the field. It will be a challenge for the next slots to go back to these places to check each of them. But it will be also an exiting task.

Now, this is my last entry as I am handing over to Paul who will lead slots 4 and 5. I would like to thank everybody who supported our common idea of wildlife conservation and helped me personally in many ways to make it fly. It’s you who made my eight weeks in the field a memorable time indeed. Thank you.

I wish Paul and the next two slots a successful (snowy is still the only visible snow leopard in the area) and enjoyable time.

Ronald

 

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For the past few days it’s been getting colder every night up to the point where we have to defrost our hand wash basins in the morning.

Despite the icy temperatures and days with all four seasons of the year rolled into one, research activities continue as normal. One of the first tasks for this group was to check whether the Karakol Pass was still blocked by snow. Good news: we were able to find a way around and finally made it to the eastern side. And, Pei Hao, a participant from Singapore, for the first time in his life touched real snow ! The big valley east of the pass is crowded by herders but several deep, long northern side valleys seem to be promising as survey areas.

Another day saw Martin, Liss, James , Pei Hao and Aman survey the first of these valleys. It was a long and strenuous day full of beautiful landscapes, waterfalls and sightings of badgers, marmots and several ibex. We will definitely be back for an overnighter.

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Volodya, Martin, Guenter and Gordon combed the southern valleys. To do this, an early morning icy river crossing is compulsory, but was taken sportingly and in good spirits. Before they reached the terminal moraine of one of the glaciers, they found a long, perfectly clear wolf track, some wolf scat and hundreds of amazing old petroglyphs (showing deer, camels, donkeys, birds and hunting scenes). A remarkable find! But they also found evidence of hunting.

Ulf, Ilka and Agnes in the meantime pushed the survey altitude up to far above 3700 meters.

Our overnighter team of this week was Liss, Martin, Ulan, James and Aman who visited our old “home valley” of Base Camp 1. On their way they stopped at the herder of that valley, where they were served a second breakfast. As the water level of the rivers has dropped noticeably, they managed for the first time to get a car across a ford and penetrate deep into the valley beyond. First, and supported by fantastic weather conditions, they checked the camera traps we installed two weeks ago. Fresh ibex scat all over had everybody looking forward to having a look at the camera trap pictures. And indeed several good shots were taken of ibex, badger, fox and argali. But none of the mountain ghost. On one picture it appears as if the mountain sheep is chasing away the fox!

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On the second day of their overnighter, they installed four more cameras high up on the other side of the valley. Perhaps the ghost will grace those. We live in hope. The stunning landscape, the team spirit, the weather, visiting the herder made it all together an unforgettable experience and they returned to base in high spirits. Well done everyone!

The start of our 3rd slot has been very exciting for all team members due to fantastic weather on Monday that accompanied us all the way to base camp.  Additionally, the various team members whose interest includes birds are being well served by a great abundance and variety. Marlies in particular was especially thrilled to encounter birds that she was academically familiar with, but had never seen before.

Prior to arrival at base camp we stopped at a herders yurt who treated us to a taste of fermented horse milk. Whilst generous, this treat was not to everybody’s taste 😉

As it did for us during set up, the breathtaking panorama – glaciers beetling from rocky peaks over rolling green glades – grabbed everybody’s attention. Despite the beauty of this first evening, that first night’s temperature dropped to near freezing and reminded everybody of the challenges we will face in this mountain expedition.

Meanwhile, everybody has passed training with flying colours and have just finished their first day in the field. Spirits are high, even Gordon’s freezing voluntary dip in our glacial stream couldn’t quell his enthusiasm.

Well, time flies and group 2 has ended. With everyone’s help, we packed the entire camp into our truck as we are going to move it further east. So group 3, be prepared for being trailblazers once more. Group 2, meanwhile, has returned to Bishkek and we now have a week off to reorg and regroup.

Unfortunately the weather changed earlier in the week and prevented a second ‘overnighter’. Nevertheless we are happy to announce another remarkable finding: on Thursday a large team decided to explore a hitherto unresearched area – the long and deep Ala Archa valley (west of our “home” valley). As it is not accessible by car, we had to spend hours walking to the higher parts of the valley at its end. At a confluence of two streams, the team split up into two. At the end of the day group one reported sightings of ibex, group two of argali! This is even more remarkable because we have been told consistently by herders that there are no argali left in this area.

The landscape was something else too and Ala Archa valley has been officially declared the most beautiful valley we’ve seen so far. So there are a multitude of reasons to come back: wildlife, landscape and finding places for camera traps.

All in all we have covered about 35 cells now. Highlights so far are sightings of argali, Himalayan snow cock, several groups of ibex and clear tracks of a Pallas’s cat.

Thank you everyone on group 2 for your efforts. Yes, we are still at the very beginning of a new project. There is much more to learn about the area, but you have helped enormously to add more pieces to the puzzle.

Finally, a piece of advice for everyone yet to come: if your luggage does not arrive with you, please try, with the help of your hotel, to obtain it before (!) we meet at the assembly point.

Looking forward to meeting group 3 in a week.

The amazingly good weather conditions keep going – not comparable to the time with slot 1. The snow is melting away quickly and causing high water levels in the rivers (which are now even more difficult to cross).

Simone, who had to stay back at camp for a day, spent her time patentiently observing the area with the spotting scope and was successful! She spottet several ibex on the ridge south of camp – well done.

Several other occasions are worth mentioning: several times this week Anders has surpassed his personal altitude record. On Saturday he climbed up to almost 3700 meters – the highest mountain in his home country of Sweden is just above 2200 meters. Julija was able to shoot a photo having an eagle sitting in the grass just two meters away from a baffled marmot – just incredible! And our Women-Power-Team (Jeannine, Natalie, Nancy, Julija) watched a badger family playing on a slope for quite a while.

On Sunday, our day off, the group visited a herder nearby and enjoyed great hospitality and a very rich lunch. Some even went short spin on a horse. In the afternoon the head of NABU Kyrgyzstan came to visit with a PR person and conducted some interviews for local media.

On Monday our ‘overnighters’ (Aman, John, Anne, Julija and Anders) left camp with the aim of setting several camera traps at the very far end of Sokuluk valley. Beautiful weather went with them, but unfortunately they came back with disappointing news: a herder has moved into the far end of the valley and because he is afraid of wolves taking his sheep he fires shots with his rifle into the air regularly. This explains why the team was not been able to find any new signs of ibex or other large animals. So no camera traps were installed.

On Tuesday a group made it up to a remote ridge in “our home valley” where Natalie spottet ibex last week. After a hard and long climb Volodya, Roger and Aude set four camera traps alongside this ridge, a “highway” of animals as it seems. And, not to forget the finding of this expedition yet: two clear prints of Pallas’s cat together with scat that is very likely from this cat also. The other cat, the snow leopard, is still elusive. Mountain ghost indeed.

So, up and downs, successes and failures – typical for research and conservation work.

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We are still struggling with our satellite system, so you are receiving this diary with a delay and without photos. But nobody should be worried as everyone is just fine.

On Monday it took us more than nine hours (!) to finally arrive at base as a piece of luggage had to be retrieved and the tunnel on our way over the pass was also closed for more than an hour due to smog problems. Emma (our cook) was with but Volodaya at base jumped into the fray and had prepared a delicious dinner for the team by the time we arrived tired at our mountain home.

Mainly dry weather helped us to get through our training sessions. And of course Biosphere Expeditions worked hard on the weather because it was a special day for Julija: her birthday.

Earlier in the week we had some cold nights. But by sharing warm clothes and following some “hot” advice, we made everybody survive. During our first walk out into the field (still mainly for training purposes) not far from base, Natalie spottet, with her binoculars, several ibex on a ridge about 2 km away. Eagle eyes, well done!

Lately the day and night temperatures have become much more pleasant. Blue sky, sun and spetacular views enticed everyone into long and exhausting research days. New places, many findings, several sightings of larger Ibex groups with juveniles, snow cock, golden eagle, lammergeier and so on were the reward and a firm ” mission accomplished” during the first days of this group 2.

No news from the field today, but no news is good news. They will be busy with training and their first surveys. Our satellite connection to the outside world has been restored with a new BGAN, so Ronald will be in touch at some stage.

In the meantime, here are a couple of videos from pioneer group 1, as well as some pictures.

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New week, new tasks: one team started the day by shovelling snow patches and moving rocks. Result: the “road” from base camp further into the valley is now officially (re)opened and leads about 1.6 km further up the valley to a ford. Unfortunately the water level of this river is still too high to be passed by the cars.

John, our mountain hero, climbed up a steep slope (not a path!) finally to reach a ridge at about 3800 m. He found a lot of tracks of ibex. A cornice blocked his way but within the next few weeks this will surely be a place to install a camera trap.

Tuesday was Monique’s birthday, so there was a bouquet of wild flowers (incl. onions!), a cake, a stack of pancakes with a secret filling in between, elaborately decorated with cherries, apricots and almonds.

Another team stayed overnight in the mountains from Wednesday to Thursday. A very long and extremely difficult drive (including a flat tyre on their way back) got the team to the far end of the valley of Sokoluk. The reward for Astrid, Martin, John, Volodya and Aman was to observe 19 (!) ibex.

We have now surveyed all side valleys between base and the Karakol pass, which is still not open for cars due to snow. Even Sabine, who isn’t into mountains, as she likes to say, pushed herself up a 45 degree slope for over an hour finally to reach a ridge above 3500 m.

Within the last few days, as if given a secret signal, lots of herders have moved into the area between the Kara-Moynok Range and our study area of Ala Archa. Hundreds of sheep, horses and goats are now taking advantage of the green slopes. Having all these herders around, gives us the opportunity to benefit from local knowledge. The information we did get is sometimes contradictory, but still interesting and helpful.

A very cold night with an icy layer on the top of our tents accompanied us into Saturday, the official first day of summer. Astrid, the second birthday girl on this group, received some fresh = iced flowers and shared gladly another fantastic birthday cake. After packing and cleaning up we left base this morning around 9:30. Arriving in Bishkek, we really noticed the 20 degrees temperature change.

Thank you again, you pioneers of the Karakol Mountains. The conditions were not easy at all but still everybody worked hard in helping to set a basis for all upcoming teams. And to stay it with the words of Dieter: hopefully this team will met again one day 🙂