Everyone arrived safely at the Amazon Research Center. After a speed boat ride of 2 1/2 hours from Iquitos, Alfredo, our scientists, and our scientific assistants Fredrik & Andy, and I welcomed the team at the Tahuayo Lodge and continued to the ARC after some brief introductions and having lunch. While I am writing this, Alfredo is delivering a presentation of the research’s target species such as jaguar, puma and more than a dozen different monkey species. It’s a lot of input on the first day after a comprehensive safety briefing to prepare everyone for the jungle research work. We’ll continue with training sessions on the research equipment and data sheets tomorrow morning, before we go out for our first training survey walk.
From our scuba diving conservation holiday with whale sharks and coral reefs of the Maldives (http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/maldives)
My name is Catherine Edsell and I will be your expedition leader for this years Maldives expedition. Coral reef conservation is one of my passions and I led the Maldives expedition in 2014, so look forward to continuing our ongoing research with you. As you are aware, Dr. Jean-Luc Solandt is unable to join us due to personal reasons, but Mariyam Shidha Afzal, formerly from the Marine Research Centre of the Maldives, a marine biologist and experienced Reef Check Trainer will be taking his place, giving us the added benefit of her local knowledge.
I’m very much looking forward to meeting you in Male on Saturday, 12 September at 11:00 at the NEW meeting point in front of the Coffee Club at Maldives Airport. I will be arriving in Male on 10 September and as soon as I get my mobile phone set up, will email you my Maldivian phone number (to be used for emergency purposes only, such as missing assembly).
Our survey route for the week is below
I hope all your preparations are going well and that you’ve had a chance to study all the Reef Check material and whale shark info available on the website as this will not only save you revision time on board, but also stand you in good stead for a fruitful expedition. We have a packed schedule planned, so please arrive rested and ready to go.
Until then!
Catherine Edsell
Expedition Leader
From our citizen science project protecting leatherback turtles on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
I have just returned from the final reconnaissance visit to Costa Rica and I am pleased to say that everything went very well.
I have added some pictures and videos from the trip below. Hopefully they will give you a good impression of what it is like at Pacuare and of the work on the ground.
The expedition should be ready to join via www.biosphere-expeditions.org/costarica very soon and I hope you will join us. If you decide to do so, I look forward to seeing you in Costa Rica next year.
Regards
Dr. Matthias Hammer
Executive Director
Biosphere Expeditions
From our citizen science project protecting leatherback turtles on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica
From our conservation holiday volunteering with jaguars, pumas, ocelots, primates and other species in the Peru Amazon jungle (http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/amazonia)
Friday 07:30 in Iquitos: I am at the A&E Tours office waiting for the shops to open. I was told that today everything would be back to normal after two days of general strike. All shops & markets were closed, the streets left abandoned. Only the odd motocar passed by. It was around the Plaza des Armes where the crowd assembled demonstrating against a government decision. When the shops finally opened again, I had 90 minutes left before the boat left…
All other preparations have gone well so far. Fredrik Tegnér, a Swedish biologist who will be assisting Alfredo Dosantos, head scientist on this expedition, arrived in Iquitos on the same flight as I. Fredrik spent three months at the Amazon Research Centre last year studying the Peruvian poison frog. Now with his degree under his belt, he will join us to support Alfredo with data processing for the report. Together we have set up some of the research equipment: the GPSs now have updated maps and trails on them and the expedition computer is waiting for the team to feed it with data.
We will meet Alfredo later today at the ARC and will then start discussing the work plan, schedules, etc. – I’ll keep you updated.
Saturday: Fredrik & I arrived at the ARC yesterday in the late afternoon. Alfredo & I have worked out a work plan and I am looking forward to meeting team 1 tomorrow. If you have any problems with getting to the assembly point in time please contact the A&E Tours office in Iquitos, by either phone or e-mail. Safe travels and see you tomorrow.
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday in Indonesia (http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/sumatra)
All good things come to an end, and today we to said goodbye to everyone who has made this expedition possible and draw a close on the Sumatran tiger expedition for 2015.
With 265-camera trap nights behind us, there have been some interesting results from the cameras we have collected. Clouded leopard, leopard cat, Malayan sun bear, binturong, yellow-throated marten, pig-tailed macaque, long-tailed macaque, barking deer, wild pig, and other animals. But sadly the extent of human impact within the wildlife sanctuary is unrelenting. We have caught on film people trying to kick our cameras off trees, in one case stealing the camera. Catching birds to sell in the villages. On the retrieval of one camera, the whole area leading up to it was cut down in the two weeks the camera had been in place. The loggers had not noticed the camera as they dragged timber past the traps we had set for the animals.
As a result no pictures of tigers were taken this year, but there is other, more circumstantial evidence, that they are still close to the villages. But we do now have a much greater understanding of what is going on the area. And we have made some really good contacts in villages further into the reserve for setting up sub-bases next year to access the harder-to-reach areas, away from humans, to which the tigers will have retracted too. And in several interviews in the last slot of this year’s expedition, as we have pushed deeper and deeper into the reserve, we have been hearing more about tigers in the nearby area in the form of tracks, roars and sightings in the last two months.
Thank you to everybody involved this year from the WWF, Batu Dinding and to all the participants who have taken time off to help with this cause. There are too many of you to mention by name, but you know who you are. None of this could have happened without you. Year 1 was always going to be the trailblazing year. Thank you for being trailblazers and preparing the ground for others to come after you in the years to come.
We battled leeches, spiders and things that bite, extreme rain, no rain, drought, the frustrations of not getting close enough to our quarry, pushed boats over rocks, worn wet shoes everyday, had fantastic blisters to show for our efforts and counted every last pig track in a 136 square km area. We were welcomed by the community, worked with them, passed on our enthusiasm about the enchanting rainforest just over the fence to countless school children, had our photos taken, made friends and were part of something amazing.
Very best wishes
Anthony & the Biosphere Expeditions team
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday in Indonesia (http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/sumatra)
For the last couple of days, the sun has bearly made it through the smoke caused by all the slash and burn forest fires. Our expeditioners have been out in the haze collecting the cameras that slots 4 and 5 put in place.
We’ve caught sun bears, binturong, pig-tailed macaque and leopard cat to name but a few, but no tigers. We’ve also caught teenage boys catching birds in cages, a man kicking one of our cameras out of place (although we then got a troop of macaque we would have missed otherwise). Sadly, when we got to one trap area we found our camera had been stolen, along with the post it was chained to!
We’re off to a local high school now. So far we’ve had good success with the visits to the elementary schools, so are keen to speak to the older students.
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia
From our conservation holiday volunteering with jaguars, pumas, ocelots, primates and other species in the Peru Amazon jungle (www.biosphere-expeditions.org/amazonia)
Welcome everyone, this is the first issue of this year’s Amazonia expedition diary. My name is Malika, I’m a senior member of the Biosphere Expeditions’ staff and I will be leading our Amazonia jaguar & primates project in the Peruvian Amazon again this year. My bags are packed, I’m ready to go… (almost ;)). If my flights are on time, I’ll be arriving in Iquitos on 1 Sep around noon after picking up some more equipment in Lima.
I have been in touch with Alfredo Dosantos, our Peruvian expedition scientist, who told me about massive spring flooding and renovation work at our base: the Amazon Research Centre. But before meeting him there, I will spend a few preparation days in Iquitos. Checking equipment, preparing paperwork and shopping for missing items will be on my agenda before diving into jungle life.
I won’t have a local phone number, but will be available on my German mobile (for emergency purposes only!) until I leave Iquitos on 4 Sep. After that you can e-mail the office (on this e-mail) and they will relay a message to me.
That’s it for now. I’ll be in touch again with some more detailed information once I have arrived on the ground.
So as we prepare at this end, please can you do some more preparation too. In addition to studying the dossier, have a look at the “Methods & equipment” playlist. The bits that are relevant to the expedition are our cell methodology (explained for another expedition, but the principle is exactly the same), GPS, compass & map, Garmin etrex 20, camera trapping, binoculars and machete use.
Enjoy and I’ll see you at base in due course!
Malika Fettak
Expedition leader
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday in Indonesia (http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/sumatra)
Our last team for this year have set out on an overnight trip in the centre of Rimbang Baling Nature Reserve. They are camping in a village called Aur Kuning, several hours away by boat. We’re looking forward to hearing how it was tomorrow.
With the water still high, the rest of us have been out surveying stream beds. Yesterday we were walking with the water tapping on our chins as we held our bags above out heads making our way up a particularly wild part of the forest following the sand banks. We saw quite a few tracks and, delicately resting upon a boulder in middle of the stream, was a fresh scat that has been collected for analysis.
Today we came across a 700 m long wooden track for sliding timber from the hillside to the river to help with the illegal logging trade. Whilst it must have taken hundreds of trees to build, it was quite a remarkable feat of engineering.
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday in Indonesia (http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/sumatra)
Finally it rained. And it rained hard. At around 01:00 Derek came in from his hammock to the base as his cover was dripping heavily, then Verona came into the base having not done up the zip on her tent. But other than a few slightly tired faces this morning, the good news is the river is up again. So we have sent a scout party much deeper into the nature reserve to see how far south we can get for a planned overnighter on Friday. The team came back with good news that we can stay in a village called Aur Kuning, several hours away. The village leader was interviewed and he’s says there has been tiger movement in the last two months nearby. He was also keen for us to use his village in the future for setting up a sub-base so we can survey the inner areas of the nature reserve for longer periods of time. The rest of us have taken advantage of the blank canvas in the stream beds to find some new tracks.
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday in Indonesia (http://www.biosphere-expeditions.org/sumatra)
Team 6 has arrived at the base safe and sound after their drive in from the city. The air is filled with smoke from forest fires in the plantations that lead right up to Rimbang Baling nature reserve.
This is the last slot for this year and there is a lot of ground to cover. We’ve spent the last day and a half going through data sheets, maps, compass and GPS work and also a presentation by Febri on the work he is doing and what he is hoping to achieve here.
We’ve just returned from a taster session in the forest, taken stridingly and are about to start the final two weeks of survey work…
From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia
Biosphere Expeditions: blogs from the frontline of wildlife conservation and the fight for a more sustainable planet 