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Our expedition continues to exceed expectations. We are into our daily citizen science programme. Early morning data recording drives and bird transects, followed by hippo transects and elephant surveys before lunch. The afternoons are then spent sorting and collating data and, the suprisingly popular task of sifting through elephant dung for seed analysis. In the evening we run night transects and share stories of the day.
Highlights from the last couple of days include spectacular bird shots, numerous elephant sightings and finding lion prints (which is exciting as they are rare here). We’ll put up a few extra camera traps and see whether we can catch the track-maker.
Tomorrow’s our rest day and we’re scheduled to visit the nearby school (we always get an invitation). One of our expeditioners has brought lots of footballs, so time for Malawi to win on penalties 😉
Having spotted a herd of 56 elephants mid-afternoon, the herd returned in the evening. This time their chosen route took them straight through our camp. For the next 90 minutes these gentle giants proceeded to eat their way between our tents, causing some damage to the trees, but none to camp itself. Having these animals pass close by us (we were all but one on our communal platform) rightly caused a few nervous moments and lots of excitement, but if you know how to behave around them and just let them get on with their browsing, while we get on with our admiring, then it is and was fine. After they moved on, we swept the camp, collecting some really fresh dung for study.
We’re up and running at Camp Vwaza. The citizen scientist arrived on Saturday evening – 13 people from six different countries and a good mix of science backgrounds, travellers and conservation enthusiasts.
Sunday was our first of two training days. Lea, our resident scientist introduced the team to the expedition’s citizen science tasks and the work of the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust (LWT). We had a presentation from John Stuart of the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW), which really helped in understanding where our work fits in with LWT and DNPW goals. In the afternoon we switched to more practical training, introducing the team to our survey equipment. Simon taught the navigation and range-finding skills our expeditioners need to support data collection.
We finished off the day with a short game drive as dusk approached, before Luka, our chef, produced another superb dinner. Topping of the day was a spectacular lunar eclipse. We can’t promise one every year!
Wildlife photo of the day goes to Uwe for his beautiful capture of a martial eagle. Other sightings included warthog, elephants, hippos and various antelope.
We have made it to Vwaza base camp – a long day’s drive from Lilongwe on roads that alternate between good tarmac and bumpy dirt tracks.
It’s always a pleasure to arrive at base camp and find it in good working condition. There is still much to do to get everything ready for the arrival of the expedition team on Saturday, but the camp infrastructure is in place and working. Luka, our cook, is happy with the kitchen, which is especially important!
We heard hippos and elephants near the camp on our first evening and could make out the shadowy forms of both on the open ground in front of our campfire. The elephants were close enough for us to retreat to the safety of the camp’s communal area and carry on watching them. They seemed at ease with us and eventually wandered off.
The grunts of hippos continued through the night until the birds started calling at dawn: exotic sounds for the European ear. Today we have had good sightings of elephant, baboons and impala opposite base camp, and hippos, kudu, warthogs and many birds as we have explored around the lake side in the 4×4’s.
We have a long list of tasks over the next couple of days – checking kit and protocols, reacquainting ourselves with the wildlife reserve, and generally getting everything ready so we can start the expedition smoothly and efficiently tomorrow.
The advanced party has arrived in Malawi ahead of the start of the expedition, to help with last preparations, alongside expedition leader Roland, there is Simon, expedition leader in training. On the LWT side, there are expedition scientist Lea and helpers Chim and Gideon.
Roland, Gideon, Lea, Chim, Simon
Lilongwe is hot, dusty and busy, but not TOO hot dusty and busy! It’s fine walking around here in a T-shirt and thin trousers in the middle of the day. The Malawian government has been doing major road upgrades over the last few years and it’s now mostly complete in Lilongwe – it’s almost fun to drive on the wide new tarmacced roads now. The taxi drivers we spoke to were very happy!
We have tied up a few remaining loose ends on the expedition prep and have just set off to Vwaza with all the kit and supplies we need to set everything up for the expedition there. It will be a long day, but it will end with arrival at our wonderful base camp, with baboons, hippos, antelope and elephants waiting for us. More from there in a day or two.
It’s not long to go until the start of the 2025 Malawi expedition. We are feeling prepared and excited. We have updated the research tasks – continuing the long-term studies of elephants and hippos at Vwaza along with the camera trap surveys, while also adding some new nocturnal mammal and bird research. All the activities we intend to do are in the 2025 Malawi Field Guide. Please can you make sure you download and study this prior to the expedition, and bring a copy of it with you, either as a soft copy on a tablet or a printed version. We are counting on a hard-working team to undertake all of the activities, following training at the start of the expedition, so the more you can swot up now, the easier it will be for you to get through the intensive training phase.
We have sourced some new equipment too, to aid this research – thank you to those of you who have volunteered to bring some of this kit with you. Our expedition partners, Lilongwe Wildlife Trust, have also been busy preparing: getting the camp and vehicles ready and sourcing the expedition food – not always easy in a country like Malawi where you can’t guarantee the availability of all the food supplies you might want! But I am confident that we will have the tasty and nutritious meals that we have enjoyed in previous years, prepared by our experienced expedition cook.
This will be my fourth time leading this expedition and I expect it to run as smoothly as in previous years – although something unexpected always seems to happen, usually involving elephants!
I will be flying out from the UK soon to work with LWT in final preparations and head up to Vwaza before the full expedition team arrive.
I will report back once I have arrived in Lilongwe and leave you with the 2024 picture selection to put you in the mood..
Team 3 has been a very productive 12 days with many highlights, a little ermine hopping through camp being one of them! We’ve had nights under the stars in bivvy bags watching shooting stars and the Milky Way, river dips, yoga, a successful Archaly valley reccee and of course lots of research.
Group 3
Ermine at base camp
The first few days as always, we focused on training, getting familiar with equipment, ready for driving off road, field surveys and camera trap servicing and placement. This also allows time to acclimate, especially for those of us that live at a much lower altitude for much of the year (yours truly). Getting to know the field guide is important too and we learn that identifying scat, prints, tracks, scratchings etc. is a dark art.
The results of this group were:
No more snow leopard pictures on this group, because all camera traps had been serviced recently. But two more potential snow leopard scats have been added to this year’s collection in the final group, bringing the tally to six total. Talking about scats: The first batch from group 1 has come back and all the high-mountain ones were indeed snow leopard; only the lower altitude one collected next to the ibex skull was not, so a very good result for group 1. Well done!
Over the three groups we have managed to survey over 97 cells on my last count, this has involved some big days out along rivers, through deep-cut gorges, up steep scree slopes, over majestic ridges and through alpine meadows awash with cranesbill, alpine aster and edelweiss, an abundance of wildflowers typical. In the background a scattering of prominent glaciers provide much needed water… But I digress. The overall headline results of the expedition are:
Expect the full expedition report with all details and conclusions in a few months.
Camera traps are now placed in and around three valleys; those cut by the Burkhan, Archaly and Jyluu Suu rivers. We have also had some very interesting interviews. You will need to wait for the report for more on that.
When the time finally came to pack down camp, swifts were frantically foraging overhead and the wildflowers had gone to seed. It’s amazing how short the alpine season is here. Emil, our scientist left with our equipment including yurts, showers and kitchen destined on the penultimate day, so we were back to wild camping for our final night. The last morning involved an early breakfast, a quick final goodbye to the local herders who have cooked and kept us fed many of the evenings here and then we were on our way. The journey to Bishkek went smoothly.
So it is now time for reflection and maybe a toast to the season that has been. A heartfelt thank you to all our citizen scientists in this final group for their huge effort. Thank you everyone for keeping high spirits when the weather grounded us, for playing a role in keeping expedition base camp running smoothly and of course for your data collection activities. Also, your company has been fantastic. Thank you to Johnny for all the guidance and Sofia for your delicious salads and desserts and of course all your help around camp, thank you Matthias for the training and taking me on as part of the Biosphere Expeditions team. Most importantly, thank you to all the citizen scientists this year, for without you, this couldn’t happen. Rahmat!
Darran Keogh Expedition leader
I leave you with some more impressions and a couple of feedback videos:
Hello from base camp. The sun is shining, nights are cool with morning frost that is quick to thaw with sunrise.
All is well here, we are surveying many 2×2 km cells in and around the valley, even a requests from our citizen scientists to revisit and resurvey areas they reckon hold promise! We had some interesting local interviews today with the usual hospitality and offers of local food and drink and talk of close encounters with Tien Shan bear, wolf and snow leopard.
Today is our rest day. Monday we head to beautiful and remote Archaly valley (see pictures) to set up camp for surveys there and an extended reconnaissance for 2026. We look forward to bringing you more details at the end of the expedition, after we get back to Bishkek at the end of next week.
And just like that, the second Tien Shan expedition group of 2025 has concluded. A whirlwind of a fortnight with higher temperatures and more sunny days than any of us could have imagined – with the occasional blizzard thrown in for good measure.
All camera traps placed in 2024 have now been either serviced or retrieved and an extra seven camera traps placed. We have set up “stations” at three locations, which have previously yielded great results.
There were more snow leopard captures on the 2024 cameras, in fact we recorded four more snow leopard events. Here are the best ones:
And of course we recorded other animals too and achieved the following in group 2:
One highlight was the direct sighting of a Mongolian wolf with prey in its mouth:
Other animals posed for our cameras too:
After a severe weather warning thwarted our original plans for overnighters between Monday and Wednesday, we managed to squeeze in a brief overnight expedition on Thursday evening.
All in all, another very successful group. I will now hand over the expedition leader baton into the very capable hands of Darran – he is about to enter his third Tien Shan expedition group and now knows the valley like the back of his hand. I must thank each and every participant from this year and previous years: your motivation and hard work has afforded us incredible results that are far beyond our expectations. I hope to see you all again in the field again one day soon.
Group 2 has settled in and is collecting good data. All but two camera traps have now been either serviced or collected, once again yielding snow leopard images.
The last two camera traps will require an overnight trip, but we have some severe weather warning for the next couple of days, so won’t be venturing deep into the mountains.
We have also set up two new camera traps at a new location, in this study site’s first “camera trap station” configuration. This is when two camera traps face a pinch point through which animals pass. The aim is to take pictures of animals – particularly snow leopards – from two sides simultaneously as this makes it easier to identify individuals through their unique coat spot patterns.
We have also found snow leopard tracks
and logged our first-ever direct sighing of a Mongolian wolf – carrying a small bird kill – by a group on cell survey.
All field data are up to date and the weather so far has been good, with clear warm days and no rain, though this is about to change. This group has so far surveyed 13 cells surveyed and conducted two interviews.
In other developments in Europe, the first batch of suspected snow leopard scat from group 1 has now been sent for DNA analysis to a specialist lab in Germany. We should have results within a few weeks.
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