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Everyone on our Arabia expedition team 2 arrived safely on Monday morning. We went straight into introductions, background and training and on Tuesday, two groups went out to conduct quadrat surveys. Other events during the two training days included a visit to a possible eagle owl nesting site, where we checked all the ghaf trees for nests and were lucky to see one owl flying off close to where we stood. We also did a 15 min circular observation training session, checked a camera trap and visited a fox den site for first-hand experience of what the specific surveys include.
Although it is somewhat overcast and hazy, it has become much hotter in the desert. At night the sky is pretty clear and we sleep under an amazing starry sky.
When you read this, group 2 will be out on its first independent full survey day.
Welcome to the Kenya 2023 diary. I am Johnny Adams, your expedition leader.
We look forward to returning to Kenya and Enonkishu Conservancy after a pandemic-enforced absence of two years. In fact, our Kenya expedition in February 2020 was the last expedition that ran before the pandemic hit us all. So now we are full circle and keen to go again.
I will be flying to Nairobi on Sunday to set up for you. With me will be our founder and executive director Dr. Matthias Hammer, who will be there for setup and probably part of group 1. Helping us in Kenya will be Rebekah Karimi, erstwhile conservation manager of Enonkishu Conservancy and our first local scientist when we started this expedition back in 2019, as well as Roland Arniston, who will act as expedition scientist this year, alongside Rebekah.
I’ll be in touch again from the ground in Kenya next week, but first here are some tasks for you citizen scientist in preparation for the expedition:
Please download the expedition field guide & manual 2023 and make sure you bring a copy with you on the expedition (hardcopy or softcopy on a tablet are fine). The more you can study and swot up on this now, the easier you will find the training on the ground, so please invest some time now, if you can.
We will be using Cybertracker for much of the data recording. Please can you download this to your mobile phone and familiarise yourself with the app. The app works best when connected to the internet, so either please buy a Safaricom SIM card on arrival (this provider works best in the study site) or make sure you have a roaming agreement for Kenya with your provider at home. You can easily pick up Safaricom SIM cards at the airport, just after exiting arrivals.
Otherwise, I hope your preparations are going well. You’ll hear from me again in a week or so.
And finally, here are some photos and videos of the last expedition in 2020 to get you in the spirit of things.
Home, sweet home. I’ve returned to the DDCR after dropping off group 1 at the Premier Inn, except for Peter, who is staying on for group 2 also. We restocked and then enjoyed another peaceful afternoon at base camp.
Friday was a wonderful last day with group 1 of our Arabian desert species conservation expedition. All four teams managed to get their morning tasks done in time, giving Aline and Basil, our scientists, enough time to go through all datasheets for a final check, whilst everyone else went through pictures collected by our camera traps during the week. With all that done, Aline and Basil, gave us a preliminary summary of findings recordings: Group 1 recorded
19 bird
9 mammal
4 reptile and
6 insect species,
including records of a rare and ancient dwarf honey bee nest in one of the crevices of the reserve’s rocky outcrop at its northern tip.
The Pharao eagle owl the team was actually looking for was found later on, nesting in a ghaf tree on the other side of the track.
The camera traps recorded
1 desert wheatear
17 Arabian oryx
29 Arabian gazelles
8 Sand gazelles and
1 Arabian red fox.
Over the week, the teams checked
24 Pharao Eagle Owl nesting sites and
62 Arabian Red Fox dens
to assess their status – more than half of a total of 108 known den locations (group 2, there are 46 den sites left for you to find and check).
The lappet-faced vulture survey was also conducted every day, but instead of finding the birds in places where they have been recorded most frequently in the past, they were seen randomly, but frequently, in different locations within the reserve.
As to the quadrat survey, 20 out of 62 were completed. Again, more work for group 2…
After the presentation of results, we went back to camp to enjoy another magical sunset and then sat around a warming camp fire until late in the evening.
I would like to thank everyone on the Arabia expedition team for the time, effort and resilience you have put into this project. But also for generating lots and lots of interesting findings and bringing data, pictures and stories back from the field to share with everyone. I hope you have enjoyed the week as much as I did. Safe travels home and see you again, perhaps.
Group 2: I am looking forward to meeting you on Monday morning at the Premier Inn.
Our Arabian desert conservation expedition is in full swing on day six. Writing this, all four survey teams have just returned to the DDCR office for the daily review, sharing experiences, sightings and findings of the day.
So far sightings of Arabian hare, lappet-faced vulture, Arabian red fox, pharaoh eagle owl and other birds of prey have been recorded, apart from the usual oryx and Arabian & sand gazelle sightings. We are also slowly progressing on the quadrat surveys and will intensify these surveys in group two in order to cover most of the study area.
Tomorrow will be the last survey day for group 1. Activities will include the collection of camera trap SD cards set on the first expedition day and hopefully we will be able to go through most of the photos they produced by tomorrow afternoon. We’ll then head back to camp for a last sundowner in the desert and camp fire in the evening.
The rain has stopped and the desert is doing what it’s meant to be doing: Looking gorgeous and peaceful in the sunshine.
We spent Saturday and Sunday cramming new information into the Arabia expedition team’s brains, making citizen scientists and expeditioners out of travellers. How to live in the desert, how to record data on a datasheet, find a fox den, navigate, drive in the sand, use a GPS, set up a camera trap. You name it. And today our ducklings took flight. As I write this, they are out in the field, recording data, looking for lappet-faces vultures, oryx, gazelle, red foxes and many other species and the signs they leave behind when they pass.
By 17:00 they should all have found their own way back to expedition HQ. If not, we will go out and find them in the desert, probably.
Everyone’s here. After all the ducks were in a row, sort of, they navigated the maze of Dubai’s highways. The lead duck was lost for a bit, but then found its ducklings at the next feeding point, where the mother duck forgot to buy ice for its ducklings. But the old fat duck went back and got some.
Then the family moved into its duckling home and everyone built their nests while the sun shone. The ducks heard about the dangers of living in the desert and nobody chickened out. The rain started and did not stop. The ducks learned to fly (drive in the wet sand), before hearing about their home and how they will help to conserve it, and a well-deserved dinner and rest.
As the moon shines brightly over the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, we are on the home straight of getting ready. Camp 80%, paperwork 90%, food 50%, science 100% ready as I type this.
We will concentrate our desert wildlife citizen science efforts on the more remote and more biodiverse southern part of the reserve. We’ll explain why when you get here.
It’s good to be back in the desert. Pink dunes, blue skies, 18C at night, high 20s or 30s during the day. This is winter in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve.
Arriving from Oman yesterday, we are putting up camp today, sorting out the tasks for the team, getting paperwork and cars and food and a million other things in place for you desert citizen scientists from Saturday.
The DDCR wants us to do six main things: Species encounter in quadrant survey, Arabian red fox den survey, Pharaoh eagle-owl survey, lappet-faced vulture survey, camera traps survey and random encounters. What this all means is explained in detail in the research and expedition manual.
Now here is an important piece of information: Please download this manual and make sure you bring a copy with you for your own use during the expedition, either as a printed or as a digital copy.
While you do this and we are busy setting up here are a couple of media items to get you started. More over the next few days with updates.
Biosphere Expeditions citizen scientists supported Lilongwe Wildlife Trust (LWT) research projects for a third time in 2022, between 25 September and 7 October, conducting the following research activities:
Elephant herd sightings and dung sampling: In recent years, human-elephant conflict has become an increasing threat to people’s livelihoods, but also for the local elephant population. A new fence was constructed in 2021 along the southern and eastern boundaries of Vwaza Marsh Wildlife Reserve (VMWR), aiming to keep elephants within the reserve and reduce conflict. Elephant herd sightings were conducted around Lake Kazuni and resulted in 42 observations of family herds or single bulls. 49% of all elephants observed were in the age categories younger than 16, suggesting a stable population recruitment. For future expeditions, identification of matriarchs would be beneficial to monitor herd compositions and natality and mortality rates within herds. Dung samples were collected ad lib to assess if there were any cultivated food items contained in them, which would indicate that elephants still managed to venture into community land. No cultivated food items were found in 38 collected dung samples.
Hippo transects: VMWR is the only protected area in Malawi’s northern region to host a stable hippo population. However, no consistent monitoring of their populations is being done. As Lake Kazuni and the adjacent South Rukuru River are the only perennial water sources in the reserve, the majority of the population should be concentrated there. Transects of the northern shore of the lake were completed six times and resulted in a total of 698 hippos counted, with a maximum of 120 during two of the transects, which serves as a conservative population estimate. Compared to previous years, the maximum count has decreased substantially (from 338 in 2018 and 169 in 2019), suggesting a population decline. Future expeditions should keep monitoring the hippo population to recognise population crashes.Camera trapping:
Camera trapping is used worldwide as a non-intrusive remote monitoring method, particularly for elusive and cryptic species that are difficult to monitor through older, more conventional methods. 14 camera traps were deployed along roads in the southern area of the reserve, and an additional 3 at baited sites. 447 pictures with animals from 26 different species were recorded. Compared to previous expeditions, 3 new species were recorded: African wild dog, Selous’s mongoose and Sharpe’s grysbok. Four individual wild dogs were identified, which likely formed a dispersal group. African wild dogs had not been seen in VMWR in 20 years, substantiating the value of camera traps for monitoring.
Invertebrate sampling: VMWR is being considered as a release site for pangolins rehabilitated by the LWT. Pangolins depend on ants as a food source. However, no data on ant composition inside the reserve was available. A grid of baited pitfall invertebrate traps was set up in two representative habitat types: woodland and floodplains. Seven different ant species were identified during the sampling. Capture rates of these species did not significantly differ between habitats. During a previous research project, the LWT aimed to identify preferred ant species for pangolins, three of which were also identified in VMWR. Among other invertebrates captured, nine different taxonomic orders were represented.
Hyaena call-ins: Spotted hyaenas are the most abundant and widespread large carnivore in Africa. However, their conservation status is often overlooked. Despite this, they can influence other species’ populations and can serve as indicators of ecosystem health. Call-ins via audio playback to attract animals are a commonly used method to estimate hyaena populations. Three call-in events were conducted at baited sites and camera traps deployed to monitor hyaena activity after departure. No hyaenas were observed during the call-ins, nor were vocalisations in response to the call-ins recorded. The next expedition will try again, with an adapted methodology.
iNaturalist: iNaturalist is an online platform and application compiling evidence-based observations of organisms globally, making the data publicly accessible to researchers. Participants of the expedition uploaded 397 observations of 138 different species. A large proportion of observations was added from pictures taken during the invertebrate sampling project.
Today saw our Thailand elephant volunteers leave the village (and our jungle base) to get driven back to Chiang Mai, where they will prepare to re-enter society, hopefully with some new and interesting experiences and conversations to bring to the table.
Having had three years pass since the last Thailand expedition in 2019, and with so much planning and preparation beforehand, myself, Kerri and the team at Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary couldn’t be happier with the results of all the hard work put in by our team of elephant citizen scientists. A team who could just have easily spent their annual leave in a refined hotel with Gin & Tonic in hand by the piano lounge, most likely not having consider how many times they should tap their boots upside down to check for scorpions before going for a stroll. Thank you for coming here instead.
Yesterday saw our final survey in the field, completing collectively 130 hrs of data collection, approximately 800 km walked and 24000 meters climbed up through steep jungle hillsides, gathering data for our scientists to evaluate for ongoing research in several aspects of the semi-wild elephants’ lives. Work that isn’t normally possible as it is so labour-intensive, and requires a concerted team effort – which is exactly what this expedition brings.
We’ve nearly finished packing up now, and soon I’ll be heading back myself. Thank you again everyone – this could not happen without you.
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