Group 1 is back from the field – and what a start it was, exceeding all expectations of what the 18 camera traps left in the field by last year’s expedition would yield. Almost every camera we toiled up to at around 4000 m caught snow leopards. Preliminary analysis of pelt patterns yields 8+ individuals, a result we can hardly believe ourselves (and have enquired with colleagues about for confirmation). One camera in particular yielded a spectacular photo:
But there were many others too:
Of course the camera traps not only caught snow leopards, but also many other species such as this rare manul / Pallas cat
A probably even rarer (because they have all been poached out) argali mountain sheep
Ibex
Wolf
An incredibly hardy “yeti” marmot up at 4000 m
Fox
Yak
A curious red-billed cough
Many Himalayan snow cock prancing about
And a lammergeyer photographed by a camera trap that was knocked over (by what we don’t know) and recorded over 10,000 pictures of moving clouds (thanks for going through all of them Aurรฉlie), but also this vulture
But it was not just all about camera traps. We also surveyed cells lower down, conducted interviews and re-affirmed good relations with the local people, ran overnighter surveys and reconnaissance trips into the neighbouring valleys and so much more, yielding this quick summary of results, presented to the team by our local scientist Emil at the end of group 1’s efforts
And what an effort it was! None of this could have been achieved without our 14-strong team of citizen and professional scientists and staff. Thank you to you all and so very well done.
I leave you with impressions of our work, camp and the mountains, as well as feedback from some group 1 participants, and hand the expedition leader baton over to Jonny, who will meet group 2 at the Futuro on Monday.
Yet another two successful weeks of wolf monitoring in Lower Saxony have come to an end. Group 2 left the NaturCampus base on Friday morning headed in different directions after a late night with lots of laughter and bread-on-a-stick around the fireplace.
Once more the teams were hit again and again by rain showers on our last survey day on Thursday but determination to find and collect wolf scat prevailed. Two of us established a new record of walking 22.2 km in ongoing rain!
Within 4 survey days group 2 covered 394 km of forest trails and collected 30 more (possible) wolf scat samples for further analysis two of which fresh enough for DNA analysis. Sightings on the survey walks included hare, red deer, roe deer, wild boar with 10 piglets, various butterflies and birds of preyโฆ and a naked man walking the nudist trail in the Schneverdingen area. The survey team has been warned during Lotteโs briefing but it was still a surprise to run into someone wearing nothing but socks, boots and a hat while oneself was fully geared against rain and cold. ๏
Thanks to two groups a total number of 75 wolf scats and 13 genetic samples are now secured, labelled and packed to be handed over together with the database entries to the LJN authorities. They are an enormous addition to the Lower Saxony wolf monitoring efforts and will be included in their official yearly report, as well as territory statistics, maps, etc. to be published on their website. We have covered a total number of 26 cells (10 x 10 km) of the survey grid by walking 650 km in 12 survey days.
For Lotte & I itโs been a great pleasure meeting and working with all of you for a week respectively. Weโd like to thank you again for your time, efforts, input and being great companions in every aspect. A special thanks goes to the drivers and NaturCampus staff that made us feel comfortable and at home. I hope youโve enjoyed your time as much as Lotte an I did. Weโre hoping to see some of you again some time and wish you all safe travels back home!
Group 2 – a team of ten people from 5 different countries – started off on Sunday with a practical training survey walk nearby NaturCampus following up on a wolf scat finding two days before. We were surprised by a once in a year biking event taking place on the military grounds we were exploring. The terrain is usually closed for the public. Bikers didn’t interfere with our training walk but a heavy downpour did just when we were practicing data recording with the tablets. Despite rain gear and backup umbrellas we all ended up being soaking wet. I like to frame it as an ultimate field test. ๐
Sunshine and rain took turns during the following three survey days in various wolf territories. That didn’t hold us back from long walks and intensive surveys. Unfortunately we didn’t find anything wolf-like in the Suesing forest on Monday which made us wonder what neighbouring area the pack has moved to.
On Tuesday we were more successful in terms of findings. 22 wolf scat samples were brought back to base one of which had a total length of 82 cm! I think this is a first. Speculating about causes for the exceptional big amount of shit, we came up with quite a few creative ideas during the very entertaining daily de-brief – ranging from constipation for a week to making a statement to impress possible intruders.
And finally we secured another fresh DNA sample in the Goehrde forest on Wednesday. During the de-brief we all got a first-hand experience with the undeniable deterrent smell of fresh wolf scat. I must say that scat & its attributes (we now refer to as “beautiful, nice, perfect,…”) have become one main topic of conversation – even during dinner. Just like a bunch of very serious citizen scientists we surely are. Still, we had a good laugh realising that and not at all problems with moving on to more sophisticated dinner table talk.
Everyone is out in the field for one last survey day today. Time is flying….
The 2025 expedition is done. Over 10 expedition days and with the help of ten citizen and professional scientists from six countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, UK), we found and recorded 51 dens (17 anthill, 4 anthill/soil, 6 nest, 16 rock and 8 soil dens).
We also collected 11 first scats at dens, which is a record that Dr. Andrea Friebe, the expedition scientist, called “sensational”.
We also removed three camera traps and entered all the data into the database.
This has once again been a very significant contribution to the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project’s database and studies and we are expecting scientific publications that use these data soon (as well as the usual annual expedition report).
Thank you so much to all our citizen scientists who have made this possible by contributing their time and funds. Without you, there would be no expedition. You have been an exceptionally effective and determined team and we take our hats off to you for the effort you have put in.
Over the past week, we’ve been checking the hell out of the dens within an hour’s drive of the base in all directions. We’ve studied and recorded soil, rock, anthill, nest and all manner of weird and wonderful dens, crawled into almost all of them (thank you Keira and Sarah for being the pre-eminent den crawlers) to measure and study the inside, found evidence of cubs and feeding and preying and playing.
Here’s a den gallery:
To get to the dens, we’ve negotiated broken ground, bogs, steep hills, gentle slopes, beautiful meadows, rock falls, woods and forests, plantations and clear-cuts, as well as lakes and waterways.
Highlights included coming across a bear crossing the road (“we were all too busy screaming to take pictures”), fox, moose, capercaillie and various other birdlife, crossing a lake on a paddle board to get to a den on a small island, and the team meeting at a local beauty spot for lunch.
Island den-checking
Tomorrow is our last survey day. It’ll be more dens and retrieving some camera traps. Our scientist Andrea will also present some preliminary results. I will share this all in the next diary entry, before we part, ready for a holiday after this research expedition. Thank you for den-checking your guts out team! You deserve a holiday ๐
After two days of training and recording den data as one group, we have been let loose and are now on our second day of collecting den data by ourselves, in three groups of two or three people.
Each morning Andrea assigns dens to us, hidden in the forest. We get their GPS position and some background information and then have to work out how to get there, first in the car, mainly on forest roads to advance as close to the den as we can. Then it’s on foot through enchanted, pathless forests, picking our way through wetlands, bolder fields, carpets of moss, over rocks, birds for company. Sunshine and light through the clouds change as we walk and clamber through quiet groves, past springs and fallen trees to our object of desire: a bear den. Sometimes we only have a few hundred metres to go, sometimes one or two kilometres. It’s slow going. You have to pick a path through the trees, watch your direction on the GPS. It slows you down. It’s not a race. You sink into the forest. Deceleration. Sometimes it’s only a few minutes to the den, sometimes an hour or more.
Once at the den, which wants to be found first too, lots of measurements need to be taken. How big is the den and its inside chamber (crawl inside for this)? What bedding did the bear use? What trees make up the surrounding forest? Are there any scratch marks around or scat (collect this). Are there signs of cubs, such as small scratch marks low down on trees, and more. This takes about another hour and is all meticulously recorded. Then back to the car and onto the next den. A group manages between a couple and half a dozen a day, depending how far apart they are in the forest and on the roads.
Measuring the inside of a den
Back to base in the afternoon for a de-brief session where each group tells the others what they found. Tips & tricks are exchanged, Andrea asks questions, wants to know more. Then data entry into the computer and a well-deserved hot dinner. Some fireplace conversations perhaps, for those who haven’t crashed already. Ready for the next day.
We’re off with everyone here. After some “express-incheckning” in Mora we proceeded to the expedition base and went straight into training for the rest of the morning and early afternoon: What the project is about, why citizen science is so important to it, how the bears are doing, what we will be doing, how to use a GPS & compass, how to pack your research bag and more.
In the afternoon, we checked out some old dens to see what a rock and anthill den look like, as well as an open hibernation nest (the big males just make one of those and let themselves get snowed in). Then a short lecture, dinner with the fire roaring, crash.
More of the same tomorrow. Boring, this life of a field biologist ๐
Sweden is as beautiful as ever, so is our expedition base and the surrounding forest. Note that it snowed today.
Snow in May
The bears have not fared too well over the past 12 months. The government has slashed the number of bears it wants alive in Sweden from 2800 to 1400. This has meant that over the past year lots of bears have been killed in the study site, many of them with collars. At the same time the SBBRP has been starved of funds. How all this impacts what we do on the expedition this year, Andrea will explain when you get here. Suffice it to say that your contribution will be as important as ever, if not more.
On the bright side, we’ll be getting everything ready for you over the next few days. The weather forecast says the weather should improve and get warmer by the time you arrive, but come prepared for fours seasons anyway.
So safe travels and I’ll leave you with some impressions from today…
It’s time for our 2025 edition of our Sweden bear expedition, working in collaboration with Bjรถrn & Vildmark (bear & wilderness). I am Matthias Hammer and I will be your expedition leader this year.
Expedition base
This is our fifth citizen science research expedition in Dalarna province, Sweden, gathering field data on brown bears (Ursus arctos), contributing to the conservation of this iconic Scandinavian mammal. The data collected is used by the trans-national Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project (SBBRP). Expedition scientist Dr Andrea Friebe has worked in the SBBRP since 1998 and wrote her master thesis and dissertation about brown bear hibernation and ecology in Sweden.
Dr. Andrea Friebe
The main focus of the Biosphere Expeditions brown bear research expeditions is locating and surveying winter dens used by bears that have previously been fitted with tracking devices. Once the bears have left in spring, each winter den is then carefully measured by the citizen scientists and a wide range of data are collected relating to the type of den, the surrounding habitat and any evidence of cubs and/or bear scats at the den site. The data gathered by the expeditions are used by the SBBRP as part of their long-term research programme following the lives of specific bears from birth to death, to gain insights into bear diet, weight development, patterns of movement, colonisation of new areas, choice of den, social behaviour, mortality and reproduction. Inter-species interaction with moose and domestic livestock have also been investigated, as well as the sensitivity of bears to human disturbance and human-bear conflict. The purpose of this all this is to provide managers in Norway and Sweden with solid, fact-based knowledge to meet present and future challenges by managing the population of brown bears, which is both an important hunted species and a source of conflict, and whose management has been changing rapidly in recent years.
Investigating a den
So, here we are. I hope you have read the latest expedition reports, your preparations are going well and you are all excited. I will be a few days ahead of you and my next diary entry will be from Sweden with updates from the ground.
Whale watching can be undertaken in a matter of hours, but monitoring cetaceans to better understand their spatial and temporal use of different areas of our oceans โ takes years. Biosphere Expeditions has just completed their latest expedition in the Azores, and is rapidly approaching two decades of monitoring, in an area of the Atlantic Ocean supporting over 25 different cetacean species.
Cetacean research questions cannot often be addressed (with any certainty) in a month or a single year. Data collection may take a decade or longer, to reveal meaningful patterns and this is the case with the cetaceans of the Azores. The true value may not always be in the โhere and nowโ, but be realized as future questions or challenges arise. Such a data bank will only accrue value over time.
Some feedback is more immediate. Images of sperm whales and blue whales taken this year, have already be matched to other locations in the Azores, and northern Europe, across more than two decades. Some blue whales have not only been matched but never been recoded so early in previous years. yut many more whales have still yet to be matched, revealing range of their movements and importance of different parts of the oceans. Some individuals have only been recorded for the first time, again contributing to our understanding of population dynamics.
This yearโs project still has a lot of data to process, from over 125 cetacean encounters over 15 days at sea, sighting over 1500 individuals. But some species are absent from this yearโs research findings (e.g Sei whales) and dolphins have been found in lower numbers. On the upside, a few rarer records were noted such as orca, minke and Sowerbyโs beaked whale.
With the expedition fieldwork continuing to commence in March, โit has also been great to extend the data collection beyond the normal tourism seasonโ, says expedition scientist Lisa Steiner, โand collect data on a range of species, across a broader time span. The value of this work is huge as we wouldnโt have documented the range of species, including several sei, humpback, fin and blue whales, since there are fewer tour boats out at this time of yearโ.
Understanding spatial and temporal patterns of so many cetaceans is key to their long-term protection and conservation. And undertaking field research when others are not often at sea reveals new information such as species being absent or present in lower or higher numbers compared to other years.
โThe ability to collect such data is greatly enhanced by the annual contribution of the Biosphere Expeditions citizen scientistsโ, says expedition leader Craig Turner, โand underlines the value of long-term data sets in illustrating the importance of the Azores for many cetacean speciesโ.
This data-collection approach is being applied to other species of whale, along with dolphin species, such as bottlenose and Rissoโs. The scale of the data collection both in terms of time and space serves to demonstrate the importance of the Azores for several cetacean species. And highlights the importance of appropriate conservation management, to ensure these species continue to thrive not just in Azorean waters, but elsewhere in the wider Atlantic Ocean.
Citizen scientist feedback:
The expeditions was very well organised. Craig & Lisa work very well together and you could tell they enjoy what they do. They cope very well when plans change, flights are delayed, weather changes etc . Amazing Nicola B, Switzerland.
Our first day on the boat (also my birthday) I will never forget. I wished for a blue whale and I think we had six sightings that day (plus seven orcas!). Seeing the blow, seeing it just at the water surface and the beautiful turquoise colour before it dives. It was an experience way beyond what I expected. Accommodation was excellent. We were so lucky to have a view over the seas and Pico beyond. Great positive atmosphere of all the group members Anne Clarke, UK.
The group dynamic was excellent and the leader really helped to create this. The expectations were handled well and we knew flexibility (weather etc) needed. So no frustrations or disappointments. Meals etc were excellent, science presentations very informative. Peter S., Canada.
We found everything to be very well organised. A big compliment to our expedition leader Craig โ what a wonderful guy โ he kept everything going and the spirits up ; and to Lisa, our great scientist from whom we learned a lot. Loved the lectures from the Portuguese scientists who came to explain about their work on cetaceans. Loved to listen to Lisa who shared her unbelievable knowledge with us. Gitta V., Netherlands.
This was a wonderful experience for me. Lisa & Craig are top notch organisers and kept things flowing. Briefing every day after outings and evenings were perfect. Selections of vegetarian options was excellent for me Mita P., USA.
