Tag: Wissenschaftstourismus

With Ronald back on track after having been ill in the week proceeding the start date, our first group have arrived and are fully in the swing of the first slot of this expedition.

With the first two days of training (on navigation, datasheets, camera traps, machetes, etc) taken care of, we set out to find our data in the field. Working in two groups, boarding long boats in the morning, on the Subayang River, to get to our daily destinations, which start along its banks. With our scientist Febri and lots of input from the park rangers who’ve accompanied us into the forest, we’ve collected signs of animals in the area (sun bears clawing trees, wild pigs frequenting the rivers, otters, muntjac deer, etc.) and spotted the odd one or two in the flesh (monitor lizards and water buffalos crossing the rivers swimming, a fearless wild pig staring us down, macaques performing aerial acrobatics, siamangs and agile gibbons singing for us at all times of the day). There’s human impact too with clear signs of illegal logging and legal or semi-legal rubber plantations seemingly everywhere close to the settlements.

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The biggest hardship for the group is getting used to the climate, a day out in the field is thirsty business. We’ve also had lots of great interaction with the locals along the way, finding out their views on the tiger situation.

The tiger, alas, is, as expected, elusive. We have only scratched the surface of the reserve with a handful of cells surveyed near the rivers and villages, which obviously attract human activities. The tiger will avoid those and the few interviews we have conducted are anecdotal evidence of this.

One team ventured (or rather waded and swam) deeper into the forest today, along a smaller stream. A day’s journey away into the green produced the pig sighting, illegal logger camps, but also more mature forest with buttressed tree giants towering above and shading the forest floor below. The pigs were everywhere (as the local Muslim population does not eat them for religious reasons) and we logged our first track of the shier muntjac. The highlight of the day was a spectacular waterfall spewing out of a black stone bowl with wet moss and greenery at the end of a small stream. The power shower was, well, powerful!

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From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia

All staff are now in Pekanbaru. On the picture they are from left to right Wishnu, Elma & Febri (from WWF) and Matthias and Anthony (from Biosphere Expeditions). Ronald is not behind the camera, because he’s ill in bed. Something from another expedition seems to have caught up with him, but he is now on the mend, we hope. Get well soon!

With Ronald on rest, rice, potatoes and water, the rest of the team organised the rest of the paperwork and shopping. No matter how early you arrive, there is always more to do, so we will be putting in long hours before the expedition starts on 3 May. Some fruits of our labours of interest to participants (such as the field manual, datasheets, the grid for the GPS units, etc.) are now on https://app.box.com/s/k3o7v6mlvpfeh84mx5gemaj1im0911zq. Have a look and study them now. As always, the more you know and the more you put in, the more you will get out of the expedition.

Some more admin stuff: Rubber boots are available locally only between sizes 42 and 38. If you need bigger or smaller sizes, please bring them with you. Sun cream is also not available locally (this is clearly not a tourist place and in fact we have not seen a foreign face all week).

The weather has been a very constant 32 – 35 deg C all week. It’s humid and there is the odd thunderstorm and rainfall. No need to pack your woolly jumpers 😉

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From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia

Hello everyone, this is Anthony. Ronald and I made it to Pekanbaru safe and sound, and after a stopover at the WWF headquarters in the city, set off to the Subayang field base with Febri, our scientist and some other members of the team. The drive took us into the night and we eventually got to the end of the road in a small village on the Subayang River. The longboat journey took us into almost complete darkness, with only dim torch light from the driver as he approached the bends, and flashes of lightning in the distance silhouetting the silent grandeur of the rainforest. Once at Subayang base our camp helpers, who were eager to help us on shore, greeted us. We made our way up the path and saw the magnificent wooden building. We laid out our beds and mosquito nets in the large communal living room upstairs. The house is as much a part of nature than anywhere I could think of or have been before. When the generator falls silent, the rainforest you can hear the noise and excitement of the local inhabitants, from the high pitched din of the insects to the distant howls of the gibbons. It took a while, but eventually the room seemed to cool down and gradually everyone went off to sleep.

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There’s a week to go and plenty of work for us to perpare for your arrival on Sunday. Having spent the last few days here, I can say for myself that I need not have brought the extra pullovers as it’s so warm and humid, but am glad I’ve both my walking boots and rubber boots for the different terrains we’ve covered so far. We’re working hard to have everything ready for the arrival of group 1 and are looking forward to meeting you at the Tune Hotel (now actually called Red Planet Hotel) assembly point next Sunday at 08:00.

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 GPS, compass & map, Garmin etrex 20, PBLs, camera trapping, binoculars, Hennessy Hammock (for those of you wanting to use those), matchete use, and the methodology from the previous diary entry. Enjoy!

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From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia

Febri, Ronald and Anthony are now at Subayang base, setting things up for the start of our expedition.

Our young scientist Febri

is still working on the exact activities, but they should look something like this

We will be working in a jungle landscape,

using a grid method that will be very similar to what we are using on our snow leopard expedition in Tien Shan (as explained below).

The grid we will be using is this

and the more you know about this methodology, the better, so have a look at the manual for it. That folder also contains the .gtm file for Sumatra. If you are a tech person, then you can upload the file to your GPS using freeware TrackMaker and then use your own GPS on site, if you would like to (we’ll supply GPS units too, of course).

Enough methodology for now. Let’s see what tales Ronald and Anthony will bring from the ground in a day or so….

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From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia

The time has come for our Sumatra tiger expedition. After many years of discussions and many months of preparation, Ronald, your expedition leader for groups 1 – 3, has left Europe and is now en route to Pekanbaru. With him is Anthony, who will be there for group 1 and then groups 4 – 6. A few days behind them is Dr. Matthias Hammer, our founder and Executive Director. Waiting in Pekanbaru is Febri Anggriawan Widodo, our scientist from local partner WWF Indonesia. And in the field is the Batu Dingding community, who will host us at Subayang research station, and, hidden in the jungle somewhere for us to track, photograph and find out about as much as we can, is Panthera tigris.

Thank you to all of you for wanting to help with the tiger’s plight. A plight it is indeed, especially on Sumatra, and the more help we have, the more awareness we can generate and the more incentives for local people we can create, the more likely we are to succeed. You could have gone to Dubai, or to Singapore, or spent a beach holiday somewhere, but instead you have chosen to sweat it out with us in the jungle, walk the trails, get your hands dirty and your feet wet, learn from each other and see what we can do. Thank you for that, even before we have started.

We hope your preparations are going well, especially the trailblazers of group 1, only a few days away from starting their journeys. We are sure you have all realised by now that you are joining a research expedition, not a tiger watching holiday. And before we have even set foot into the reserve, we will already have made a difference with the local community. But cut them some slack, please. It’s their first time with a big group of foreigners and Indonesia works differently to Europe or North America or the Antipodes. But just like at home, things will go wrong (but you can’t have your money back ;), take a long time or not happen as planned, or even not at all. It’s all part of the experience and you will certainly have a story to tell back home.

Anyway, Ronald will check in from Pekanbaru in a few days time, when he’s been to Subayang and back and found his feet locally. He will then also share his mobile number in case of any emergencies. Stay tuned. We’ll be back…

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From our Sumatran tiger conservation volunteering holiday with tigers in Sumatra, Indonesia