Week Two

It’s been two hectic weeks in camp. Bayara, the country director for Mongolia, Pursee, our Mongolian biologist and Charu, our research director, arrived a little more than a week ago. I had planned to have most snares out by the time of their arrival but the snow complicated things a bit. As I wrote last time I wasn’t sure how to build the snares in all the snow but Tom came to my rescue and advised me to dig a trench through the trap site. Snow leopards don’t seem to like snow and the trench could work as a nice attractant for them to walk in. It’s taken some time but now we have ten snares out. To our aid, the last week has been much warmer and a lot of the snow has disappeared.

Charu and I have spent most of the time discussing the study, building traps and doing the usual stuff in Gobi (drink tea). I haven’t met him before but he is a really nice guy and I got the impression that he is pretty darn smart too. Bayara and Pursee was off to two workshops in the neighborhood but spent a few days in camp.

The captures and “our” collared snow leopards are very “visible” and since I get to catch the cats, I reckon that it is easy to believe that I am doing the work. But without the staff’s advice, planning, help with logistics, fundraising etc and all you who donate or take interest in the study – I would make quite a sorry sight out here and we would probably not have any cats collared yet.”

Bayara is really the person who makes everyday life out here so smooth and she takes an excellent care of me. Sometimes I think that she takes too good care of me and spoils me a little. So truth be told – I get to do the fun stuff like cruising the mountains on a motorbike, building snares and catching the cats. Sure, I also don’t get much sleep, freeze my @##$ off and long for a shower already. But that can never weigh up for the positive things. Charu said that we must be among the luckiest people on earth to have the jobs we have. I can only agree. To spend one day in the sunshine, up in the mountains – snow tracking a snow leopard is an experience that can’t be described. It is also challenging to follow a cat in this terrain I can tell you…

No captures so far. I had really hoped to catch a cat when the staff was here but no luck so far.

It’s time for the 11 p.m. trap signal check, got to climb the mountain. Might get lucky this time…

Snow and Snow Leopards

We arrived in the Gobi about a week ago. All the equipment and gers have been stored in a tiny house since last summer and the first we did was to locate all the things we needed. In two days time we had leveled the ground for the floor, built, furnished and cleaned the ger. I’ll admit that I didn’t help much, feels as if I am mostly in the way. I sorted all equipment and connected the cables for solar power and all electronics instead. It’s quite amazing how fast Mongolians can set up a ger (once the floor is leveled it only takes three-four hours) and that in two days time we can go from “nothing” to a fully functional research camp.

There is a lot of snow in Mongolia this winter. I’ve heard that millions of livestock are dying, on the way to camp we saw piles of dead animals. There are almost no herders in the mountains around camp and the canyons that I want to build snares in are filled with 10-30 cm of snow. You all probably think “that’s nothing” but it is a little complicated to dig and build a snare without making it too obvious when the ground is covered with snow.

And if snow leopards knew what their species’ name means and could vote, I think they would ask us to change it. They don’t seem to like snow…

Tom told me this long ago, I thought it was because their pelt is yellowish-grayish and that they are too obvious in snow. But during the last days when I have hiked around I have found fresh tracks from snow leopards four times (I think it is the same individual that has spent some time close to my camp). I have tracked the leopard and it is very interesting to see how much care it takes not to put its paws in deep snow. It didn’t walk in the canyons, rather it stayed on the mountainsides and whenever it had to cross an area of deep snow, it made sure to find a passage with rocks to walk on.

Today is Tsagaan Sar (Buddhist new year). We had planned to visit two families but it is so cold that our Russian van refuses to start. Marhaan, my assistant, has tried to thaw out the engine with a blow torch (!) without any luck so far.

Back to the Field

After a nice trip where I got to see Helsinki and Beijing, I finally arrived in Ulaanbataar this afternoon. It’s good to be back, but at the same time I feel a little heavy-hearted. It’s the same feeling as in the armed service, when we came back to the regiment after a weekend at home, knowing that there would be a long exercise in field. The hardest part, though, is packing all the gear. As soon as it starts, one will adapt and enjoy it as best as possible. I’m looking forward to setting up camp and start up the fieldwork again, though the thought of not showering in six
months…Brrr…

Mongolia´s kindest man (or close to at least), Byamba, picked me up at the airport, and we drove off to investigate the market for Japanese motorbikes in Ulaanbaatar. This was quite a task last winter, when we bought the Yamaha bike. It didn’t start too good this time: the Yamaha dealer has stopped selling bikes, but he had one left – the same model we bought last time. It’s a nice bike, but we had to take it to UB for maintenance twice in six months. Not the best choice when it takes two days to transport the bike. One way. Even so, I tried the bike, and it felt great to be back in the saddle. So to speak.

The only thing worth telling about the trip was that I past three Chinese SWAT police officers in Beijing airport. I am not sure what SWAT stands for, but I guess it is “Special Weapon…something”. The Chinese SWAT officers were neither big nor armed; one of them was actually a tiny girl with big glasses. But to compensate for their size and lack of weapons, they had two K-9 dogs with them. Cocker Spaniels, with scarves around their necks bearing the text “Police Dog”…

Either someone has watched too many Hollywood movies and thinks “SWAT” sounds cool, or the Beijing airport is a very safe place. I don’t think Cocker Spaniels would do the trick in L.A.

Still, I didn’t dare to giggle. It could be that they have black belts in eight different martial arts disciplines and would brake all my bones before I could say “Nice puppy”.

We will leave for field this weekend.

Back in the saddle (almost)

After a nice trip where I got to see Helsinki and Beijing I finally arrived in Ulaanbataar this afternoon. It’s good to be back but at the same time I feel a little heavyhearted. It’s the same feeling as in the armed service when we came back to the regiment after a weekend at home, knowing that there will be a long exercise in field. The hardest part is going back and to pack all the gear. As soon as it starts one will adapt and enjoy as best as possible. I’m looking forward to setting up camp and start up the fieldwork again. Though the thought of not showering in six months…Brrr…

Mongolia´s kindest man (or close to at least) Byamba picked me up at the airport and we drove off to investigate the market for japanese motorbikes in UB. This was quite a task last winter when we bought the Yamaha bike. It didn’t start too good, the Yamaha dealer has stopped selling bikes, he had one left – the same model as we bought last time. It’s a nice bike but we have had to take it to UB for maintenance twice in six months. Not the best when it takes two days to transport the bike. One way.

Even so, I tried the bike and it felt great to be back in the saddle. So to speak.

The only thing worth telling about the trip was that I past three Chinese SWAT police officers in Beijing airport. I am not sure what SWAT stands for but I guess it is “Special Weapon…something”. The Chinese SWAT officers were neither big nor armed, one of them was actually a tiny girl with big glasses. But to compensate for their size and lack of weapons – they had two K-9 dogs with them. Cocker Spaniels with scarfs around their necks with the text “Police dog”…

Either Someone has watched too many Hollywood movies and thinks SWAT sounds cool or Beijing airport is a very safe place. Don’t think Cocker Spaniels would do the trick in L.A.

Still I didn’t dare to giggle, could be that they have black belts in eight different martial arts disciplines each and would brake all my bones before I could say “Nice puppy”.

We will leave for field this weekend.