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It’s day four on our desert expedition and while I am writing this, everyone else is out in the field collecting data. We work in four teams swapping activities such as circular observation, bird census and pharaoh eagle owl survey. All data collected in the field also need to be typed in to the computer, which makes data entry another activity we will bring in in a couple of days. The daily routine works well: Getting up at 5:30, breakfast at 6:00 and heading out into the field at 7:00. The teams are back at camp in the afternoon for tea, coffee & a refreshing cold shower before the daily de-brief at 17:30, planning the next day and dinner afterwards.
The temperature has increased gradually day by day (30C/15C day/night) and with some cloud cover, we experienced early morning mist today for the first time. I bet the animals and plants very much enjoyed the humid air as much as we did during the early morning survey walks.
You will be hearing from us again once this group is done and we can give you a summary of what we have achieved so far. Tomorrow will be another packed survey day, same as on Friday morning, when we will collect the camera trap SD cards for reviewing.
On Saturday group 1 arrived without mishaps and were treated to a visit to the brand-new DDCR Visitor Centre, its displays serving as an introduction and featuring plenty of Biosphere Expeditions mentions and joint achievements, of which everyone involved in the expeditions over the years can justifiably be proud of. Our staff were happy to see their pictures, handwriting and other “artefacts” on display.
From the Visitor Centre we proceeded into the DDCR. The gazelle and oryx welcome committees were there, as ordered. We stopped off at the office for a quick orientation talk and to explain where all the science gear was, what the maps meant and more.
The final stop was base camp for the safety talk and to pitch tents and get settled in. Then a beautiful sunset, dinner and bed, because we have to be up before the sun rises to get ready for the day. 30C during the day, 8C in the night. Spare sleeping bags were in demand. It’s the desert after all.
More training on Tuesday, first in the classroom on theory and then practice newly learnt skills in the field. The first camera traps are going out into the field as I write this. Well done group 1! I think everyone will sleep well tonight. It’s not a holiday, you know :))
We’re here. It’s the usual dash to get ready and we will be. There’s six of us dashing (see picture below).
From left to right: Jenan, helper from Oman. Malika, expedition leader. Simon, expedition leader in training. Basil, expedition scientist from DDCR. Maria, expedition scientist from DDCR. Gerhard, conservation manager DDCR.
The sun is shining, bathing the desert in earthy colours of red, brown and yellow. The sky is azure, the birds are singing and the gazelles and oryx are doing their thing in the desert. Camp is noisy. Last night there were diggers for the water project nearby, destroying the desert silence and keeping some of us awake. They work 24/7 sometimes close to camp, so bring ear plugs!
Base camp
The schedule is ready (see below), so come prepared for an expedition, not some cushy desert holiday.
Welcome to the first diary entry of the 2024 Arabia expedition. I am Malika Fettak, your expedition leader.
This expedition and I share a long history going back to 2012, the very first Arabia expedition to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve (DDCR). Since then, the city, surrounding areas and the desert landscape have developed into something else. 2-lane roads have turned into 8-lane highways, spaces between buildings have been filled with even more skyscrapers and the size of the city has multiplied. Along the approximately 60 km from Dubai to the DDCR, where just over a decade ago there was only desert, road networks for new housing areas already exist both sides of the highway indicating construction areas in the near future. However, all of this is literally left behind once you pass the gate to the reserve. The desert landscape that stretches before your eyes seems to be from a different time, before the oil, when Dubai was nothing more than a settlement of fishermen at the Creek.
The reserve is like an island: 230 square kilometres in size, surrounded by a high solid metal fence and strictly guarded entrances that can only be passed by a very restricted group of people. Among these are us, the expedition team, contributing to conservation and supporting the Reserve’s management. We are special guests every year with the privilege of setting up a desert basecamp for the expedition and moving freely with the expedition 4×4 vehicles. No tourist or other individuals have access to the reserve without supervision, can not move around on their own, let alone stay overnight. That makes this expedition something very special.
This year a DEWA (Dubai Electricity & Water Association) project is underway 24/7 in the Reserve, causing quite a bit of noise around the base camp site we have used recently. So this year we will be back in a spot that we have used in the past, with updgraded facilities of water supply, shower, toilet, campfire, solar power for our fridge etc.
New this year also is the DDCR Visitor Center that was opened only a few months ago. Designed and equipped with great dedication by the DDCR staff, this year we look forward to touring it by way of introduction before we settle into camp and explore the desert ourselves. For a few weeks, we will be extra eyes and ears in the field, documenting, reporting and exploring and what DDCR managment needs to know for effective protected area management. We will come across oryx and gazelles frequently on our drives and walks, explore & record fox dens and nesting sites of desert eagle owl and we may be lucky enough to spot and record vultures and other desert species.
I look forward to meeting the first team in a week at the Premier Inn in Silicon Oasis. I’ll write again before that with updates from the desert.
For the fifth edition of the Biosphere Expeditions wolf project in Germany, we moved to a new expedition base, the beautiful NaturCampus in Bockum, in northern Lower Saxony. In 2023 we welcomed a total of 19 expeditioners from seven different countries for two weeks. The final numbers of all groups bear evidence to a truly impressive effort: all teams covered 791 km in eight wolf territories, sampling a total of 218 wolf scats. This corresponds to 35 10 km x 10km grids. 156 samples were frozen for dietary analyses and 16 samples will be sent to the lab for DNA analysis. We also recorded one wolf sighting during group 1 and two wolf tracks of adults and pups. For the first time during an expedition, howls of wolf pups and adults could be heard in the distance; this awe-inspring event was of course duly recorded.
During the Covid pandemic, wolf monitoring went through a deep data dip, so the new and sizeable set of data collected by the 2020, 2022 and 2023 wolf expeditions are crucial for an up-to-date picture of current wolf presence in the study area and data have just been entered into the German wolf monitoring database by our expedition scientists.
Biosphere Expeditions’ contribution from 2017 to today now exceeds 1000 data entries, underlining the importance of citizen science for wolf monitoring and conservation.
What makes this expedition truly unique is the variety of wolf stakeholders we interacted with: inspiring wolf ambassadors, the committed Wolfsbüro team, the staff of our beautiful Bockum NaturCampus expedition base, Kenner’s Landlust setting, the showcase Wolfcenter Dörverden, and our amazing scientists. We also learnt about how humans and wolves can coexist in a densely populated and highly developed place like Germany. This apex predator has come back to stay and it is a credit to Germany that the country is making it work, the inevitable trials and tribulations aside. We are proud to say that our expedition plays a significant role in making this so, and we thank everyone for making this year a great success. We hope to see many of you again in the future.
Citizen scientists feedback:
It was a unique experience for me. I appreciated and enjoyed the opportunity to be part of the scientific team to research the wolf and play a role in wolf conservation. Walking in the forest, looking for scats and the possibility of seeing a wolf, made me feel close to nature and sense a connection to the wolf. I learned a lot. Thank you so much for it all! Carine C., Australia
This is my 10th Biosphere Expedition, and it was simply one of the best. Excellent lodging, good food, great team and very knowledgeable scientists with the right attitude. Anne S., Germany
Where to begin? It was the best of smells, no, it was the worst of smells. Never again will any of us look at the ground in the same way. Dog? Fox? Wolf? Hmmm – that smell. Wolf! Yes, score another. Jim B., USA
It had a very nice time and wonderful experience. The location was great. The expeditions was a present my husband gave me – a unique one. I am sure when back at home, I will scan the paths. I hope to come again. Silke K., Germany
The wolf expedition is always a lot of fun, and I know that my work during the expedition is valuable for the scientists and for wolf conservation more broadly. We celebrated my 20th anniversary of Biosphere Expeditions (2003 Ukraine – 2023 Germany), including five Germany wolf expeditons. Nice team, good experiences, lot of fun! Sylvia D., Germany
Twenty-nine expeditioners from eight countries across the world joined the Azores expeditions in March and April 2023. This was the 17th edition in the Azores monitoring the movements, migrations, numbers, group structures and ecology of cetaceans.
Here’s a summary:
Whale watching can be done in a matter of hours, but monitoring cetaceans better to understand their spatial and temporal patterns and how they use of different areas of our oceans, 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. which is home to over 25 different cetacean species.
Cetacean data collection takes a decade or longer, to reveal meaningful patterns and therefore the value of our research cannot be quantified now, but it will uncountably be invaluable in the upcoming years.
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. But many more whales have yet to be matched in our database, revealing the vast stretch of ocean they occupy around the Azores. Some individuals have been recorded for the first time this year, again contributing to our understanding of their population.
This year’s project still has a lot of data to process from over 179 cetacean encounters over 15 days at sea, sighting over 2,000 individuals. But some species are absent from this year’s research findings and dolphins have been found in lower numbers.
With the expedition fieldwork continuing in March, Lisa Steiner, the expedition scientist, an expert on sperm whales, expresses that “it has been great to extend the data collection beyond the normal tourism season and collect data on a range of species, across a broader time span. The value of this work is very significant as without Biosphere Expeditions we wouldn’t 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 year”.
Being able to conduct field research during the ‘off-season’ reveals new information such as species being absent or present in lower or higher numbers compared to other years.
“The ability to collect such data is greatly enhanced by the annual contribution of Biosphere Expedition’s participants,” says Craig Turner (expedition leader), “and underlines the value of long-term data sets in illustrating the importance of the Azores for certain cetacean species.”
This data collection approach is being applied to other species of whale, along with dolphin species, such as bottlenose and Risso’s. 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.
We have spent the last 10 weeks fully immersed in our Maasai Mara project, but we have now packed up, dropped the cars back to the hire company and waved our final goodbyes to the local team and our expeditioners.
The last week has been challenging with the ground becoming waterlogged and muddy due to the early onset of the wet season, but group 4 mastered it all with great attitude. They faced down all adversity with aplomb and persevered in all conditions. Well done!
Here are some collated headline data from our biodiversity monitoring research:
64,801 total animals recorded
915 raptors and endangered birds
47,204 mammals recorded on vehicle transects with a total distance of 1,124 km including sightings of lions, cheetahs, elephants, leopards and bush pigs
170 km driven on transect in Enonkishu, 342 km driven on transect in Mbokishi and 533 km driven on transect in Ol Chorro
Foot patrols recorded 274 samples of scat and 212 of footprints over a total distance of 48 km
126 hours of waterhole observation with 14,783 animals recorded
1,899 iconic species/ interesting animal activity recorded via mammal mapping
11,211 images captured by hotspot cameras that contained images of animals
Now that the Kenya expedition has come to a close, we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all the people that made this expedition successful.
The team at the Wild Hub who looked after us. The who logistics team kept us and the vehicles from Market Car Hire going for the whole ten weeks, despite a difficult start. The rangers at Enonkishu, Mbokishi and Ol Chorro who have been alongside us through rain and shine and imparted so much knowledge and information on us and our expeditioners. We couldn’t have done this without you, so thank you for your hard work.
Thank you also to our expedition scientists Roland and Rebekah for their committment, insights and hard work. And most of all thank you to the 49 citizen scientists who gave up their valuable holiday time to assist with and money to fund this research – we absolutely could not have done this without you. We know that you could have spent the 13 days on a beach somewhere sipping mojitos, but you came to Kenya, woke up at 06:00 every day and worked relentlessly, so that we could collect these data. We appreciate each and every one of you, your hard work, dedication and ability to put up with our bad jokes even when you are exhausted from a full days work. We really hope to see you on another Biosphere Expedition very soon. Take care and we hope that you will cherish the memories of Kenya as fondly as we will.
Group 4 has arrived in the Maasai Mara and have picked up where group 3 left off. Sunday and Monday were training days with our now familiar sessions on equipment and methodologies, flanked bypresentations by Rebekah. Group 4 had luck on their side when during the driver training, there were cheetah and elephant sightings – the elephant sighting being a family group of 9 within Mbokishi, which is rare.
The weather has been doing its best to scupper our plans with torrential downpours and thunderstorms, but we are flexible and adaptable in our planning and so far, the weather hasn’t impacted our research. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t had vehicles stuck in the mud, but that’s a different story!
On transect in Ol Chorro we came across a giraffe carcass that had been there for just a couple of days. This turned out to be a feast for the wildlife with over 20 hyaenas in the area and some jackal waiting patiently for their turn to eat. Further away from the action were vultures and eagles fighting over various body parts.
Group 4 are our final group for this Kenya expedition and we are making our preparations to leave the Maasai Mara. Rebekah and Roland are busy planning the expedition report, but we still have data to collect and transects to complete in the meantime. We will be back with updates of how the final local education day of the expedition went later this week.
Group 3 have finished and made their way back home whilst Roland, Rebekah and I take a week’s break to prepare for the fourth and final Kenya group of 2023. Group 3 has worked tirelessly for the past two weeks and the data quality and quantity speak for themselves:
16,719 total animals recorded
195 raptors and endangered birds recorded, including 6 secretary birds
13,093 mammals recorded on 23 vehicle transects with a total distance of 311 km including sightings of lions, cheetahs and bush pigs
12 foot patrols completed recording
139 samples of scat and 65 of footprints
Two 14 hour waterhole observations with 3,121 observations in total, these sightings were predominantly domestic, as we establish baseline data for Mbokishi (also see the pie chart below, which paints a very clear picture of the difference between established and newly founded conservancies)
310 iconic species/ interesting animal activities recorded including a hyaena sleeping in a puddle in the middle of the road (!) and 6 ostriches
4,328 images captured by hotspot cameras that contained images of animals, including leopard, lion, giraffe and bush pig
Group 3 – we can’t thank you enough for the commitment and hours of hard work you have put into making this a success. Great to meet you all.
Group 4 – see you on Sunday at our assembly point in Nairobi. Please come prepared for wet weather, mud and long days!
For our third local school day, we arranged to work with a different school, this time from Munyas in Mbokishi conservancy. This is the first time that we have worked with a local school that is based within one of the conservancies and it’s a great opportunity to showcase the benefits of conservation locally and to have open discussion about human-wildlife conflict and fears relating to changes near their homes.
We started the day with a game drive. We drove through Mbokishi so we could witness the wildlife near to the school and then ventured into Enonkishu. The students were treated to sightings of wildebeest, giraffe, hippo, zebra, baboon, warthog and birds including secretary bird, tawny eagle and kingfisher. The game drive was a chance for us to demonstrate the difference that over 10 years of being a conservancy can make for wildlife.
Back at the expedition base, we played some games before local ranger Sikona joined us to give a talk to the students in order to foster relationships between the rangers and the students, as well as demonstrating the opportunities that conservation and ecotourism can offer. After dropping the students back at school and returning to base, we received a message of thanks from the school headmaster. He informed us that students were still excitedly talking about the animals and fun activities whilst the highlight for others was using a flush toilet for the first time! One of our citizen scientists brought a photo printer and gave the students their own individual photos to remember the day, which was also very popular.
We are now preparing to leave Enonkishu for a short break before returning with our final group 4. We hope your preparations are going smoothly and we will see you in Nairobi in just over a week.
Photo by Michael Hodgson PhotographyPhoto by Michael Hodgson PhotographyPhoto by Michael Hodgson PhotographyPhoto by Michael Hodgson PhotographyContinue reading “Kenya: School day 3”
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