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Group 2 have arrived and are on their way to base camp.
With this group, we will search for new positions for the camera traps we have retrieved in group 1 (or putting cameras back in successful positions), retrieve camera traps still out in the field, survey more cells, conduct more herder interviews farther afield and hold a community information event at our base camp.
As always, updates from the field will be scant with no up-to-date pictures until changeover. Wish us luck for this group.
Group 1 started two weeks ago with a weather forecast of inescapable perma-drizzle, but the reality has been much kinder. There were of course the occasional rain/snow/hail showers, but the conditions have been favourable for the most part.
A main task for this group has been to collect camera traps left by the 2023 expedition on remote ridges and other far-flung places. To get to them, we have been traversing mountainsides and ridges where few have ever set foot – with the exception of previous expeditioners, adventurous local herders and Soviet cartographers perhaps.
The results have been mixed, with one camera trap having 6000 images of nothing but snow. However, others have been much more fruitful. We have captured snow leopard on two traps and a solitary wolf. We also have pictures of ibex, badger, fox, weasel, rabbit, mouse and snowcock. The search for argali continues. The team have also been busy collecting data and surveying cells throughout the Burkhan and surrounding valleys with 40 cells already surveyed.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday the group split into two halves for an overnight mini-expedition away from base camp with one half driving into the valley to the north to gather information from the local herders and survey cells and the other half venturing to a remote pass to spend the night and survey cells in the vicinity. Both groups survived the experience and were rewarded with a clear night sky full of stars with the Milky Way clearly visible. The car group was forced by strong winds to retreat to the car for a “cosy” night’s sleep. The group that slept at the mountain pass were able to find good evidence of key snow leopard prey despite the extensive presence of livestock in the area (and some rather intimidating yaks). Large groups of ibex were spotted and there were reports of a live wolf sighting although there are reservations around this due to the consumption of Kumis (fermented and alcoholic mare’s milk) on previous days.
I hope that group 2 are now prepared for the rugged Kyrgyz landscapes and excited to get started. We have found hiking poles to be invaluable as well as having the Kyrgyz dictionary downloaded for offline use on Google Translate for communication with locals.
We’re more than half-way through group 1 and the team has proved itself keen and capable.
So far, we have retrieved two camera traps from the mountains. The batteries of one of them only lasted for a few weeks after the last expedition left it. The other performed well with the batteries lasting almost until our return and giving us a picture of a snow leopard and a wolf. This is good news already.
Some of the other camera traps have proved elusive to find – or they have been stolen. Herders feel watched and threatened by them, poachers even more so, and a camera trap spotted by a poacher is invariably a camera trap lost. These are the realities of life in a far-flung corner of the world, well away from digital overload or any kind of policing.
On the brighter side, group 1 has already covered 27 (!) survey cells and conducted three interviews. This is a great effort, well done!
Very good news from the field. We received this message from the field today: “Hi, all well here. We retrieved camera traps today and have sightings of wolf and snow leopard. “
Screenshot
This is from camera traps left in the mountains by the expedition last year, some now retrieved by group 1. Well done!
We can’t show you the pictures, as we only have text connectivity via satellite with the expedition, but here’s one from an earlier expedition.
We’ll have to wait for the real thing until group 1/2 changeover in 10 days.
There is zero connectivity at base camp and we will enjoy the digital detox. But this also means that I will only send one, perhaps two, short text-only updates per group via satellite. So please be patient, assume that no news is good news and wish us luck for our endeavours.
We’re as ready as we can be. We have chosen a site for base camp, pitched two yurts (third one is a group 1 job), established the science, kitchen, showers, toilets etc and said hello to the neighbours. All it now needs is you.
Come prepared for all weathers. We had 2C and a snow and ice dusting at base a couple of days ago and the weather forecast for the next few days isn’t pretty.
Snow and ice dusting at baseHome, sweet home
On the brighter side, lovers of Edelweiss will be pleased to hear that it is everywhere, including base, and that our study site is as beautiful and remote as ever.
Edelweiss
The drive there is long, but worth it in the end, so without any further ado, see you tomorrow, group 1. Your main task will be to get the camera traps back from where we left them a year ago. Fingers crossed they are still there, high up in the mountains, and have captured something…
We’re in a muggy and rainy Bishkek. In fact, there’s been lots of rain and snow in the last few months. We’ll have to see for ourselves what this means in terms of access to our study site and where we’ll place base camp. More news on this at the end of the week.
For now, it’s the usual madness of getting equipment and paperwork ready, shopping, meetings, ticking boxes. Scientist Emil is here to help, Lukas also, former staff member and Bishkek resident Amadeus and NABU staff too.
From left: expedition leader Johnny, scientist Emil and helper Lukas.
We’re doing our thing and I hope you are too. I’ll be back with updates from the field on Saturday or Sunday evening, when we return to Bishkek.
Not long now until we return to the mountains where the ghost lives. I am Johnny Adams, your expedition leader this year for our seventh year of chasing the ghost. We have finished in one area of Kyrgyzstan and are now moving onto the next, Archaly valley, recceed by the some expedition teams in 2023 and now ready for a full on-site rotation this year.
We’ll be a week ahead of you to shop, set up and do the thousands of other things and little details that need to be done so that you can just get here and do your thing: citizen science. Please do your part too: Pack properly (see the dossier), get to Bishkek on time for your group, read up on the methodology and get familiar with the datasheets and the area. All this you can do via the pages here and here. Also make sure that you bring a copy (printed or on a tablet, best printed as electricity is hard to come by in the middle of nowhere) of the field guide with you to Bishkek. This will be your personal copy to take with you on your job every day. This, combined with the methodology, the datasheets and the map, will your tools to help us document the ghost.
I hope by now you have realised that you are not joining some cushy snow leopard safari with cocktails at your tent in the evening, but a serious undertaking. Below are some pictures of what awaits you.
Enough said. I’ll be back in touch from Bishkek in a few days with updates on the weather, preparation progress and other messages of disaster and chaos 😉
In science confirming the absence of a species from a location is still a result. But hope dies last and so, after all the effort that has been put into selecting and moving expedition locations, everyone was hoping that we can find some evidence that snow leopards inhabit the mountains of our new study site. With this in mind, we started group 3 with the ambitious goal of placing 15 more camera traps in the surrounding mountains, and surveying all the remaining valleys within our base camp vicinity.
As previously reported, on our first full day in the mountains Sonja found what is suspected to be snow leopard scat. Since then several more promising samples have been collected (we eagerly await DNA confirmation from the lab). However, with Taalai, the local rangers and Alex (snow leopard zoo keeper) all feeling confident, signs are promising.
With strong and ambitious snow leopard citizen scientists we managed to hit our camera trap goals, special thanks to Mel and Alex for volunteering for the most challenging survey routes on every single day we went out. The most exciting discovery of the fortnight was made by Sonja, an excellent suspected snow leopard print (also mentioned in our previous blog post). With likely snow Leopard prints and scat, multiple Pallas’s cat prints as well as live ibex sightings, all indications are that these mountains are an excellent location for our expedition.
We rounded off the 2023 snow leopard expedition with a presentation evening for the locals in the valley. It was our opportunity to thank them for their hospitality and officially introduce Biosphere Expeditions, NABU and our project. With over 35 attendees, the evening was a fitting end to a busy and productive expedition. Keep an eye out for the 2023 scientific report in the coming months. With a look forward to 2024, we eagerly await the results of the camera traps we have placed.
On behalf of the whole team here in Kyrgyzstan, thank you to group 3 for your tremendous work ethic and thank you to everyone who contributed to the 2023 snow leopard expedition.
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