Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Jan
22

Guest blogger: Sandy Bumpus, reports on her trip with the Houston Zoo to see Polar bears

Posted by in Carnivores,Conservation,Endangered Species,Travel,What You Can Do

My trip to Churchill, Manitoba, Canada with the Houston Zoo was wonderful.  We had two days in Winnipeg, then three days on the tundra, with only twelve of us in each of two tundra buggies.  On our excursions we saw five polar bears, arctic fox, snowy owls, ptarmigan, arctic hares and sundry other wildlife which was a wonderful count for one of these tours. 

Success always depends on the weather, the time of year, as well as the animals and it all seemed to work in our favour.  With no snow, the animals whose coats had already turned white were far easier to spot and a group of bears had taken up an area easily accessible by the vehicles while they waited for the ice to form.  The scenery was phenomenal and I hadn’t realized how colourful it would be with the lichen in its fall colours on the rocks and therocks themselves in different muted colours showing above the ground. 

 The buggies travel over all terrain and through shallow, very broad ponds to get to the vantage points so we had some really interesting rides and the Natural Habitat driver and guide were both excellent.  There was a large viewing platform with a telescope outside the vehicle to watch and photograph the bears “boxing” with each other or wandering around the buggy and sometimes under the open viewing floor mesh.

 

Our accommodation was very comfortable with pleasant people always ready to assist us and excellent food especially brought in with good chefs to prepare it.  One of the experiences that stands out in my mind was the talk given by Myrtle de Meulles about her life as the daughter of a native Metis trapper living off the land.  Sharing the area with these large predators which we’d come to see had certainly been a major factor in her life.  Then, the dogsled ride on the last day truly gave us a great finish to a very enjoyable experience.

For more details and information on how to book the next trip to see Polar bears in Chruchill, November 4-9, 2013  click here.

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Oct
22

A lazy day…with polar bears!

Posted by in Conservation,Travel

Another update from Peter Riger, our VP of Conservation who is with a Houston Zoo travel group in Churchill, searching for polar bears.

Today was a lazy day, with Polar Bears!

Same schedule as yesterday but we simply were interested in finding Polar Bears. The weather is changing a bit and we had both sun and snow flurries on and off all morning. We also had Polar Bears of course which we “visited” with for 4-5 hours. Later in the day when it seemed as though the bears, who had been napping on and off, would not be waking up anytime soon, we headed off towards Hudson Bay for a drive around the Wildlife  Mgmt. Area but with the winds blowing and temperatures dropping, only caught sight on a Bald Eagle and waterfowl before heading in at 4pm. Our other group managed to see bears and arctic hare as well.

Both evenings have ended with presentations about the history of the area. Last nights was by a local Metis (Metis are one of the Aboriginal people in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations and European heritage from the early 1800′s) about growing up in the region, the fur trade in the 40′s and 50′s, local culture and living with Polar Bears when they would come through town back then. Tonight’s was from a Parks Canada Ranger on local archaeology and history of the region.

There is a chance the Northern Lights (the Aurora Borealis) will show itself if the clouds clear and it is cold enough although it is a little early in the season. If you want to be woken up to see them at 3 or 4am you just leave a sign on your door that says Please Disturb – and somebody will.

Tomorrow is a helicopter excursion, for those who requested it as an extension, over the area and edge of Wapusk National Park. Others are spending time in town before we head to lunch near the Bay as a pod of Beluga Whales were seen there today, another late season strange occurrence this year.

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Oct
21

Here’s Looking At Whooooo

Posted by in Conservation,Travel

More from our Vice-President of Conservation, Peter Riger, who is leading a trip to Churchill!

We are on a fairly set schedule the next few days. Simple goal: Get out to the Churchill Wildlife Management Area and Natural Habitat Adventures Tundra Rovers, head close to the shoreline of Hudson Bay and find a few polar bears to watch. The short 20 minute drive from the center of Churchill gets us there and out on the tundra by 8am.

The vast tundra (before the snow and ice come!)

 

The area is vast and the polar bears are not just hanging out waiting for a visit so you spend a little time driving in these massive vehicles on a limited number of trails set for them but it is only a matter of 30-45 minutes before a polar bear sauntered by on his way to somewhere. Given our great viewing the night before, we joked we would find the group a snowy owl and red or arctic fox along the way as well. Snowys are difficult to find this time a year and we are closer to arctic fox than red fox habitat but both can be seen at certain times of the year in different areas.

Snowy owl resting on a rock

The first ground bird we came across were willow ptarmigan (a type of grouse, pronounced Tar-mi-gan) who prefer the safety of low growing willows, followed up by rock ptarmigan about 30 minutes later. These apparently like to stand on rocks. Along the way there were a polar bear or two in the distance before we stumbled upon promise #1: snowy owls, not just one but two. This is quite a find so late in the season as they typically head south to more comfortable climates. I may have mentioned yesterday it us about 5-10f warmer than normal this week in Churchill so things are hanging around. Our guides caught a glimpse of a beluga whale on Monday as well, something very rare for this area in October.

Rock Ptarmigan

The snowy owl was followed by lunch “on the tundra” which was followed by me trying to get everyone’s attention to look to the left at the red fox trotting by us but confusing our guests three seconds later by telling them to look straight ahead at the arctic fox coming right at us.

Red Fox

The smaller arctic fox was not happy about seeing a red fox only 20 feet away and then realizing there was a massive vehicle in front with 15 pairs of human eyes staring at both him and the red fox. They both went their separate ways but the chances of encountering both species in the same place at the same time is just ridiculous.

Arctic Fox

There is much more out here than the Kings (and Queens) of the Arctic.

 

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Oct
19

Churchill’s Polar Bears

Posted by in Conservation,Endangered Species,Travel

This blog was written by Peter Riger, Vice-President of Conservation at the Zoo. Peter is currently leading a tour in Churchill. This is the latest from his travels.

The Houston Zoo is leading it’s first tour with Natural Habitat Adventures to see the Polar Bears of Churchill, Manitoba. The most accessible viewing area for Polar Bears in the world. We are bringing two groups of 13 people north to the sub-arctic tundra to see these magnificent bears.

It is a fairly easy trip from Houston to Manitoba’s capital city Winnipeg where we overnight at the Fort Garry Hotel and catch up on a bit of local history of the region. Travelers have an option of a day early city tour to a prairie grassland marsh and tour of the Manitoba Museum and city or overnight in Winnipeg and fly out to Churchill the next morning. The charter flight from Winnipeg to Churchill, part of the trip, is a quick two hours and we set down on the edge of Hudson Bay where Polar Bears wait out the short summer for the bay to freeze so they can hit the ice for the winter and spring in search food.

Upon arrival it is a quick lunch, hotel check-in and tour of the Eskimo Museum before hitting the tundra in a specially modified tundra rover for a 4-5 hour evening excursion. There are a number of species to see here such as Arctic Fox, Red Fox, Snowy Owl, Lemming and Ptarmigan and the geology is fascinating but we are here looking for Polar Bears- which only took us an hour to stumble across 5 males lounging and okay fighting while they wait for the winter ice to form.

More to come as we spend the next two days out on the tundra.

 

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Jun
20

The Trouble with Elephants

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Elephant,Endangered Species,Featured,Peter with lions in Mozambique,Travel

The trouble with Elephants is two-fold. First, they carry very expensive pieces of ivory around with them that are valued as trophies and ornamental carvings. Second, they invade peoples crops making it even more difficult for villagers to feed their families through the dry season. Both of these add up to the elephants in the region being very nervous and even sometimes aggressive in their interactions with people.

Three days ago, two of he Niassa Lion Project (NLP) staff went out to gear about a report of two elephants killed about 2-3 weeks ago near the village and they found carcasses with the tusks hacked off. Two days ago, there was a report of poachers in the next concession who killed 2 elephants.  Fortunately, an anti poaching unit was able to get to the scene thanks to a small aircraft in the area that spotted the actives and chased off the poachers while they were trying to bundle up the ivory. Unfortunately, no poachers were caught and two elephants were dead, but at least all the ivory was recovered.

This is playing out constantly across Africa and it is putting serious strains on elephant populations.  Persecuted elephants create dangerous situations where it is difficult to protect both the village people and the elephants. NLP will be looking at new models to approach human-wildlife conflict involving both elephants and lions in the future.

Update: We received a message that on June 15th that 3 elephant were shot in the night behind the NLP camp but by the time they were able to get out to the field with scouts, the poachers and ivory were gone. Nobody lives here except the ~10 NLP staff. The closest village – Mbamba Village – is an hour plus walk away and due to their fear of lions and elephants at night, it makes it all the more likely that these poaching syndicates are now reaching into areas from distant villages in the reserve.

 The photo below was not from a poached elephant but from a ~1 year old predated on by lions. The belief these days is the more adults that are being killed, leads to more orpahned elephants which are being taken by predators rather than being protected by the herd. The value of this ivory in the local village is very small – maybe $30USD but once into a larger city its value is around $400 and then internationally that price can double. These tusks were deposited with the National reserve which maintains a vault to keep confiscated and found ivory.

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Jun
15

One last look at the lions

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Featured,Field Research,Peter with lions in Mozambique,Travel

I am visiting the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique to better understand how the Houston Zoo can assist with the conservation of lions in the park.

It is June 10th, and we have headed back out to the Inselberg Lipumbulu , the mid size of the three we have climbed, to find a signal for the lions we have not seen. There is quit a bit of roaring around us at night and it could be a new male across the river moving in or the females Flavia and Fatima behind us who have been moving about lately. We picked up a distant signal on James again as well as Akomwana but that was all. Akomwana and her cub had moved between 6-7 miles since yesterday and we were hoping she had caught up with her sister, who is not collared, so we headed in her direction.

Let me start by saying that Land Rovers are the equivalent of a tank without the turret. The one thing private foundations, grants and awards rarely cover are vehicles and salaries. Without vehicles and salaries how can you even have a project? This 1997 Land Rover went places you would not think possible, nearly vertical drives into and out of riverbeds, through acacia thorn scrub brush habitat, over elephant made pothole covered grasslands and 45 minutes later we reached a strong signal point where she was most likely resting among boulders with her cub. We got a GPS point, but no visual but in this landscape seeing her once this week was lucky enough. If anyone is interested in helping fund a new “used” Land Rover, give me a call, the project cannot grow with only one field vehicle capable of following lions and visiting villages.

Work continues on the layout of the environmental center housing for the workers Niassa Lion Project are bringing in from the community for construction. There was a visit to the village by one of the staff to advise a villager on better goat-corral construction now that one of his goats was taken by a leopard. Now that the NLP camp has been up and running for over a month, everyone is becoming very busy on top of tracking lions.

Tomorrow we will spend some time back at environmental education center and see what else the Houston Zoo can do to help from funding salaries and bush meat surveys to equipment for lion tracking and educational materials for the new center.

 

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Jun
13

Honey Guides and Honey Collecting

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Field Research,Peter with lions in Mozambique,Travel

I am visiting the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique to better understand how the Houston Zoo can assist with the conservation of lions in the park.

The people living in this region have grown up with wildlife. They are excellent trackers and fisherman, and know how to turn a palm frond or grass reeds into dozens of products. Certain individuals have also learned to collect honey from wild beehives without damaging the hive. This is passed down from father to son over many generations and the tree we are visiting has been used for this purpose once a year for the past 4-5 generations.

So when we were invited out with staff to watch them collect honey from a Baobab tree, it was something not to pass up.

Mozambicans in the north have grown up learning to read wildlife. There is a species of bird here called the Honey Guide which will literally lead you to an active hive. First thing to do is head out into the field and mimic one of the birds calls and when you find it (or it finds you), follow its call and it leads straight to a beehive. The benefit to the Honey Guide in leading animals or people to the hives is they cannot raid the hives themselves so having someone else do it assures them of leftovers and the safety of not having to go against a hive of angry bees.

These are not just any beehives; they are massive in size – sometimes up to 4 feet long x 4 feet wide and 2 feet deep. To hold something so heavy you need a strong tree and the bees use Baobabs which can live for hundreds of years and have broad branches.

To get at the hive in the tree (this hive is easily 150 feet up), they place pegs made from a specific hardwood tree into pre set holes that have been used for decades and climb up into the upper branches of the tree and with a bamboo torch and push the bees away from the hive and then collect a few of the honeycombs hanging from the hive.

There is no processing here; the honey goes directly into jars for use straight from the hive.

Keep coming back to hear more about my experience with the lions of Mozambique.

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Jun
11

The Lions Collar

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Field Research,Peter with lions in Mozambique,Travel

I am visiting the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique to better understand how the Houston Zoo can assist with the conservation of lions in the park.

After hearing Malindro’s ( it is actually Malandro, but my American ears did not hear it correctly originally) collar with the distress signal on June 6th and not locating him or the collar on the 6th or 7th, we headed back to the river as the signal was definitely coming from the middle of it. After a 30 minute drive, 15 minutes paddling and a few minutes of diving by the NLP staff in 4 feet of water, Xavier found the collar another foot under the sand. 25 yards from the bank in 4 feet of water, the collars leather strap was hacked off by someone at the edges so it could be slipped off the lion and tossed in the river. I mentioned two days ago the game concessions were good at notifying the camp when they come across a collared lion. This looked very much like the local fisherman who set out snares while fishing to try and catch impala, kudu or waterbuck as well and the lions become a bycatch of the snares.

Malindro's Collar (right), Found in the River

This male was 6 and was traveling with his brother Madevu. They have been traveling with females and maintained this territory for hunting. For NLP who had just collared this male 1 year ago, the story repeats itself every year with males not able to survive in a territory for more than one year without being killed due to poaching or accidental snaring. If left alone, these males may have found a female, reproduced and grew the pride within their territory, instead it leaves Madevu traveling alone to hunt and not being able to hold this territory alone.

NLP’s research is a bit different here. Many programs look at diet, habitat suitability, reproduction rates, etc. The reason these lions are collared are simply to track how many are killed to try and develop solutions to the random snaring and poaching of lions.

Here is what most likely happen next: the females Fatima and Flavia are pregnant and Malindro and/or Madevu are the sires. Now that Madevu is alone, he will lose the territory to new males who will come in to take the territory and would then kill Fatima and Flavias offspring so they can reproduce. One lion killed (Malindro) is equal to 4-6 more being killed when new males move in.

I will bring home one of these broken collars to show the public during keeper chats and will send an update when we  follow Flavia, Fatima and hopefully Akomwana and her three cubs from last year before we leave.

Keep coming back to hear more about my experience with the lions of Mozambique.

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Jun
10

Mozambique Nightlife

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Peter with lions in Mozambique,Travel

I am visiting the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique to better understand how the Houston Zoo can assist with the conservation of lions in the park.

After dinner on a few evenings we have taken the opportunity to drive back out looking for lions and leopards, and have been surprised at the amount of wildlife we are coming across that is not as visible during the day. Impalas are everywhere in much larger numbers than the daytime, but it is the random encounters with hippo, African buffalo and elephants that show how much wildlife is out here.

Then, there are the small animals including genet, civet, bushbaby, white-tailed mongoose, and my favorite so far – the four-toed elephant shrew, which help us wind down from a long day.  There is not much information on many of the smaller species up in this region. Most field guides cover South Africa and southern Mozambique as well as Tanzania to the north, but there are some subtle differences to a few of the animals here that make them hard to identify exactly as they shuffle out of photo range.

Niassa Lion Project is not just about lions, it is about protecting the whole ecosystem and the communities that live within it.  If we don’t make everyone more aware that this grand wilderness can be lost if there are not plans in place for managing hunting concessions and assisting the communities with food and water security issues, Niassa will be quickly lost and with it populations of lions, elephants and even the small things we only see at night.

Keep coming back to hear more about my experience with the lions of Mozambique.

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Jun
09

Diving for collars and the trouble with Guineafowl

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Field Research,Peter with lions in Mozambique,Series,Travel

I am visiting the Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique to better understand how the Houston Zoo can assist with the conservation of lions in the park.

Another  possible malaria case in camp today so we’re splitting up. One group will try to figure out what happened to Malindro the Lion whose collar was sending a distress call, the other is visiting Nkuti Village (about 15 miles but 2 hours on hand cut dirt road) to look at their chicken and Guineafowl set up as they had high mortality in the guineas this year.

Diving for collars is quite literally diving to find this lion radio collar with the distress call.  Xavier and Joaquim from Niassa Lion Project (NLP) went back to our same location today with a kayak and headed across the river until the signal was so strong they felt they were right on top of it.  With no sign of the lion, they dug through debris and spent 2-3 hours diving into the river to sift through the sand to see if the collar was stuck in debris on the riverbed.  As easy as it was to find the lions, Fabio and James by their collars, this one is becoming very frustrating.  These collars store movemnet information in them, so it is important to recover the collar to discover what happened to Malindro.

On the other side of the concession we went to a very remote, small village of about 50 people so remote that teachers only made it there one to two times a month for school lessons. In 2011 NLP helped the village construct an enclosed chicken hut to bring the chickens in at night and protect chicks from the hawks and eagles in the area. They actually prefer Guineafowl to chickens and have had the same issue with these chicks being taken by predators in the wet season (January-February) and since they only reproduce once a year, this is a problem. This year, a new problem arose. Even though they are protected from predators, all 27 Guineafowl chicks died at bout 4 weeks of age.  A mystery that I will bring back to some of my colleagues in the US to help solve.  In the meantime I have asked the villagers to save any chicks that die next season to send to a lab in South Africa to investigate disease issues.

Few things work properly the first time around but NLP and the communities will keep working through to figure out how to support community iniitives.

Keep coming back to hear more about my experience with the lions of Mozambique.

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