Wildtravel 01/14

WILD TRAVEL THE WORLD’S MOST AMAZING WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS

African ADVENTURE Get up close to the Big 5 wildlife at Kwande Private Game Reserve on South Africa’s Eastern Cape

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Papua New Guinea Your guide to the Highlands, islands, reefs and rainforests of this little-explored nation

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INSIDE COSTA RICA’S TOP NATIONAL PARK FIELD GUIDE TO POLAR BEARS BUILD YOUR OWN GARDEN BIRD HIDE VOLUNTEERING

LIFE-CHANGING TRIPS FOR 2014

We reveal 10 of the latest wildlife volunteering projects worth signing up for in the year ahead JANUARY 2014

ETHIOPIAN WOLVES: Amazing images of the kings of Bale Mountains National Park

CITIZEN SCIENCE: Help UK conservation organisations with their essential wildlife research

WELCOME

Discover how to join a project protecting snow leopards in the mountains of Kyrgystan in our volunteering feature on page 18

CONTRIBUTORS

Adrian Hepworth Adrian explains why Corcovado National Park is the best place to see Costa Rica’s diverse wildlife

Tania Segura

In the name of science

Tania offers her guide to polar bears and their rapidly shrinking habitat on the Arctic ice

T

hanks to budget cuts, the proliferation of smart phones and tablets, and the realisation among conservation groups that an engaged audience is an active one, recent years have seen an explosion in the number of ‘citizen science’ projects allowing members of the public to get involved in wildlife research across the UK. Whether you want to record the birds in your back garden, crunch data on ash die-back across Britain’s woodlands or take part in a ‘BioBlitz’ at your local nature reserve, there are now countless opportunities to get involved. To read our report, turn to page 54.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for wildlife volunteering opportunities in more exotic climes, and don’t mind spending some money and annual leave to take part, turn to page 18, where you’ll find our round-up of the life-changing projects you can sign up for during the year ahead. Featuring everything from tracking snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan to helping to rehabilitate orangutans in Borneo, we’ve got something for every wildlife lover.

Will Burrard-Lucas Will shares his images of the endangered Ethiopian wolves at Bale Mountains National Park

Regis St Louis Regis makes the case for taking the long journey to see Papua New Guinea’s exotic wildlife

COVER IMAGE: © HANNES LOCHNER/ALAMY. ABOVE © JAMES URBACH/SUPERSTOCK

Matt Havercroft, Editor

WILD TRAVEL

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TO CONTACT EDITORIAL Archant Specialist, Archant House, Oriel Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1BB Tel: 01242 211 080 Email: editorial@wildtravelmag.com EDITOR Matt Havercroft DEPUTY EDITOR Sheena Harvey EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Debbie Graham DESIGNER Steve Rayner ARCHANT SPECIALIST MANAGING DIRECTOR Mark Wright; mark.wright@archant.co.uk FOR CUSTOMER SERVICES Tel: 01242 216 002 Email: sylvie.wheatley@archant.co.uk Email: estelle.iles@archant.co.uk

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Cover image: a young lion rests on the African plains at dawn

WILD TRAVEL 3

FEATURES 18 Wildlife volunteering c

Make 2014 a year to remember with our selection of the world’s best wildlife conservation projects for the year ahead

28 Trip report: Kwande Game Reserve, South Africa c

Kate Riordan enjoys a hands-on conservation experience with the wildlife at this private reserve on South Africa’s Eastern Cape

36 Take me there: Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica c For the best chance of seeing Costa Rica’s diverse wildlife, there’s only one national park to consider, writes Adrian Hepworth

46 Field guide to polar bears c

As the Arctic sea ice continues to retreat at an alarming rate, WWF’s Madison Higgins, Elissa Poma and Tania Segura look at what the future holds for the polar bears that call it home

54 Citizen science c

We report on the recent boom in ‘citizen science’, allowing members of the public to volunteer to take part in a variety of natural history research projects in their area

60 In focus: Ethiopian wolves c

18

CONTENTS 87

Photographer Will Burrard-Lucas shares his images of Africa’s most endangered carnivores at Bale Mountains National Park

DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA 74 Papua New Guinea overview c

Regis St Louis provides a whistlestop tour of Papua New Guinea’s jungles, reefs, Highlands and islands, and the exotic animals that can be found in each region

87 Ones to watch

92

74

You could spend a lifetime trying to track down all of the country’s wildlife, but here are the 10 species to put at the top of your list

92 Trip report: birds of paradise

Karl Cushing enjoys a flying visit to Papua New Guinea in search of its colourful birds of paradise, and discovers this isn’t the only avian show in town

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All cover stories marked with a

c

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© STAFFAN WIDSTRAND/WILD WONDERS OF EUROPE

WILDWORLD NEWS

EVENTS

CONSERVATION

INTERVIEW

SPOTTER’S GUIDE

NEWS REVIEW EUROPE

Great expectations Populations of one of the largest birds of prey in the world, the white-tailed eagle, have increased across Europe from fewer than 2,500 pairs in 1970 to 9,600 pairs in 2010. And this is just one of 37 mammal and bird species, including golden jackal, grey wolf, saker falcon and Eurasian spoonbill, that have recovered significantly over the past 50 years, according to a new report, Wildlife Comeback in Europe, which highlights the success of particular conservation efforts over the last 50 years.

Thanks to a large-scale breeding and reintroduction programme, the future of the European bison is also more secure despite becoming extinct in the wild in the early 20th century.

Wild populations have been re-established in areas of central and Eastern Europe, with a stronghold in Poland and Belarus, and the total population is now almost 3,000 individuals.

“Wildlife will bounce back if we allow it to,” says Frans Schepers, Managing Director of Rewilding Europe, which initiated and commissioned the study carried out by the Zoological Society of London, BirdLife International and the European Bird Census Council.

“With continued and strong legal protection, active boosting of existing wildlife populations and reintroductions to bring back lost species and combined with an increasing tolerance towards wildlife, more species will surely follow.” www.rewildingeurope.com

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WILD TRAVEL 7

ENGLAND

Zoned out New marine conservation zones created, but more are called for

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wide variety of marine life around England’s coast, from seahorses to oyster beds, will be better protected following the creation of 27 new marine conservation zones (MCZs).

The protected areas add up to roughly three times the size of Wiltshire, conserving around 8,000 sq km of offshore and 2,000 sq km of inshore waters.

“We are doing more than ever to protect our marine environment,” said Marine Environment Minister, George Eustice. “Almost a quarter of English inshore waters and nine per cent of UK waters will now be better protected. These marine conservation zones will safeguard a wide range of precious sea life… and our ambitions do not

end there.”

However, many remain cautious about the news. These areas are far short of the 127 sites the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) had campaigned for. “These 27 sites represent less than a quarter of the number recommended by scientists to complete an ‘ecologically coherent’

network,” said Melissa Moore, Senior Policy Officer for MCS. “We urge government to bring forward designation of future tranches to prevent many threatened seabed habitats being further damaged.”

Martin Harper, Conservation Director for the RSPB, added: “We’re delighted that [the] announcement begins to ensure marine protection for our undervalued marine wildlife, but we have a long way to go before we achieve a network of sites that adequately represents the breadth and biological importance of our marine wildlife.”

The Government has promised to designate two more phases of MCZs over the next three years, with a consultation on the next phase due to be launched in 2015. www.gov.uk/defra

CANADA

Trophy hunting could be putting British Columbia’s grizzly bears at risk. The province represents one of the last strongholds for the bears, which have lost around half their continental range since European colonisation.

Despite supposedly strict regulations, scientists from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation (RCF), the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University have discovered hunters killed 3,500 bears (including 1,200 females)

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NEW SPECIES

ONE BECOMES TWO

out of an estimated population of 15,000 bears between 2001 and 2011.

Until now scientists had thought that there was just one Of these only 2,800 bears were species of the housecat-sized Brazilian tigrina (Leopardus permitted to be killed during the tigrinus). However, the latest DNA evidence shows that the same period under the province’s tigrinas that occupy north eastern Brazil are a completely separate management policy. species from their southern counterparts, now called Leopardus Biologist Kyle Artelle from RCF guttulus, with no evidence of interbreeding between them. said: “These overkills are a A team of researchers from Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, examined serious concern because the samples of DNA from the two species and found the animals to be evolutionary distinct, having been separated at least 100,000 years ago. biology of grizzly bears makes “Our study highlights the need for urgent attention focused on the them highly vulnerable. They Brazilian north eastern tigrinas, which are virtually unknown with have great difficulty recovering respect to most aspects of their biology,” said Dr Eduardo Eizirik from population declines.” from the Pontifical Catholic University, who led the study.

In response, Andrew Wilson The two tigrina species, the researchers suggest, are suited from the Ministry of Forests, Lands to different habitats, with the north eastern cats living in dry shrub lands and forests, while the southern cats and Natural Resource Operations live in wetter Atlantic forests. said: “All evidence, including an expanding distribution, a large portion of older males in the harvest, the numerous DNA-based mark recapture estimates, and feedback by people who spend a great deal of time in grizzly bear habitat, suggest that across most of the province, robust populations remain.” www.raincoast.org

© ALAMY, TONY SUTTON, SHUTTERSTOCK, PROJECT WILD CATS OF BRAZIL, Z JACK TSENG

bad management in British Colombia A GRIZZLY OUTLOOK Isthreatening the future of its bears?

WILDWORLD NEWS DRC

ON THE BRINK

UNITED KINGDOM

Okapi declared endangered for the first time

POXRESISTANCE

New hope in the recovery of red squirrel populations

D

eclining numbers have made the Democratic Republic of Congo’s okapi, also known as the forest giraffe, vulnerable and on the verge of extinction, the IUCN has confirmed in its latest update to its Red List.

The okapi (Okapia johnstoni) is a close relative of the giraffe and unique to the rainforests of the Congo. It has been listed by the IUCN as Endangered, only one step

away from the highest risk of extinction, with numbers dwindling across its range.

Poaching and habitat loss, as well as the presence of rebels, elephant poachers and illegal miners, are the principal threats to its survival.

“The okapi is revered in Congo as a national symbol – it even features on the Congolese franc banknotes,” said Dr Noëlle Kümpel, manager of the Zoological Society of London’s range-

wide okapi conservation project. “Sadly, they have been caught up in civil conflict and ravaged by poverty for nearly two decades, leading to widespread degradation of okapi habitat and hunting for its meat and skin. Supporting government efforts to tackle the civil conflict and extreme poverty in the region are critical to securing its survival.” www.iucn.org

Red squirrels could be capable of building up a resistance to squirrel pox, a deadly disease that is thought to be a significant factor in the decline of UK red squirrel populations.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that red squirrels at the Seaforth Coastal reserve in Merseyside seem to be recovering from a serious outbreak that began in 2008 and saw their numbers drop by 85 per cent.

Dr Julian Chantrey, from the Institute of Integrative Biology, said: “So far, our findings indicate that they are recovering from the disease.

There are even indications that a few of the surviving squirrels have antibodies to the virus, which would suggest that they have recovered from infection in the past.”

Squirrel pox is a potentially fatal disease which causes scabby lesions on the squirrel’s body, including the eyes, ears, fore and hind paws, and suppresses the immune system.

TIBET

TOP CAT

The discovery of a pantherine fossil in the Tibetan Himalayas, dating from the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene period, has helped to confirm the ancient origin of pantherine felids, or ‘big cats’. This find predates fossils of the previously oldest known felid, which was found in Africa. Protein and DNA sequencing had pointed to Asia as the cats’ region of origin, but this could not be reconciled with the paradox of the African find, until now.

Pantherine felids include the

Himalayan discovery predates African records world’s largest living cats. They are also the earliest diverging living cat lineage, making them important for understanding the evolution of all subsequent felid groups.

Scientific analysis indicates that the new cat is closely related to the snow leopard. It also provides robust support for the Asian origin of pantherines. Time-wise, the indication is that the divergence of the pantherine lineage happened seven million years earlier than previously estimated.

WILD TRAVEL 9

WILDWORLD NEWS UNITED KINGDOM

AFRICA

Spotter’s guide to

WINTER STRANDLINE

Winter storms wash up all sorts of weird and wonderful marine life, says Kate Wilson of the Marine Conservation Society (www.mcsuk.org).

She reveals six of the most interesting to look out for over the season

SAHARA DESERTED Wildlife vanishing from world’s largest tropical desert

HORNWRACK FLUSTRA FOLIACEA It may like dried seaweed, but hornwrack is actually a colony of hundreds of tiny animals called Bryozoans, or ‘moss animals’. If you look closely, you’ll see growth marks a little like tree rings on it, as it only grows for part of the year. It is often found washed up on the beach, but you are most likely to find it after storms.

Rarity rating:

MERMAID’S PURSE SCYLIORHINS CANICULA These are the egg cases of small sharks, skates and rays such as the lesser spotted dogfish, a small shark that lives in shallow waters around the UK. The egg cases remain on the seabed or attached to seaweed for several months while the embryo develops. Once emptied, the egg cases are often washed ashore.

Rarity rating:

COMMON WHELK EGG CASES BUCCINUM UNDATUM These strange puffy balls are white egg cases that are laid on the seabed by the common whelk.

They are found on all British coasts, but are particularly common along northern shorelines. Fresh egg cases are a bright white, but they fade to grey with age. They used to be employed by sailors as wash balls!

Rarity rating:

The Sahara desert has suffered a catastrophic collapse of its wildlife populations due to over-hunting and a chronic lack of care for the delicate ecosystem. So says a recent study, calling for more conservation and scientific support. Species traditionally found in the region, including the Bubal hartebeest, scimitar horned oryx and African lion, have vanished, while the dama gazelle, addax and Saharan cheetah have disappeared from up to 99 per cent of their ranges.

“The Sahara serves as an example of a wider historical neglect of deserts,” said Sarah Durant of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London, which led 28 scientific organisations in the study.

On the positive side, Niger has just established 97,000 square kilometres of nature reserve in the Sahara, and it’s hoped the government of Chad will support the reintroduction of the scimitar horned oryx to its Ouadi Rime-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve.

CONSERVATION

© PAUL NAYLOR, TIM FANSHAWE, RYAN TOWNLEY, SALLY SHARROD, SAHARA CONSERVATION FUND/JOHN NEWBY, SHUTTERSTOCK

ACID ATTACK

CUTTLEFISH BONE SEPIA OFFICINALIS This chalky white ‘bone’ comes from a cuttlefish, an amazing squid-like mollusc, which has large eyes, eight arms (plus two feeding tentacles) and a body that can change in colour and texture.

Surprisingly lightweight and easily snapped between your fingers, the bones can nevertheless last well over a year in among the crashing waves.

Rarity rating:

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

PINK SEAFAN EUNICELLA VERRUCOSA These are formed from a colony of tiny anemone-like polyps and can vary from a deep pink to white in colour. They live on the seabed, but dead specimens can be washed up on beaches after a storm, particularly in the south and west of Britain. Taking decades to grow, the delicate seafans can be easily destroyed by heavy fishing gear.

Rarity rating:

SEA POTATO ECHINOCARDIUM CORDATUM Sea potatoes, also known as heart urchins, are a type of sea urchin that normally lives buried beneath the sandy or muddy seabed.

However, they are occasionally encountered as a wave-washed specimen on the beach. Mass strandings of sea potatoes sometimes occur on local beaches, for reasons which remain unknown.

Rarity rating:

The effects of fossil fuel emissions on our oceans will be felt for centuries and levels of acidification may increase by up to 170 per cent by 2100, warns a new report by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. As a result, marine ecosystems and biodiversity are likely to change irreversibly. However, significant emissions reductions could ensure that half of surface waters presently occupied by tropical coral reefs remain favourable for their growth.

“Globally we have to be prepared for significant economic and ecosystem service losses,” says report lead author Ulf Riebesell. “But we also know that reducing the rate of emissions will slow acidification.”

WILD TRAVEL 11

NEWS IN BRIEF

PET TRADE The keeping of exotic animals as pets needs to be restricted, says the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE). Calling upon European governments to take action, FVE President, Christophe Buhot, said: “People are buying these animals, often without a thought given to their biology, behaviour or living requirements and, unsurprisingly, some of these animals soon become ill, or even die.” www.bornfree.org.uk WOMEN RANGERS In a landmark event for Afghanistan, four women have been hired as park rangers in the country’s Band-e-Amir National Park.

“Our new park rangers represent the growing employment opportunities for all Afghanistan’s citizens, as well as the preservation of the country’s natural heritage,” said Dr Habiba Sarabi, Governor of Bamyan Province and Afghanistan’s first female governor.

BULGARIA

Black listed Bulgaria brought to account over protection failure The Bulgarian government is being taken to the European Court of Justice because it has not fulfilled its duties under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. These directives are the main pieces of EU nature legislation, which ensure the conservation of important nature areas in Europe.

In particular, Bulgaria has failed in the implementation of the Birds Directive by not protecting the Kaliakra

peninsula on the Black Coast.

This area is part of the wintering grounds of the red-breasted goose, a globally threatened species, and it is on Via Pontica migratory route, the second biggest migration corridor in Europe. The route is plied by hundreds of thousands of birds every spring and autumn, including rare and threatened species such as white storks and rare raptors.

The Bulgarian Society for

DRC

HOME SECURITY

EUROPEAN COVER The EU is to support a new programme to improve the protection of endangered wildlife. Called ‘Minimising the Illegal Killing of Elephants and other Endangered Species’ (MIKES), it pledges to strengthen animal monitoring, improve law enforcement and establish an emergency response system for sudden increases in illegal killing and trade.

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the Protection of Birds (BSPB – BirdLife in Bulgaria) has been fighting for more than eight years to stop the degredation of these wildlife sites, and the development of damaging wind farms.

BirdLife Europe and BSPB hope that the attention from the European court will be a wake-up call for the Bulgarian government to ensure these precious wildlife sites get the protection they deserve. www.birdlife.org

Poaching, forest fragmentation and a growing human population are all taking their toll on the endangered bonobo ape, which is smaller in size and more slender in build than the common chimpanzee. Just 28 per cent of its range within the lowland forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo remains suitable, say scientists from the Universities of Georgia and Maryland, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“The results of the study demonstrate that human activities have reduced the amount of effective bonobo habitat,” said lead author of

Human activity and forest loss threatens endangered ape

the study, Dr Jena R Hickey. “And it will help us identify where to propose future protected areas for this great ape.” Worryingly, though, the researchers found that only a quarter of suitable bonobo habitat is located in existing protected areas. “The fact that only a quarter of the range that is currently suitable for bonobos is located within protected areas is a finding that decision-makers can use to improve management of existing protected areas, and expand the country’s parks and reserves in order to save vital habitat for this great ape,” said Innocent Liengola, WCS’s Project Director for the Bonobo Conservation Project.

© SHUTTERSTOCK, NASEEM SULTANI/WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY, STEPHEN SHERIDAN, FLPA, RONALD DIGBY

TIGER GRANT The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation has awarded $3 million to WWF to help Nepal double its wild tiger numbers by 2022. The money will be used to bolster WWF’s work to strengthen anti-poaching patrols, protect core areas for tiger breeding and monitor populations. www.wwf.org.uk

WILDWORLD NEWS

MANATEES

VS

MANATEE WEST INDIAN northeast utheast US to So : on ti Distribu a s South Americ d invertebrate , mangrove an Diet: Seagrass 6m Length: 3.7-4.

1,600kg to up t: gh Wei um 20mph im Speed: max years Lifespan: 60 le ab er ln Vu : sk Ri

DUGONGS T

HABITAT If you can’t tell these blimp-like creatures apart by looking at them, take note of their location as their distributions never overlap.

Manatees range from Florida and the Caribbean to northeast South America, while dugongs can be found floating around from east Africa to as far afield as Australasia, spanning 48 countries and 140,000km of coastline. Both prefer warm, coastal waters and inland waterways, but dugongs are strictly saltwater only.

DIET Both must eat a quarter of their bodyweight each day, and their diet consists mainly of seagrass and some invertebrates. Manatees

h y e y a m these are two very distinct marine mammals

also eat mangrove and fish and will forage at depths of up to four metres for up to 20 minutes at a time, whereas dugongs nuzzle into sediment up to 33 metres and can spend only around six minutes submerged before needing to surface for air.

ADAPTATIONS Both manatees and dugongs have small eyes and ears, but their smelling and tactile senses makes up for these shortcomings. Their lips are covered in bristles that help them to find plants to eat.

MORPHOLOGY

RISK

The West Indian manatee is the largest of all three manatee species and, by default, is larger than the dugong. Weighing in at almost twice the dugong’s maximum weight, the manatee is longer and slightly faster to boot.

The dugong has a crescent-shaped tail, like a dolphin’s, whereas the manatee’s is shaped like a paddle. Dugongs have short tusks, while manatees lack incisors altogether.

The IUCN lists both species as vulnerable.

Their tendency to reside in shallow waters puts both at risk from human exploitation.

Hazards include boat propellers, drowning in fishing nets, or having their waters polluted.

Manatees have no natural predators, but sharks share the dugongs’ home waters.

Dugongs have also been hunted by man to the point of extinction in the Mediterranean.

THAILAND

FLIGHT FANTASTIC A rare hand-reared spoon-billed sandpiper has been spotted for the first time in its wintering territory in Thailand, more than 8,000km from where it was released in Russia.

Twenty-five of the critically endangered birds were raised by an Anglo-Russia conservation team on the Russian tundra, before being released to join their wild-born counterparts in their migration to South-East Asia.

WWT Head of Species Conservation, Baz Hughes, said: “This is really exciting news. We now know that spoon-billed sandpipers raised by our avicultural staff can migrate with their wild counterparts to wintering areas a quarter of the way around the globe.”

Conservationists take eggs to raise from wild spoon-billed sandpiper nests, which prompts the parent birds to lay a further clutch. Adding the hand-reared

DUGONG Distribution: East Africa to Australasia Diet: Seagrass and Length: 2.5-4m invertebrates Weight: 250900kg Speed: maxim um 14mph Lifespan: 70 yeo lars Risk: Vulnerab k le

chicks to the wild-raised chicks from the second clutch, has increased the fledging of these little birds by up to 10 times. The hand-reared birds are all marked with small white plastic leg flags, allowing them to be identified later and help reveal information about their movements. www.saving-spoon-billedsandpiper.com

RUSSIA

Feline protection Russia to safeguard Amur tiger and leopard Conservation of the Amur tiger (otherwise known as Siberian) and leopard (also known as Far Eastern) has taken a step forward in Russia after President Vladimir Putin signed a list of preservation instructions proposed by WWF Russia and other NGOs. In particular, the Russian government is to work with the authorities of the Primorye and Khabarovsk territories to develop an action plan for recording the number of tigers and leopards, and to look into the creation of protected state nature reserves and national parks in these regions.

“The List of Orders is pretty long; putting them into practice will make substantial progress in tiger and leopard conservation,” said Sergey Aramilev at the Russia Amur branch of WWF. “We hope that thanks to the List, many of the proposals of our experts will be successfully carried out.” www.wwf.ru/eng

WILD TRAVEL 13

WILDWORLD NEWS REVIEW

COAL COMFORT “M

y country is being tested

by Typhoon Haiyan… I speak for my delegation… and for the countless people who can no longer speak for themselves…”

This was said by Yeb Sano, the Filipino government representative at the United Nations talks on climate change in Warsaw, Poland, in November.

He was in tears as he called for the world to wake up and make a real plan to counter the effects of climate change, a contributory factor to the ferocity of the super-typhoon that hit the Philippines so devastatingly earlier that month. He pledged to go on hunger strike until the government representatives around the table actually started to do what they had been paid to do: come to a consensus about moving towards more renewable energy and starting to control emissions of carbon dioxide.

The simple logic of his words met with a standing ovation.

Many attendees at the talks were disappointed and frustrated after years of inaction on climate change. A number of NGO delegates actually walked out of the meeting on 22 November out of sheer frustration.

Yeb Sano’s words expressed well what so many people around the world want: our governments to start acting responsibly. Unfortunately, no government has proved to be the ‘good guy’ when it comes to putting in true and effective measures to counter climate change. Indeed, the Filipino government itself is not significantly better at addressing climate change than any other country, although no one can fail

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Campaigners prevented the construction of a coal power plant in the town of Narra, where endangered Philippines cockatoos feed

What a sad prospect for the wildlife that lives on Palawan, one of the most biologically diverse places in the world to sympathise with the hardship that the Filipino people affected by the typhoon are now suffering.

Away from the brunt of the disaster, a coal power plant company in the Philippines, DMCI Power Corporation, for example, has recently proposed a construction in the municipality of Aborlan on the island of Palawan. Palawan is the main island of an archipelago that bears the same name. It is in the west of the Philippines, with part of its coast being in the South China Sea. Coal development on Palawan has the support of the local council, despite opposition from its residents.

Although the island was fortunate not to have suffered seriously in the typhoon, the building of the coal plant could well mean that it will lose its reputation for conservation and

sustainable development, and also its UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve status. It is perhaps ironic that this accolade comes from the UN, considering the shambles at the climate talks.

Conservation NGOs working in the Philippines are worried about what the pollution from the plant will do to this island. It is relatively undeveloped and home to a variety of wildlife such as the wonderful Palawan stink badgers (a relative of the skunk), endangered Philippine cockatoos, porcupines, pangolins and bearded pigs that live in the fabulous jungles and mountains.

Cockatoo campaigners helped to stop the construction of the coal plant in the town of Narra, which is in the part of the island where the cockatoos feed, only to see its location moved to Aborlan.

Environmentalists from

organisations such as the WWF complain that there was never any proper consultation conducted among the public or scientists, and they worry that pollution will threaten biodiversity on the island, harm a fish sanctuary and damage mangroves where locals live.

What a sad prospect for the wildlife that lives on Palawan, which is one of the most biologically diverse places in the world! Nowhere else can you see animals such as that species of stink badger, Palawan bear cats and Palawan porcupines.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Yeb Sano’s speech at the recent climate talks - that so convincingly urged people around the world to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels - also made an impact on the common sense of fossil fuel companies and local governments in his own country, especially Palawan?

The challenge for people from developed nations is not only to help our own governments see sense, but also help those in the developing world and in middle-income countries to stop talking about emissions’ targets and instead support renewable energy firms through our own investments and use.

A proposed hydropower project on Palawan island is expected to generate as many as three times the number of jobs as the coal project. Let’s help the locals get the support they need to push for the right solution, boost their jobs and protect their island. The effects of a typhoon of the strength of Typhoon Haiyan should have woken us all up to acting responsibly and pulling together to solve this problem facing our planet. WT

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

© ALAMY

After the Philippines government called on the world to address global warming following Typhoon Haiyan, it needs to lead by example and rethink its own plans for a coal power station on Palawan, writes Georgina Kenyon

COLUMN

Call of nature You can appreciate wildlife and the need to ensure its welfare, but it seems to really care about an animal comes when you’ve had a close encounter with it, writes Mark Avery

© CARYN BECKER/ ALAMY

D

o you have a bucket list? A list of things you want to do or see before you kick the bucket? Perhaps needless to say, many of mine would be wildlife-related.

I’ve never actually sat down and made my list, but if I had, I could have crossed off one of the very top ones last year. I’d long wanted to see blue whales, and finally I saw them in Monterey Bay off southern California.

And they were great! Really great!

I’ve known many facts about blue whales for ages – about how they are the largest animals to have lived on earth, how they were brought to the brink of extinction by whaling and how they are now making a slow but steady recovery. I’ve known all that in my head, but it wasn’t until I saw that long, shallow, blue-grey back moving through the water, the tiny dorsal fin and then a glimpse of giant tail flukes as the leviathan dived deep beneath the waves, that I felt I had blue whales in my heart as well as in my head.

It made me realise that we care most about what we know, and what we have experienced ourselves. Just as it’s difficult for us to care deeply about people we haven’t met, it’s difficult for us to feel deeply about wildlife we haven’t seen. Now I have actually seen a blue whale I feel deeply about it at an emotional level rather than just an intellectual one. There is nothing about the status of the blue whale that has changed because I have seen one, but something has changed in me. I am now even more committed to the future of the species than I was before – all because of those few minutes that I spent whale-watching off the California coast.

In fact, I was in the US not to look for blue whales but to look for passenger pigeons. Of course I didn’t see a single one because they have been extinct for nearly 100 years – 1 September 2014 will mark the centenary of the death of the last passenger pigeon, named Martha, in Cincinnati Zoo. I visited places that were important in the passenger pigeon story and I visited remnants of old

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The huge tail fluke of the blue whale flips into the air as the animal dives

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WHEN THE LEVIATHAN DIVED I FELT I HAD BLUE WHALES IN MY HEART AS WELL AS IN MY HEAD growth forest in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, but the passenger pigeons which once darkened the skies in huge numbers were notably absent.

It’s a sad story but it’s difficult to miss them deeply because there is no soul alive on the planet who can now tell us what it was like to see millions of these birds flooding the skies of eastern America a couple of centuries ago.

The impact on me of the blue whale and my difficulty in relating completely to a long extinct bird persuade me that it’s important for us all to get out and experience nature personally – and to make sure that children get those rich experiences of wildlife, too.

We will, of course, protect animals we haven’t experienced personally, but it will inevitably be with less passion than with those we have experienced. Maybe everyone,

including politicians, should be given the chance to travel to broaden the mind – and to deepen their experience of wildlife while they do.

It’s easy to be impressed by a blue whale, but not many of us get that chance. Most school children can’t be shown a blue whale in their playground, and where I live in landlocked Northamptonshire there is no chance of seeing any marine life. But we get by with the wildlife we’ve got because everywhere there is beauty and wonder in the natural world.

Children in my local community can look up to the skies above their school and regularly see red kites – elegant birds of prey with long, forked (and, yes, red) tails circling above them.

This sight would have been impossible 30 years ago because red kites had been persecuted to extinction in this area during the 19th century. It’s thanks to reintroduction projects that they are back and, now they are, people love them! It’s a bit like the blue whale and the passenger pigeon: wildlife we experience, we love. WT

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A YEAR TO REMEMBER 18 WILD TRAVEL

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f you thought spending time working with endangered wild animals and getting to know their intimate secrets was only the preserve of professionals or gap year students, think again.

All over the world wildlife organisations rely on help from ordinary people using their holidays to help with conservation work. You can be occupied in the scientific survey of behaviour and population numbers, monitoring health and welfare, or animal husbandry. The common factor to all volunteering holidays is that you do not need any prior experience or specialist skills to take part. Necessary training is given and most activities also offer the opportunity to see more of the other wildlife, as well as meet the people, of the country in which they are based.

All that most wildlife sanctuaries and organisations ask is that volunteers be willing to tackle anything, and they’re reasonably fit for those jobs that are a little more active and strenuous. Background and age are immaterial for the most part, as is the time you commit – from two weeks to three months. You shouldn’t expect top luxury, though. The fees you pay are mostly spent for the benefit of the wildlife you are helping to support.

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© CHUA WEE BOO, SUPERSTOCK

How do you fancy spending your annual leave protecting the world’s endangered wildlife? Here are 10 lifechanging wildlife volunteer projects you could consider joining in 2014

WILDLIFE VOLUNTEERING PROJECTS

1 WHAT: LIONS AND THEIR PREY WHERE: Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya WHEN: 14 June-19 September (two week placements) WHO: Earthwatch COST: $3,775 (£2,307) per person How do you fancy taking part in a project looking at how to influence what lions eat for their lunch? OK, so it’s a little bit more complicated than that, but this is essentially the thinking behind this new volunteer project designed to determine how to protect rare large herbivore species, including many iconic antelopes, as lions begin once again to return to the Kenyan savannah following decades of human persecution.

One solution could be managing the relationship between lions and zebras, which have a robust population in the region and seem to prefer areas where cattle have grazed.

Joining lead scientist Jacob Goheen at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, home to no fewer than six prides of lions, you will contribute to his research in establishing how cattle ranching might be used to transform the African landscape and manipulate where the lions seek their next meal.

Using the radio collars on some of the lions, you’ll track their movements. You’ll also check camera trap images for spotted hyenas, leopards, and other predators. And you’ll survey zebras and other herbivores like hartebeest and eland to learn how their populations shift with cattle ranching. www.earthwatch.org

WHAT: SHARK CONSERVATION WHERE: Viti Levu, Fiji WHEN: From January (two to 12 weeks) WHO: Projects Abroad HOW MUCH? Per person: £1,995 for two weeks; £4,495 for 12 weeks; plus flights

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Thanks to the Hollywood treatment, all sharks have been given the reputation of being maneaters. In fact, these magnificent creatures are some of the most misunderstood animals in the world. Working with the pioneering Fiji Shark Conservation and Awareness Project will give an up-close experience you’ll never forget with eight species of shark, as well as the chance to contribute to the research of renowned scientists and marine biologists.

Launched this year, the project is based in beautiful Pacific Harbour, on the south coast of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu. Volunteers don’t need any shark research or diving experience – there’s the opportunity to take a PADI Open Water dive certificate – you just need to be medically fit to scuba dive. If you are already PADI-qualified you’ll be able to upgrade your skills. The work involves tagging baby sharks, shark identification, setting underwater cameras and retrieving data. This information will be used to set strategies for successful shark conservation. www.projects-abroad.co.uk

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WHAT: PROTECTING SNOW LEOPARDS WHERE: Tien Shan mountains, Kyrgyzstan WHEN: 9 June – 23 August (two week slots) WHO: Biosphere Expeditions HOW MUCH? £1,780 plus flights per-person © J &AMP/C SOHNS, PHOTOSHOT HOLDINGS LTD/ALAMY, JUNIORS BILDARCHIV GmbH

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Rare, beautiful, and bloody difficult to find are just a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe the elusive snow leopard. And yet, ironically, it is the scarcity of these endangered big cats that makes the possibility of catching a glimpse of one so seductive. Add to this the opportunity to make a genuine difference to the efforts to protect them in some of the world’s most uncharted mountain ranges and you have the recipe for an unforgettable working holiday.

‘Mountain Ghosts’ is the latest addition to Biosphere Expeditions’ 2014 programme of conservation working holidays. Volunteers venture to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan to survey snow leopards and their prey – predominantly mountain sheep and the Central Asian ibex – along with other animals, including marmots and birds. Once there, you will be working for two weeks as part of a small international team, comprised of up to 12 volunteers, a scientist and an expedition leader, from a mobile tented base camp at altitudes of around 2,000m. Working in open steppe and high mountain country, you will spend your days looking for tracks, kills, scats and the animals themselves, as well as setting camera traps. Offering true expedition-style base camp conditions, testing but satisfying mountain surveying, off road driving, and variable mountain weather, this is a particularly challenging expedition, but one on which the potential rewards more than justify the hardships. www.biosphere-expeditions.org

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✓ Leopard and lion conservation safaris

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✓ Elephant-back, camel-back and horseback safaris

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WILDLIFE VOLUNTEERING PROJECTS

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© MARCO SIMONI

WHAT: BREEDING MACAWS WHERE: Alajuela, Costa Rica WHEN: January to May (two to eight week slots) WHO: Working Abroad HOW MUCH? Per person: £390 for two weeks, up to £1030 for eight weeks; plus flights It doesn’t take much to keep a macaw happy and healthy and they’ll reward you with some ear-piercing thanks. The breeding project at Alajuela, not far from the Costa Rican capital of San Jose aims to release contented scarlet macaws into the wild to repopulate areas cleared by poachers. These colourful birds were once threatened with extinction but thanks to this programme they have been pulled back from the brink. So the chicks you help rear will be the parents of many future generations in the wild.

There are daily tasks with the birds, feeding, observing behaviour and helping in the aviary maintenance. If you can speak Spanish there’s also work to be done in the local communities, with schools and churches to educate in the importance of the macaws, stop the trade in birds for pets, and promote the preservation of the trees they need for food and nesting. www.workingabroad.com

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WILD TRAVEL 25

Here: a bull elephant in musth can have testosterone levels 60 times higher than normal. Below right: beating a hasty retreat

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TRIP REPORT KWANDWE GAME RESERVE

AHEAD OF THE

Located in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, Kwandwe Private Game Reserve offers an exhilarating blend of pristine wilderness, luxurious accommodation and serious conservation work, to which guests can contribute, writes Kate Riordan

© VICTORIA JOY

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e was getting closer, the heavy schoosh, schoosh of his feet louder each time it reverberated out into the dark South African night.

We waited dry-mouthed in the open jeep, huddling under blankets, fingers fumbling to turn off cameras and phones that might give us away to the bad-tempered bull elephant we’d just almost collided with.

“Keep totally quiet, guys,” whispered Ryan, our guide. “Don’t worry; he’ll go the other way.” We’d only met Ryan a couple of hours earlier but now our lives seemed to be in his hands. Nonchalant and strapping though he was, I still wasn’t convinced he or our gentle ranger Andy would be much of a match for the bull, who had just forced us to reverse at speed back up the road, headlights off, in a scene uncomfortably reminiscent of the T-Rex chase in Jurassic Park. We weren’t guys, either; we were five small women who’d just got off a long flight and drunk a few glasses of wine before our night game drive – and this behemoth was in serious musth, testosterone literally running off him. I wondered dimly if it had been a slow night for him in the bush and if, in the absence of any lady elephants, he might find himself drawn to female humans. Scared female humans.

OSTRICHES TO ELEPHANTS After what felt like days his shadowy bulk heaved into view. He looked about the size of an English terraced house but with flapping ears. Finally reaching the crossroads we’d sped back to, where Ryan had opted to reverse up the most overgrown and well-hidden path, the bull paused. We collectively held our breath. Then, somehow inevitably, he started towards us, picking up speed as he went. One of our party, a victim of a nasty run-in with an elephant in the past, put her head in her hands. Pointlessly, I put the blanket over my head.

Fortunately Ryan had more presence of mind. The instant the bull was distracted by a low branch, he gunned the engine and we sped by, back towards the comforting lights of our lodge. It’s certainly one way to sober up.

Kwandwe Private Game Reserve is a short flight and 160km north of Port Elizabeth. Extending over 22,000 hectares (54,000 acres), what is now Kwandwe was once one of South Africa’s earliest ostrich farms.

Heatherton Towers – built in the 1830s and now the guest reception house – once hosted mining magnate and politician Cecil Rhodes.

By 2001, when two American entrepreneurs joined forces with South African naturalist-guide Angus Sholto-Douglas and his wife Tracy to buy the land – along with surrounding farmland – it was neglected.

They set to work, removing more than 2,000 kilometres of internal fencing and other farming detritus before beginning the exciting task of reintroducing wildlife into the new reserve. Thousands of animals now roam the rejuvenated thicket,

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Kwandwe’s game-rich landscape with its silver ribbon of river, clear air and skies of crystalline blue

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I don’t know how long we stayed there but by the time we got back to the jeep the sun was sinking into the horizon like a dropped stone. In the deepening dusk we had sundowners and sausage rolls while Andy and Ryan told us about the time they bumped into Kwandwe’s most unpredictable lion during a walk like ours. There had been a lot of roaring and even a bit of charging but they stood their ground – mainly, they said, because the roaring was so loud it had caused temporary paralysis.

We laughed, got back in the jeep and then the radio crackled into life. The very same male and a lioness had been seen precisely where we had been strolling 15 minutes earlier. Apparently unfazed by the experience he’d just recounted, Ryan whooped and off we went to find them.

It didn’t take long – the female sashaying into view first; the now infamous male loping past half a minute later. It was black as pitch by this time, the only light sources an infra-red torch and half a dozen recording smart phones making full use of their steady-cam function. As the male passed right by the open side of the jeep closest to me, his eyes caught the light and flashed amber. Had I lost my mind I could have reached out and ruffled his huge mane. After looping round and repeating this awesome experience a few times, Ryan turned round to us, nothing but a triumphant Cheshire cat grin in the gloom.

As if we hadn’t already had enough excitement, the next morning promised the big rhino darting and microchipping experience: an incredible optional extra offered at Kwandwe. It isn’t cheap at around £1,400 per group (of up to eight) but not only are you

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Lions thrive in the rejuvenated thickets of what was once one of South Africa’s earliest ostrich farms

TRIP REPORT KWANDWE GAME RESERVE

© KWANDWE PRESS; KATE RIORDAN

Clockwise from bottom left: zebra take an evening drink at the waterhole; a lion cub is free to grow up naturally in the reserve; an aardvark scratches in the dust of a park trail; modern tracking devices help in conserving Kwandwe’s wildlife

contributing to the fight against poaching (no profit is made by the reserve), you also get to touch a rhino.

This might sound trite if you’ve never done it but it’s a humbling experience: the proverbial tough hide surprisingly warm and vulnerable to the touch. This is not done for entertainment, either; it’s part of a carefully managed effort to track the reserve’s healthy rhino population – and its horn, should any of the animals be killed.

The procedure was orchestrated by renowned vet Dr William Fowlds, who – in dramatic but necessary style – was to dart the selected male rhino from his helicopter. The rest of the team, including us, would back him up from the ground. Although the procedure was for the species’ protection, it was hard to watch the shiny yellow helicopter chase a wild animal down so effortlessly.

We’d been warned that as the anaesthetic told hold the rhino would start goose-stepping but I’d underestimated how peculiar and pathetic it would look – the formidable 1,000kg-plus male stamping and listing and then finally collapsing.

From that moment, every second counted: it’s dangerous to keep a rhino under for too long. We drove hell for leather towards the huge, felled body and leapt out. In a minute or so, he had his jaw tied shut, his eyes covered and a tiny amount of horn was being extracted with a drill to make room in the nuchrial hump for the microchip. “Even that tiny piece is worth money,” one of the team remarked as I studied the warm sliver of horn in the palm of my hand. The team also notched the rhino’s ear for future

Conservation credentials There is a great deal more to Kwandwe Private Game Reserve than luxurious lodges and fauna-heavy game drives. Along with the eco-friendly principles the reserve is founded on – quite literally in the case of the 520,000 tonnes of carbon stored in its sub-tropical thicket – there is also much emphasis placed on conservation and community.

As well as transforming thousands of hectares of farmland into pristine conservation land, the owners of Kwandwe established the non-profit Angus Gillis Foundation in 2002 to build relations with local communities – both within the boundaries of the reserve and bordering it.

Recognising the lack of development opportunities for

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local people, Kwandwe and the foundation now employ more than 200 of them. They work in many roles, from the anti-poaching team to those looking after the children who attend the reserve’s school – also built by the foundation.

It’s not just for people, though, as the foundation’s own literature says: “The founders strongly believe that the viability of protected conservation areas in South Africa is dependent on the successful stimulation and support of self-sustaining alternative rural livelihoods for the communities living within or bordering conservation areas.”

Alongside the foundation’s work are more specialist wildlife conservation projects, of which the regular rhino darting

More than a luxury destination, Kwandwe’s charitable foundation funds local initiatives

procedure is just one example.

Another of the reserve’s goals was to enable cheetahs to return to the Great Fish River Valley, which they have – for the first time since 1888.

In fact, SholtoDouglas and his team have introduced some 7,000 wild animals to Kwandwe over the years.

These include elephants, black and white rhinos, hippos, lions, leopards and hyenas.

Other unusual reintroductions include a number of small feline species that were previously

absent from, or very rarely seen in the area: serval, African wildcats and small spotted cats. Other rarities here include the Knysna woodpecker, Cape grysbok, black wildebeest, crowned eagle and the black-footed cat.

There is a dedicated breeding refuge for the endangered blue crane.

There have been 11 postgraduate research studies at Kwandwe. Two recent projects are a leopard population census – along with a drive to relieve farmer/ leopard conflict – and a focus on the diet of the brown hyena to understand their biology and role in the reserve’s ecosystem.

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TRIP REPORT KWANDWE GAME RESERVE Here: having been microchipped, a tranquillised male rhino is helped upright ready to return to the wild. Below: the microchip is carefully inserted in a small hole drilled in the base of the rhino’s horn

identification and took DNA samples to add to a national database.

Kwandwe has escaped the poachers so far – SholtoDouglas literally touching wood as he confirmed this – but the possibility is never far from anyone’s mind.

“When I drive around and I see a rhino grazing by the side of the road part of me wants to stop and throw a stone at it so it runs off into the bush, out of sight,” he said.

Minutes later, the exercise was over and we were back in our vehicles, a high-octane conclusion to a packed few days. The rhino was already coming round and soon he was up, apparently none the worse for wear.

After a curious glance in our direction, he trotted back into the bush, unaware of the huge effort expended at Kwandwe to keep him safe. WT

TRIP ADVISER >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> COST RATING SAMPLE PACKAGE TOUR: African Pride offers a 4-night stay at Kwandwe from £2,136 per person on a sharing basis. This includes international flights and taxes from London Heathrow to Port Elizabeth, fully inclusive accommodation, road transfers and all scheduled safari activities. The not-for-profit Rhino Conservation Safari costs £1,415 for a group of up to 8 guests.

For bookings contact 01904 619428; www.african-pride.co.uk GETTING THERE: South African Airways offers return flights to Port Elizabeth from London Heathrow via Johannesburg from £866 including tax, surcharges and APD (0844 375 9680; www.flysaa.com).

From Port Elizabeth, road transfers with Ilios Travel (1 hour 45 minutes) cost RAND2,000 (£125) for two people.

Alternatively there are daily scheduled flights (45 minutes) to Kwandwe’s private bush airstrip costing RAND1,900 (£120) per person each way.

VISA REQUIREMENTS FROM THE UK: Visits to South Africa up to 90 days, UK citizens

do not require a visa. Make sure there are two blank pages left in your passport.

TIPS & WARNINGS: It’s chilly during dawn and night game drives so take plenty of breathable layers that you can strip off as the day warms up. Make sure hats have a chin strap to keep them on your head while driving along in open vehicles.

Some of the accommodation at Kwandwe (including Great Fish River Lodge) is unfenced. Heed advice and do not leave your lodge after dark without being escorted by one of the security team.

WHEN TO GO: Procedures only take place when required for the welfare of the rhino. The Rhino Conservation Safari cannot therefore be guaranteed to take place on any given day and it is important guests notify the lodge of their interest when booking to avoid disappointment.

It’s possible to dart rhinos all year round but May to September are preferable due to cooler temperatures. Procedures carried out in the warmer summer months take place in the cool of early morning or evening to prevent dehydration while under sedation. Minimum age is 16 years.

© KWANDWE PRESS

TOUR OPERATOR ■ KWANDWE PRIVATE GAME RESERVE, Tel: +27 (0)46 603 3400; www.kwandwe.com

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N S W U A R D O

© ALAMY

H C 36 WILD TRAVEL

TAKE ME THERE CORCOVADO NP, COSTA RICA

Costa Rica has more recorded species per square mile than any other country, and many of them are concentrated in Corcovado National Park. Could this be the most rewarding location for wildlife enthusiasts in the world, wonders Adrian Hepworth

Here: black howler monkeys doing what they do best: waking up the unwary tourist

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Close to the river’s mouth, as the tide rises, the sea floods the estuary, and with it swim bull sharks

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© ADRIAN HEPWORTH, SUPERSTOCK

A

thunderous howl reverberates through the dark rainforest as the sliver of yellow sky to the east gradually brightens. The call of the male howler monkey is followed by the first hammering of a woodpecker and a dawn chorus of a thousand cicadas. Vampire bats flutter back to their roost and a silky anteater curls into a ball as its night of foraging comes to an end.

Sunlight begins to illuminate the tops of the tallest trees as a pair of squawking macaws flap overhead and a herd of peccaries rise one by one to sniff the morning air. Pumas and ocelots tread silently in the gloom while hummingbirds zip off through the understory in search of energy-rich nectar. This new day in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica, will once again stir feelings of wonder, excitement and joy for those who are intrepid enough to venture in.

Costa Rica is just two-thirds the size of Scotland and covers 0.03 per cent of the Earth’s terrestrial surface, yet it is home to about 3 per cent of the world’s known animal

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MONKEYS: WHO’S WHO

The four species of monkey found in Corcovado each have their own distinct characteristics The WHITE-FACED CAPUCHIN appears to be the most intelligent of the four. It demonstrates this by its use of tools; it employs twigs for extracting insects from holes and throws sticks at predators such as large snakes. The capuchin is also the most aggressive species and will sometimes chase other monkey species from a tree and shake or throw small branches at humans on the ground. Stand clear! The home range of a white-faced capuchin troop is not extensive because its members eat both plants and small animals and so can find food easily. Despite the size of its range, the capuchin is a mobile animal.

Clockwise from here: the rarely seen jaguar, this one is a rescue animal in the National Park; a startled scarlet macaw takes to the air; the Corcovado shoreline

and plant species. It has a higher number of recorded species per square mile than any other country on the planet.

Corcovado National Park alone is home to more than 30 per cent of these, which makes it one of the most rewarding locations in the world for wildlife enthusiasts to visit. Some 375 species of bird, 124 species of mammal and 71 species of reptile inhabit the park’s 41,788 hectares of forests, waterways and unspoilt coastline. Sirena ranger station, in the very centre of the park, is the best of the best places to explore.

There are many miles of walking trails that traverse the rainforest in Corcovado but the wildlife is so prolific that just a leisurely stroll from one of the ranger stations will bring you face to face with exotic jungle fauna. In fact, you can often see just as much sitting down on a log and watching creatures appear from the undergrowth and walk, fly or hop past you. Columns of leaf-cutter ants scour the forest floor for suitable leaves and flowers that they cut into pieces with their powerful jaws and then take back to the

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nest. Their brightly coloured processions stretch for tens of metres along the ground and are a marvel to watch; crouch down to see how each ant carries a load that is larger than itself.

A travelling colony of army ants is equally impressive but should definitely be witnessed from further away. Note how they fan out into separate columns across the jungle floor, where they swarm upon every creature in their path; grasshoppers, spiders, scorpions, frogs and even snakes will appear from their hiding places in a desperate attempt to escape the horde. Mixed flocks of antbirds, tanagers and woodcreepers flitter through the undergrowth picking off these fleeing invertebrates.

The typically green and brown scenery of the understory vegetation in Corcovado is punctuated by some magnificently coloured animals. The blue morpho butterfly and the enormous, white and blue helicopter damselfly flutter through the humid air and iridescent hummingbirds dart from one flower to the next. On tree trunks and fallen vegetation,

The MANTLED HOWLER MONKEY is a complete contrast to the whitefaced capuchin. It is lethargic, passive and travels with its troop just a very short distance each day. This behaviour is a result of its low-energy diet of mainly leaves. Despite being one of the calmest animals in the forests of Costa Rica, the howler monkey is also the loudest.

Males of different troops call to each other to announce their presence and avoid surprise encounters. Their call is a deep roar that can carry for up to a mile through the trees and startle tourists who have not been warned to expect it!

The long limbs of the SPIDER MONKEY help to distinguish it from the other three species of monkey you’ll encounter. It uses these lengthy arms and legs to swing quickly and effortlessly between trees, and it also has a strong prehensile tail that can support its entire body weight. Have your camera ready for the moment you spot one hanging 30m above the ground from just its tail!

The smallest and least common monkey in Corcovado is the exceptionally cute SQUIRREL MONKEY. This orange-coloured primate jumps, climbs and dives through the vegetation in troops of 20 to 50 individuals as it forages for insects and fruit. It is far more active than the other three species of monkey and never actually seems to rest. This rapid movement of many individuals together can be distracting to predators such as hawks, eagles and cats when they are trying to single out a victim. As a result, the squirrel monkey enjoys safety in numbers.

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TAKE ME THERE CORCOVADO NP, COSTA RICA Far left: a northern tamandua, or collared anteater, scales a tree in search of termites; a black-throated trogon with a grub it has found to feed a fledgling

male anole lizards confront each other by bobbing their heads and extending a bright yellow dewlap from under their chin. Vibrantly plumed blue-crowned motmots and blackthroated trogons perch motionless in the shade waiting to ambush insects and lizards.

A number of bigger animals roam the forest floor. Large herds of white-lipped and collared peccaries forage through the leaf litter, though you are likely to smell their pungent odor long before you cross paths. The pheasant-like great curassow spends almost all of its life in the shadows of the rainforest floor. The eerie ‘boom’ call of the male will stop most people in

their tracks the first time they hear it. Its deep, guttural hum sounds more like the grunt of a jaguar than the call of a bird.

Wild cats are very rarely seen in Costa Rica though Corcovado is probably the best location in the country to find one. Puma and ocelot sightings are reported almost daily around the Sirena ranger station. These cats often use the walking trails, so if you keep a sharp eye out and walk quietly you may be the lucky one with a great story to tell at dinner!

More than 500 species of trees grow in Corcovado and many tower to more than 40m in height. The wildlife in the huge, diverse canopy that this creates is as prolific as that found on the forest floor. Monkeys are almost always encountered on a trek in Corcovado and are an absolute delight to watch as they run, swing and leap through the foliage with mindboggling ease. Collared anteaters travel up and down lianas and trunks in search of termite nests; listen for a scraping sound and falling debris as one pulls a nest apart with its strong, sharp claws.

Also keep your ears tuned in for the raucous cacophony of a laughing falcon drifting down from the treetops and the tapping of wood, which will lead your eye to the bright red plumage of a pale billed woodpecker. A careful

ACCOMMODATION AND ENTRY

© ADRIAN HEPWORTH, DANITA DELIMONT, NEIL McALLISTER/ALAMY

INSIDE THE PARK: SIRENA RANGER STATION A simple, rustic building that offers the best location for wildlife-watching on the peninsula. You wake up and go to sleep in the heart of the jungle and you are literally surrounded by animals.

Beds (without linen or pillows) are in simple rooms, and there’s a camping area, shared bathrooms and meals also available, but all must be booked and paid for 30 days in advance of your trip.

A bed and three meals cost £55 per day, which includes the park entrance fee.

Contact the parks service at pncorcovado@gmail.com or book via a local tour operator.

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NORTH OF THE PARK: DRAKE BAY This area was named after the Elizabethan navigator, Sir Francis Drake, who supposedly laid anchor here on a voyage in 1579.

The small, typically Costa Rican village has about a dozen hotels and lodges that range in price and quality from £30 to £250 per person per night.

The village is a good base from which to take a five-hour hiking tour to Corcovado National Park, via the northern entrance at San Pedrillo ranger station. Or it is the starting point for a 90-minute boat trip direct to Sirena ranger station in the middle of the park (see left).

EAST OF THE PARK: PUERTO JIMÉNEZ/ CABO MATAPALO Jiménez is the main town on the peninsula, with a good choice of hotels, restaurants and an airstrip for flights to Sirena and San José.

There’s a wide range of accommodation from £10 to £100 per person per night. At Cabo Matapalo there are eco-lodges in beautiful, natural surroundings for between £70 and £150 per person per night. Tour operators in Puerto Jiménez go to Corcovado every day by land, boat or air. It is a two-hour drive around the cape to Carate followed by a 40-minute walk to La Leona ranger station. A boat trip to Sirena takes 90 minutes, a plane 15.

WILD TRAVEL 41

Sadly, the precious natural resources of Corcovado National Park and the Osa Peninsula are threatened by hunting, deforestation and gold mining. The following organisations all play a vital role in combating these activities: The Corcovado Foundation (www.corcovadofoundation.org) was founded by a group of local, environmentally conscious hotel owners. It is now run by a large group of Costa Rican and foreign professionals who organise programmes of environmental education, sea turtle protection and support for the national parks service. Volunteers are sought for all three of these programmes in a number of locations around the Osa Peninsula.

Friends of the Osa (www.osaconservation.org) works to preserve the biodiversity in Corcovado National Park and on the rest of the Osa Peninsula. Its team consists of Costa Rican and international biologists, educators and conservationists who have funded a research centre for scientists, provide research grants for students and promote the purchase of land to expand a protected forested corridor.

The Osa Sea Turtle Conservation Project (www.osaseaturtles.org) has helped to protect turtles on the Osa Peninsula since 2005 by educating local people and visitors about their life cycle and the dangers they face from humans. Volunteers for this project walk the beach at night to record egg laying activities.

A Costa Rican organisation called ASVO (www.asvocr.org) has been running a conservation volunteer programme in Costa Rica since 1989. Every year it places 1800 local and foreign volunteers in national parks around the country including Corcovado and the area around.

The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org) funded its first international project in Costa Rica and it has now promoted conservation in the country for many years. It currently aides in the acquisition and protection of land to form a biological corridor that links Corcovado National Park with a neighbouring park and it also helps to pay the salaries of rangers who work in Corcovado.

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© ADRIAN HEPWORTH, JEFF ROTMAN/ALAMY

CONSERVATION PROJECTS

observer of the canopy may also witness a keel-billed toucan plucking at palm fruit, a three-toed sloth hanging immobile in the shadows or a black and white tiger rat snake gliding silently along a branch.

A network of rivers and streams meander through the forest of Corcovado National Park and these waterways and their banks are ideal spots to see some fascinating wildlife.

One of the principal waterways of the Osa Peninsula is the River Sirena, which flows into the ocean just a few minutes’ walk from the Sirena ranger station. Close to its mouth, as the tide rises, the sea floods dramatically into the estuary and with it swim bull sharks hunting for freshwater fish. From the south bank, watch the dorsal fins of these predators cutting through the water just metres away and scan the north bank for an American crocodile basking on the sand.

A few hundred yards south, the estuary of the River Claro is a wonderful place to settle down on a log and watch the comings and goings of tiger herons, kingfishers and birds of prey. This river and other estuaries around the Osa Peninsula are popular feeding grounds of the osprey, which is one of the larger and more common raptors found in Costa Rica. Gaze skyward for movement and you may witness one swooping down to snatch fish from the water with its huge talons.

The Baird’s tapir, Costa Rica’s largest land animal, is a frequent visitor to water. Several individuals live in the rainforest surrounding Sirena ranger station. They regularly cross the rivers and streams that traverse their home ranges and will often stop and immerse themselves to cool off. Heavy footsteps and the trampling of fallen leaves are the signs of an

TAKE ME THERE CORCOVADO NP, COSTA RICA

Q&A with local wildlife expert Mike Boston

Which are the best months to visit Corcovado and why?

The lush rainforest in Corcovado is most productive during the first months of the wet season (May to July) and the first months of the dry season (December to February). More food is available at these times and the wildlife is therefore more active. In contrast, March is very hot and dry and October extremely wet, which makes the animals less active – avoid these months!

How much wildlife could I hope to see during a day trip to Sirena?

On a single day we commonly see at least 150 different species of animal, from small invertebrates to large mammals. Corcovado is home to a density of wildlife unequalled by any other similar area of tropical rainforest on the planet. Many

animals on the IUCN’s ‘Endangered’ list are common in the park. For example, I regularly see Baird’s tapir around Sirena Biological Station, and I often have encounters with large herds of white-lipped peccaries. I see the Central America spider monkey every time I visit Corcovado along with the American crocodile and the scarlet macaw. Though not endangered, I have come upon seven pumas in Corcovado so far this year!

What is your favourite time when hiking in Corcovado?

It’s 4:30am when, give or take a few minutes, the bellicose roars of howler monkeys awaken the forests to the coming day, and then at 5:30am when the raucous calls of scarlet macaws celebrate the arrival of dawn.

How physically fit do I need to be to enjoy a park visit?

The beating heart of Corcovado is the area around Sirena ranger station. It is the ‘must-get-to’ destination for

any visitor as the wildlife there is at its most abundant.

To get there on foot you will have to be moderately fit.

From La Leona ranger station in the south, you hike for 16km along a scenic coastal trail to reach Sirena; and from Los Patos ranger station, in the east, the hike is 23km.

Both of these hikes will take most of a day, so set aside at least three days to explore Corcovado on foot. For those who are not up to long hikes and would like to visit Sirena, you can get there by boat or chartered flight and can then take just short walks around the station.

Clockwise from top left: Baird’s tapir trots across a rainforest stream; one of the park’s rescued jaguars; an American crocodile makes its way into the river to cool down; volunteers working on a sea turtle project

What has been your most memorable experience while leading a group?

To glimpse a jaguar is the ultimate prize of every eco-tourist to Costa Rica, and I number among those fortunate few who have seen one. Two, in fact! To be in such close proximity to a large cat in the forest, without the intervention of bars for protection, is a sobering experience.

Mike Boston founded Osa Aventure (www.osaaventura. com), providing wildlife tours around Corcovado Park and the Osa Peninsula

imminent encounter with one of these 200kg mammals. Tapirs have poor eye sight, so if you remain quiet it is easy to observe these magnificent animals bathing or feeding from just a few metres away.

During the dry season, from January to early April, the water level in many rainforest streams in Corcovado drops considerably and leaves a series of shallow, still pools separated by stretches of exposed streambed. Spend a little time studying these areas because spectacled caimans are common inhabitants of these pools; they typically lie motionless in the water and surprise fish or waterfowl with an explosive, lightning-fast lunge that leaves their prey little chance of escape.

The cooler hours of early morning and late afternoon are perfect times to head out into the open; a hike on the beach or a boat trip along the coast are great ways to see yet more spectacular wildlife. Corcovado National Park

WILD TRAVEL 43

TAKE ME THERE CORCOVADO NP, COSTA RICA

Clockwise from left: an aerial view of the lush Corcovado river valleys; a tiger rat snake is well camouflaged in the foliage of a tree; a morpho butterfly takes flight

TRIP ADVISER >>>>>>>>

protects the largest population of scarlet macaws in the country. They are commonly seen flying in their monogamous pairs or small flocks along the beach, where they feed in tropical almond trees. Their loud, screeching call can be heard from a distance and this will give you a little time to ready your camera before they fly overhead.

Mangrove black hawks perch in trees above the beach scanning the sand for crabs and small lizards, and on a hot day a Baird’s

44 WILD TRAVEL

tapir will sometimes stroll down to the surf to cool itself off.

From June to November every year, green and olive ridley turtles come ashore to lay eggs on the park’s beaches. A nesting female or emerging hatchlings can sometimes be seen at first light and Costa Rica’s largest cat species, the jaguar, unsurprisingly spends more time hunting on the beach at this time.

If you are visiting Corcovado by boat, dolphins and even whales may accompany you for part of your trip. Humpback whales migrate thousands of miles from feeding grounds in the Northern Pacific Ocean and the Southern Ocean to mate and raise their calves in the tropical waters close to the Osa Peninsula. Sightings are most common from January to February and July to August.

The yellow-bellied sea snake is another species to look out for in the water. This reptile lives exclusively in the ocean and has evolved a paddle-like tail to propel itself through the water. You might come across this snake on the beach, however, because despite this adaptation, they are poor swimmers and strong tidal currents often wash them ashore. WT

TOUR OPERATORS

■ LLAMA TRAVEL, Tel: 020 7263 3000;

www.llamatravel.com

■ VIATOR, Tel: 020 3478 5933;

www.viator.com

■ RAINFOREST TOURS, Tel: +1 888 735 0703;

www.rainforesttours.com

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

© ADRIAN HEPWORTH, ZACH HOLMES/ALAMY

A network of rivers and streams meander through the forest of Corcovado Park

COST RATING SAMPLE PACKAGE TOUR: From £2378 for a 15-day tour, inc flights, that incorporates three nights in Corcovado.

GETTING THERE: From London it is an 11-12 hour flight to the capital San José (go via the USA to break the journey into two manageable stages). From San José you can fly, drive or bus south to Drake Bay or Puerto Jiménez. See Accommodation and Entry box for routes into Corcovado.

VISA REQUIREMENTS FROM THE UK: British citizens do not need to request a visa before arriving in Costa Rica. Upon arrival they receive a 90-day tourist visa.

TIPS & WARNINGS: The weather in Corcovado is hot and humid all year round, so very light, cool clothing is a must.

Long trousers and long sleeves and / or repellent will help protect against insect bites. Sunblock is essential. Light walking boots are ideal, especially those with Gore-Tex linings, which allow your feet to breathe but keep them dry from wet vegetation and a little rain. A head torch is very useful for finding your way safely back to your room at night, and binoculars and camera can add to your experience of seeing wildlife. Remember that photography without flash is much more animal-friendly and is less likely to scare the wildlife away!

Guides enable you to see more and learn about wildlife and remember when hiking in the jungle not to stray from the marked trails – you may quickly become lost or even step on a poisonous snake.

FIELD GUIDE TO

POLAR BEARS

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WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

FIELD GUIDE TO POLAR BEARS The polar bear may be king of all it surveys out on the sea ice of the Arctic but, as Madison Higgins, Elissa Leibowitz Poma and Tania Segura of the WWF explain, that ice is disappearing beneath its feet

T

he mighty polar bear is widely considered to be the most intriguing and awe-inspiring of all animals. Even the region it rules – the Arctic – is named after it, with the Greek “arktos” meaning “bear”.

Polar bears spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean that sits like a cap on the head of the Earth. They have a thick layer of body fat that insulates them from the cold air and water. Despite their size they move easily on the ice, thanks to their specially adapted paws. They are excellent swimmers, although you could be forgiven for thinking their thick fur would become waterlogged. In fact, it is water-repellent.

As long summer days start to wane on the Arctic tundra, the shores of the Hudson Bay in Canada become a stopover for more than 1,000 polar bears on an annual migration to the pack ice. Polar bears live mostly solitary lives, so spotting one of them on the ice can

be a monumental feat. But along the Hudson Bay in the autumn, bears congregate in masses. And they wait. Mothers snuggle with their cubs, young males play-flight with each other, and large males test their weight on the thickening sea ice.

Unfortunately, in recent years this group of bears has been facing longer ice-free seasons.

Many now suffer from malnutrition and others face starvation — especially females with cubs. Ongoing and potential loss of their sea ice habitat is the result of climate change. The protection of the polar bear’s habitat is an urgent issue for WWF and other conservationists around the world.

POLAR BEAR SPECIES Polar bears are classified as marine mammals because they spend most of their lives on the sea ice of the Arctic. All polar bears belong to the species Ursus maritimus, although the planet’s population is divided into 19

sub-populations, with little genetic differentiation between them. The latest data shows that eight of those subpopulations are in decline and there is a high estimated risk of future decline because of climate change, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

DISTRIBUTION Between 20,000 and 25,000 polar bears roam the Arctic today. In addition to Norway, they’re also found in Alaska in the United States, as well as Russia, Greenland and Canada. In fact, 60 per cent of those 19 sub-populations are in Canada. Churchill, Manitoba, is considered to be the “polar bear capital of the world” due to the high concentration of polar bears in the region during the summer months. Because of this, it is the best and most accessible place in the world to view polar bears.

© PATRICK J ENDRES/NATURAL HABITAT ADVENTURES

Here: come the autumn polar bears gather at the edge of the landmass waiting for the sea ice that will form their winter home

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PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS The polar bear’s coat is so well camouflaged in Arctic environments that a reclining bear is sometimes mistaken for a snow drift.

Interestingly, the bear’s coat has no white pigment – in fact, its skin is black, and its hairs are hollow. The actual hairs are pigment-free and reflect the light, giving them a whitish or yellowish appearance.

Despite the harsh conditions of their environment, polar bears tend to overheat easily due to their fur’s incredibly efficient insulating properties.

Polar bears’ paws help distribute their weight when traipsing across thin ice. The back footpads of each paw are covered in small, soft bumps that grip the ice and keep the bears from slipping. When swimming, polar bears use their front paws like oars while their hind legs are held flat like a rudder. The animal’s swimming is also assisted by its long neck and narrow head.

Polar bears are accomplished swimmers and can sustain a pace of 6.2 miles per hour.

Polar bears have heightened senses to help survive in the harsh Arctic environment.

They use a sharp sense of smell, keen eyesight and fine hearing to hunt.

DIET

BEHAVIOUR Polar bears are most intelligent and communicative animals. They use a number of different sounds to socialise with other bears, and each has specific meaning. When

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THE CUBS DEPEND ALMOST TOTALLY ON THEIR MOTHERS FOR SURVIVAL FOR AT LEAST THE FIRST 20 MONTHS a bear is angry or feels threatened, it warns those around it with a low growl similar to that of a trumpeting elephant. A polar bear will hiss and snort when challenged by another bear, and when in distress it makes a chuffing noise.

Polar bears often communicate with their noses. For example, if one bear wants food from another, it will approach slowly, circle around the food source and then gently touch the other bear’s nose with its own. This respectful, non-aggressive behaviour often leads to a free meal.

Polar bears also like to play; a bear will move its head from side to side when it wants to engage with another. Play fighting occurs between males to tune up hunting skills and between young cub siblings learning to defend themselves. Aggressive fighting usually occurs between males during the breeding season and when attempting to steal food.

Polar bears like to keep themselves clean; scientists suspect this habit is designed to

help maintain their fur’s insulating ability.

After feeding, they will usually wash themselves by taking a swim in the sea or by rolling around in loose snow.

Like humans, polar bears sleep an average of seven to eight hours a day. They also frequently nap in order to conserve energy.

The bears typically dig shallow pits in the snow, then they curl up in them, sleeping with their backs to the icy Arctic wind. For added comfort, the bear uses one of its outstretched paws as a pillow and allows snow to pile up around it to provide extra warmth and insulation.

REPRODUCTION The polar bear mating season takes place on the ice in April or May. However, the female doesn’t actually become pregnant until the autumn. This fascinating process is called ‘delayed implantation’.

The female will usually give birth to two cubs by early January, though researchers have been observing fewer twins of late.

When born, a polar bear cub weighs about the same as a guinea pig. The cubs depend almost totally on their mother for survival for at least their first 20 months.

During this time, the mother will teach the cubs to hunt. Polar bears are generally weaned after two to three years.

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

©COLIN McNULTY, PATRICK J ENDRES, BRAD JOSEPH/NATURAL HABITAT ADVENTURES SHIRLEY METZ/ZEGRAHM EXPEDITIONS

The polar bear is the most carnivorous member of the bear family, feeding mainly on a diet of seals. But they are dependent on ice to access their prey, which is why climate change is such a big concern. Without the ice stretching far out into the sea, polar bears cannot find the seals by locating the holes they create to catch a breath.

The most common way polar bears hunt, in fact, is by stalking those active breathing holes and waiting for an unsuspecting seal to surface. The wait can be long – hours or even days – so polar bears are known to be quite patient. This method of still-hunting also helps the bear retain resources, because moving its bulky body quickly saps energy.

The polar bear’s diet is a cycle of feasting and fasting. When hunting is successful, a bear may eat 45kg of seal blubber at a single time. Its stomach can hold an equivalent of 15 to 20 per cent of its own body weight. If a hunt is particularly successful or if, for instance, a large whale carcass washes ashore, a polar bear will not object to sharing with other bears; otherwise, its preference is for solitary hunting.

Clockwise from here: a polar bear will spend the winter out on the pack ice; their huge, wide paws with soft nobbles on the back pair give the bears grip on the slippery ice; bears can stretch to a great height, so human watchers have to be elevated

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

Clockwise from far left: great whites can detect one drop of blood in 100 litres of water; a dramatic breach; a tuna bites the dust; cage diving off Guadalupe Island

WILD TRAVEL 49

WHERE TO WATCH

3

1 2

POLAR BEARS

IN THE WILD

ALASKA, UNITED STATES

2 CANADA

Polar bear-viewing opportunities in Alaska are quite limited. The remote, northern communities of Kaktovik (especially Barter Island) and Barrow offer your best options.

At Barter Island, many polar bears like to congregate during the ice-free period between August and October. Autumn is an important time for the local people as well as the bears because of the subsistence whaling, which is permitted for native communities in Alaska. At times, bears will venture near the village to feed on the remains of whales. Bear sightings are less common but still possible in Barrow.

Before you go, it’s recommended that you first check with the Alaska Native Corporation to find out if you need a land-use permit, and you then make your travel arrangements through a local guide or tour operator.

Locked by land and sea, Churchill, Manitoba, is an isolated community alongside Canada’s Hudson Bay. It is home to a population of 900 residents – approximately the same size as its population of polar bears.

The commonest way to see bears around Churchill is to travel in specially designed ‘polar rovers’. With insides like train carriages, these spacious – and heated – vehicles were built for the tundra and are high enough off the ground to avoid contact with polar bears. After daytime viewing, you can stay at various hotels in town.

Alternately, you could actually sleep out on the tundra among the bears in the custom-designed ‘Tundra Lodge’. This will help maximise your time viewing polar bears and give you the opportunity to look for other wildlife, including Arctic foxes, Arctic hares and ptarmigans.

WHEN TO GO: September is the best time to visit northern Alaska. Bears are generally known to congregate within 25 miles of the coastline waiting for the ice to freeze. Plan ahead, as lodging in the area is exceedingly limited.

WHEN TO GO: The polar bear-viewing season in Churchill runs from mid-October through to late November. WWF offers tours, although it’s best to book early as these journeys often sell out seven or more months in advance.

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3 GREENLAND Unless you’re cruising by the coast of northeast or western Greenland on an expedition voyage, the chance of seeing polar bears here is extremely rare. Locals don’t even see them that frequently.

It is possible to take a dogsledding trip with local guides to go look for bears, but this option is really reserved for the hardiest of travellers only, as it’s not an easy trip. If you do feel up to it, the official tourist board of Greenland is the best resource to find an outfitter.

WHEN TO GO: Local guides offer expeditions by dogsled from February through to April.

© ERIC ROCK, BRAD JOSEPH/NATURAL HABITAT ADVENTURES, ANDREW AHL/ZEGRAHM EXPEDITIONS

1

FIELD GUIDE TO POLAR BEARS

Clockwise from here: a polar rover vehicle offers safety from a curious bear; touching noses is a hint that a free meal would be welcome; curling up for a nap

The loss of sea ice habitat due to climate change is the biggest threat to the survival of polar bears. They not only depend on sea ice as a platform from which to hunt seals, but it’s also where they rest and breed. Every year, the summer ice is decreasing in size and melting for longer periods of time. Bears must move long distances to stay with the rapidly receding ice. In some areas they come ashore when ice melts and rely on fat stores until the sea refreezes. Researchers are observing polar bears suffering from malnutrition or even starvation (often females with cubs). If current warming trends continue unabated, they believe polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century.

As climate change forces polar bears to spend longer time onshore, they come in contact more frequently with Arctic coastal communities. Unfortunately, these humanwildlife interactions are often known to end badly for the bears, and sometimes for the humans, too.

RESPONSIBLE VIEWING Polar bears are such stunning creatures that some people forget they’re also wild animals.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently categorises polar bear populations as vulnerable and decreasing. The following suggestions provide guidelines to help keep you safe and make the most of your time viewing wild polar bears without disrupting their natural behavior or habitat.

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POLAR BEARS ARE INTELLIGENT ANIMALS, USING SOUNDS AND HEAD SHAKES TO COMMUNICATE •Know before you go. Educate yourself about the area in which you wish to travel.

Learn about the local habitat, guidelines and regulations. Make sure to do your due diligence to find out if you need a permit to be on certain lands. If travelling with a tour operator, read through all the material provided and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

•Don’t touch. Never touch a polar bear.

Polar bears are wild animals that may attack at any time.

•Keep your distance. Use binoculars or cameras with zoom lenses to get a good look at the polar bears. If a bear gets too close, stay calm and back away slowly; always remain facing the polar bear. Never run away from a bear, never make direct eye contact, be quiet and avoid sudden movements if you are confronted.

•Do not feed or attract bears or wildlife.

Doing so can increase the bear’s disposition to rely on humans for food, which in turn increases bear-human conflict.

•Help others watch polar bears responsibly.

If you notice travellers or tour operators behaving irresponsibly, say something.

Seeing polar bears in the wild is a rare opportunity and one that hopefully will be available for future generations. WT

ABOUT WWF WWF is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organisations, with more than 5 million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.

For more information on WWF, visit www. panda.org; for more about planning a trip to see polar bears in the wild, visit www.worldwildlife.org/travel

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

© BRAD JOSEPHS, HENRY H HOLDSWORTH PHOTOGRAPHY/NATURAL HABITAT ADVENTURES

THREATS

PEOPLE O W E R 54 WILD TRAVEL

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CITIZEN SCIENCE Recent years have seen a boom in ‘citizen science’ projects that allow members of the public to play an active part in monitoring and recording wildlife across the UK. But with so many options for willing volunteers, the question is which project to choose, writes Crispin Andrews

Here: volunteers take part in the British Trust for Ornithology and RSPB’s annual breeding bird survey. Above: the red squirrel is one of the species that citizen scientists help to monitor

© DAVID TIPLING/BTO, RSPB

T

he scene was reminiscent of one of those primary school science lessons where the pupils are sent outside to look for snails, toadstools and earwigs. In every direction people were peering under logs, trawling ponds and streams with nets and studying tree bark, leaves and blades of grass for any signs of movement.

But this was no Year 4 project and the participants didn’t look to a well-meaning teacher for all the answers; it was Britain’s first ‘BioBlitz’, which took place in June 2009, at Ashton Court Mansion on the outskirts of Bristol. This Grade I-listed building, owned and managed by English Heritage, sits within an 850 acre estate that incorporates woods and open grassland and contains a great variety of wildlife (the presence of rare woodland beetles earned the site SSSI status in 1998). Over 30 hours, 570 people volunteered to take part in a race against the clock to survey the estate for animal and plant life under the guidance of amateur naturalists.

While some people used identification keys to distinguish between different earthworm species, others watched bats swoop at dusk as an expert provided a running commentary on bat behaviour. Another expert explained how to differentiate between male and female great crested newts (males have a crest and an orange speckled belly that they use to attract mates). By the end of their vigil, the volunteer naturalists had found evidence of 637 species.

The Ashton Court BioBlitz is just one example of the growing number of ‘citizen

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science’ projects in which members of the general public are invited to take part in large scale data collection initiatives. Over the past few years an astonishing array of citizen science projects have sprung up in virtually every field of science, from sorting distant galaxies to crunching data on cancer. However, the field that has seen the greatest participation is natural history – and bioblitzs are just one of the options available for willing workers.

“BioBlitzs are a great way of getting people more aware of what’s going on in the natural local environment,” says Matt Postles, BioBlitz Project Manager with The Bristol Natural History Consortium, a partnership of Bristol City Council, local universities, the Avon Wildlife Trust, Bristol Zoo, and film makers Wildscreen. “When people are involved, they take ownership of the site, look after it better and pass on what’s happening there to others.”

However, as he is keen to point out, there is genuine scientific value in the data collected too: “The information people gather during a BioBlitz is collated and verified by the lead organisation and passed on to their local environmental research centre database.

Eventually the information ends up in the National Biodiversity Network Gateway, where other conservation groups can access it.”

KEEPING AN EYE OUT With less funding around these days, wildlife conservation organisations needs citizen scientists. In Wales the Vincent Wildlife Trust is asking members of the public to look out for and report sightings of the elusive pine marten.

Similarly, the Marine Conservation Society relies on public sightings to keep tabs on basking shark numbers around Cornwall and the Isle of Man. In the Lake District the focus is on red squirrels, while European eels are on the agenda in London and Kent. Government advisers, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, estimate that across the UK, 100,000 citizen scientists undertake around £20m worth of conservation work every year.

“The big conservation questions require huge data samples and there aren’t enough paid researchers to collect them,” says John Tweddle, Head of the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity at the Natural History Museum, and co-author of the UK environmental observation framework’s guide to citizen science (see www.ukeof.org.uk).

“Naturalists rely on information gathered by volunteers to find out how wildlife is responding to environmental change or the spread of urban areas.”

Matt Postles agrees. “There’s only so much a PHD student can do,” he says. “The costs involved and the time constraints mean it’s really not feasible to rely on professionals alone to gather the amount of data needed.”

For willing volunteers, there are opportunities to work with a spectrum of species. Through the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, run by Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, amateur entomologists helped to uncover first a dip and then a rise in the number of butterflies seen around Britain this year. The annual UK ladybird survey helps scientists keep tabs on the numbers of indigenous ladybirds and their invasive rival, the harlequin.

SURVEYING EVERYTHING If you’re not interested in butterflies or ladybirds, how about taking part in a project to examine the impacts of our weather on the natural world? Data collected by the public for the Woodland Trust appeared to show that autumn arrived two weeks late in 2013, at the beginning of October. People use the Trust’s online Nature Calendar to record seasonal events that show how climate change affects wildlife. In autumn, the information gathered showed that horse chestnut, beech and sycamore leaves tinted two weeks later than in 2012. Elder, rowan and bramble bush berries appeared later, too. Information showed an abundance of berries, though, which is good for hungry overwintering woodland wildlife.

Nearly all the data the RSPB uses for its surveys and reports is gathered by citizen scientists. Together, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the RSPB run the UK Breeding Birds Survey every year. Thousands of volunteer birdwatchers each visit their allocated one kilometre square site across the UK during the breeding season, which runs from mid-April to mid-May. They spend 90 minutes recording the numbers and types of birds they see or hear.

“That’s how we discovered that little egrets had started nesting in this country,” says Mark Eaton, RSPB’s Principal Conservation Scientist.

“Now there are 1,000 pairs, although there are fewer turtle doves. Both are migratory birds.”

Across the UK, 100,000 citizen scientists undertake around £20m worth of conservation work every year 56 WILD TRAVEL

CITIZEN SCIENCE

GLOBAL CONCERNS

Clockwise from left: three stages in ringing a great tit – weighing, measuring and assessing fat reserves; a seven-spot ladybird; taking part in bird and insect surveys; a common frog and spawn

Some of the latest current citizen science projects overseas

ZSL’S INSTANT WILD APP Location: Kenya, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Indonesia The UKMotion sensitive cameras in known animal hotspots send live photos, in real time, direct to the Instant Wild website. From here volunteers can download them on to mobile devices and use the app to help sort the live images by species group. The app only passes on the photos that the experts need to check. www.edgeofexistence.org/ instantwild

© DAVID TIPLING, UK LADYBIRD SURVEY, BTO, BNHC, iSTOCK

PROJECT NOAH

Location: various Upload photographs to this free mobile phone app to help various existing conservation projects, or start your own project. The Charles Darwin Foundation wants images of wildlife you’ve seen on visits to the Galapagos Islands. This, they hope, will help their ongoing investigation into Galapagos biodiversity, and enable their staff to monitor the impact of invasive species. www.projectnoah.org

WHALE FM

Location: various Scientific American and Oxford University’s Zooinverse have invited citizen scientists to compare pilot whale and orca sounds they’ve collected from hot spots around the world.

Conservationists want to

understand how these animals communicate, if different whales have different dialects and whether these change during sonar transmissions. whale.fm

POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL

Location: Churchill, Manitoba, Canada Visitors are encouraged to photograph the annual polar bear migration. The photographs help conservationists monitor the age, sex and health of the polar bears. There’s a card index to help people understand how to classify polar bears by size and fatness. Over time the project will help researchers do geographical comparisons. www.polarbearsinternational. org/research-programs/ citizen-science-project

AUDUBON EAGLE WATCH

Location: Florida, USA Volunteers monitor 265 bald eagle nests in Central Florida, which constitute around 20 per cent of the state’s eagle population. They find new nests, rescue injured eagles, help conservationists compile data on the eagles’ urban nesting habits and identify any potential threats to the eagles that could arise during the nesting season. fl.audubon.org/auduboneaglewatch

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CITIZEN SCIENCE Clockwise from here: fat balls attract birds like blue tits to a survey area; fungi and snails are just some of the species tagged in the Bristol BioBlitzs; a Citizen Science guide issued by the Natural History Museum

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the name and address of the person they need to speak to, post it and then wait six weeks only to to be told they’d actually seen a not-so-rare female sparrowhawk.

Today, the internet, smart phones and apps have given most people the ability to upload a snap to a relevant website and get a pretty good idea of what they’ve photographed shortly after taking it.

THERE’S AN APP FOR IT Using the Bat Conservation Trust’s phone app, Ibats, people can recognise more than 900 different bat calls. Equally impressive is the BTO’s Bird Track app, which allows people to upload images of birds from their smartphone or tablet, which tells the Trust where and what time the image was taken. Another app developed by the University of Southampton uses smartphone microphones to pick up the sound of the rare New Forest cicada, while the Leaf snap UK app uses facial recognition software to identify different leaf species.

Sometimes citizen scientists are needed to process, rather than collect, data – not least when conservationists use camera traps to capture images of wildlife. These cameras can generate thousands of pictures, and while differentiating a fox’s leg from a badger’s backside doesn’t take a great deal of expertise, it does help conservationists monitor animal behaviour. “Conservation groups have to make a trade-off between the quantity of data

they get and the quality of data provided by non-experts,” says Postles.

If technology has ordinary citizens queuing up to become citizen scientists, the current funding crisis in the UK has conservation organisations queuing up to recruit them. The coalition government slashed Defra’s funding by 30 per cent in 2010, and a further 10 per cent last April. The £450m a year for wildlife projects on British farmland is under threat and local authorities have had funding cut.

With no sign that this will improve, citizen scientists will continue to play an important conservation role. Mark Eaton wants his techno-savvy recruits to look out for other wildlife as well as birds, while John Tweddle would like to see citizen scientists design their own projects. Matt Postles hopes it will all lead to a more aware and involved populace, putting pressure on the government to protect the natural environment. WT

SIGN UP NOW! Bristol Natural History Consortium: www.bnhc.org.uk/home/bioblitz ● The Breeding Bird Survey: www.bto.org/bbs ● RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch: www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch ● Woodland Trust’s nature’s calendar survey: www.naturescalendar.org.uk ● UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: www.ukbms.org ●

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© BTO, BNHC

The Breeding Bird Survey requires species knowledge, but you don’t have to be an expert to take part in RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

At the end of January each year (this year the 25th and 26th) volunteers are asked to watch their gardens or local parks and record the number of bird species they see for one hour, and then pass the results on to the RSPB. In 2013, 590,000 people took part, and between them recorded 17 per cent fewer sparrows than in 2012, 16 per cent fewer starlings and 20 per cent fewer bullfinches and dunnocks. It wasn’t all bad news, though.

There were 85 per cent more siskins, fieldfares and jays than in previous years, which the RSPB has attributed to the freezing weather driving field birds into gardens for food.

Although it might a relatively modern buzz term, citizen science is nothing new. Amateur enthusiasts have contributed to conservation since Darwin’s time. Darwin himself collected information from and corresponded with, many fledgling naturalists.

However, modern day citizen science projects have come a long way since those days. Advances in technology mean that you no longer have to be expert enough to discourse with the world’s leading authorities to take part. Twenty years ago, only the most committed amateur conservationist would be inclined to take a photo of what they thought was a rare goshawk in their garden, develop it, phone up the relevant organisation to find

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WILD TRAVEL 59

KING-OF-THE-HILL There is nothing quite so appealing on the Sanetti Plateau as these eight-week-old wolf pups. Their rambunctious and unrelenting games of tag, hide and seek and king-of-the-hill help them develop the strong muscles and pouncing skills they’ll need to become expert rat catchers.

IN FOCUS ETHIOPIAN WOLVES

BY WILL BURRARD-LUCAS AND REBECCA JACKREL

A

visit to the Bale Mountains National Park in southeastern Ethiopia is an opportunity to expand the concept of Africa. Trekking on the Sanetti plateau and in the Web Valley feels like travelling back to a primal land.

Visions of landscapes stalked by classic African predators – lions, cheetahs, hyena and leopards – might spring to mind. More than likely, though, these visions will lack the top predator visitors are most likely to see: the wolf.

The endemic Ethiopian wolves is top of the food chain in this wilderness, performing their role as rat catchers. They live in close-knit territorial packs.

They are one of Africa’s most endangered carnivores, threatened by human populations encroaching on their hunting grounds and contact with domestic dog diseases. When Rebecca Jackrel and Will Burrard-Lucas learned of the wolves’ battle with rabies and canine distemper, they set out to capture images of the amazing animals, hoping to encourage people to help save the species.

For more information, or to order the book of the expedition, visit the website: www.EthiopianWolfProject.com

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Will Burrard-Lucas is a professional wildlife photographer from the UK. His ultimate aim is to inspire people to celebrate and conserve our natural wonders. www.burrard-lucas.com Rebecca Jackrel is a nature and wildlife photographer from San Francisco. She shares her love of wild animals by creating intimate portraits of them. www. rebeccajackrel.com

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GALLERY ETHIOPIAN WOLVES

WHAT BIG EARS YOU HAVE There is no way to sneak up on the Ethiopian wolf. Huge ears pick up the footfall of even the smallest rodent, a sensitive nose catches the faintest of smells on the wind and sharp eyes leave no crevice unexplored. Lucky for photographers the animals are also curious, especially the juveniles, and it pays to look behind you – you just might find a wolf calmly gazing at your back.

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RIVER CROSSING Even when your aim is to shoot portraits, it’s important to remember to pack a short lens for landscapes! Here, a member of the Alandu pack crosses a river into another pack’s territory, making a beautiful panoramic shot even more special. The land may look barren from this distance, but wildlife is hiding everywhere, blending into the mottled colours of the scenery.

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GALLERY ETHIOPIAN WOLVES

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Wolf watching in the Sierra de la Culebra

£or7a06 0dayur

f ht) to (5 n5igsingle room +£7 plement sup

Join us on an exciting tour which includes daily morning and evening wolf-watches, plus tracking in the forests for signs of the animals. A visit to Villafafila Bird Reserve to see Europe’s heaviest flying bird, the Great Bustard, plus several more species. A trip into Portugal to the mighty Duoro Gorge - a haven for vultures and eagles.

Daily local excursions to sample the rural culture of this area.

Our tours are available every month of the year; dates are arranged to suit you!

John and Margaret are your contacts throughout all your arrangements and during your tour.

As well as wolf, we hope to see wild boar, otter, red and roe deer, lots of reptiles and amphibians, while experiencing the bio-diversity of the Sierra de la Culebra.

Wildlife Tours in Northern Spain

Contact us to find out more T:+44 (0) 167 081 4903 M:+44 (0) 7990 663 238 email us via our site below

www.wildwolfexperience.com Follow our blog wildwolfexperience.blogspot.co.uk

Photograph courtesy of Karl Van Ginderdeuren © 2011

“Spotting wolves uncovers a host of wild animal and bird life to be enjoyed amidst breathtaking scenery which has its own beauty” - John and Margaret

GALLERY ETHIOPIAN WOLVES

SNUGGLE TIME The nights are cold in the Bale Mountains and often the wolves wake to find their world covered in a blanket of shimmering frost. During those times family members will cuddle up for some extra warmth before facing the day. For human observers who don’t have a furry family member to snuggle next to, we recommend a nice warm hat and coat.

IS THE COAST CLEAR? One of the most amusing creatures in the Bale Mountains is also the wolves’ favourite prey: the giant mole-rat.

They look a bit like guinea pigs on steroids, and the Groucho Marx eyebrows are sure to bring a smile to your face as you watch them pop in and out of their burrows. One eye is always looking for danger while the other spies out the sweet Lady’s Mantle grasses they love to eat.

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STATUESQUE Using a vehicle as a moving photo hide is one of the best ways to capture images of the Ethiopian wolf as it hunts for rats. Parking slightly lower than the terrain across which the wolf is travelling affords a wonderful low angle to isolate the animal from the bright background.

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BABYSITTER Mum isn’t the only member of the pack who babysits. Once the pups emerge from the den, everyone pitches in, from Dad to the older siblings. This juvenile wolf had his paws full dealing with four rowdy pups.

With an adult watching over them, the pups feel more secure and wander further from the den, offering wonderful opportunities to photograph them as they tumble and play together.

ON GUARD The amazing abundance of rodent life in the Bale Mountains feeds more than just the wolves.

Raptors like this mountain buzzard gather here to take advantage of the plethora of food. While the birds are wary when a wolf is around, they rarely have much to fear. The wolves would much rather have a meal of mole-rat than deal with a mouthful of feathers.

68 WILD TRAVEL

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IN BOX

Follow us on Twitter: @wild_travel

Winning letter Canadian dream In September 2013 we had our first holiday to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. We chose the location after reading an article in Wild Travel (Trip Report: Vancouver Island, December 2012).

The holiday surpassed all expectations.

The area we visited had been described as ‘one of the greatest wildlife spectacles

Send us your thoughts on the magazine, wildlife travel pictures and recommendations, or stories of your own wildlife encounters. The author of our favourite letter, picture and story will receive a brilliant wildlife book

on earth’, and we went on many tours, each more spectacular than the last.

We booked a grizzly bear tour from Campbell River to Bute Inlet. The day began at 8am when we sailed north through the Sutil Channel to the home of the Homalco. We were greeted by First Nations people and led by bus into the woods and down to the estuary where the Homathko and Southgate rivers merge. This is where the bears gather for the start of the salmon run.

When we arrived at the viewing platform it wasn’t long before we had our first bear encounter when this apex predator in our photograph came out of the mist in search of salmon. We spent about six hours at various points and witnessed a total of nine bears and two cubs. It was an amazing experience.

Derek Taylor via our Flickr site

Your photos

Hero worship I really enjoyed your interview with Ian Redmond (Reluctant Hero, December 2013). He comes across as an unassuming, likeable person, with his passion for his subject as evident as ever. His emotion when he talked about the violent killing of the gorilla Digit by poachers was still very much apparent, even though it happened 35 years ago.

You get the feeling that despite living in Gloucestershire and becoming much more involved with the politics and lobbying of today’s conservation battles, his heart remains in the field, particularly with those gorillas he regarded as friends.

Gwyneth May, via email

1

Our favourite images from our flickr site: www.flickr.com/groups/ wild_travel. Please visit to view more images, upload your own, comment and share wildlife photography or location tips.

Image 1 A zebra in the Masai Mara, Kenya, taken by Alice Latham Image 2 A sunbird in Nairobi, Kenya, taken by Gerry Zambonini Image 3 “The wildebeest have a gung-ho attitude to crossing – almost jumping on top of each other in their rush,” says Rhoda Allen who took this image in the Masai Mara, Kenya

3

© SHUTTERSTOCK

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INBOX YOUR LETTERS Curious onlookers

Your stories

On a Naturetrek trip to Islay and Mull, the ‘not so wild’ animals on Islay’s wild coastline appeared very curious as to what we were doing there!

Barbara Evans, Oakley, Hampshire

A hopeful flutter We have just found a peacock butterfly in our flat and having read your butterfly piece (Q&A, December 2013) we were able to follow the instructions and find it a nice place to stay.

We’ve left it in an open jar in the loft which is a nice cool place. We’ll let it out as soon as it wakes up in spring.

Mel Toon, via email Editor writes: Glad to have been of service. Please let us know how your houseguest gets on.

Tracking success Following on from your How to Track A Lion article (October 2013), I thought I’d share my lion encounter with you. During a fantastic June holiday to Botswana and Victoria Falls we were lucky enough to be shown the basic skills of tracking animals.

One animal everybody wanted to track and encounter was a lion.

Luckily, during a two-day stay at one of the camps in The Delta, the tracks were visible and our guide was quickly on the trail. We eventually found the family of lions having their afternoon nap.

However our guide knew they could possibly feed that night. Sure enough, three hours later the sleepy lions we had seen in the afternoon caught their evening meal (of giraffe) and were enjoying it as we arrived. They did not look so sleepy or gentle then, more the rulers of their land! What a wonderful country and holiday.

Helen Gee, via email

The luck of the Irish I’ve been fortunate enough to behold one of Ireland’s most simple gifts, but one of its most powerful.

Travelling down a somewhat bumpy main road lined with virgin forest, I peered out of my car window and through the haze of Ireland’s ever constant sheen of rain I saw the most magnificent red stag.

It stood proud on the hilltop, right on the edge of the forest’s boundaries between freedom and home.

Its deep, rich pelt of rusty brown shimmered despite the lack of sunlight. The wise caramel eyes, astute and full of a knowledge that we will never fully understand, stared straight out at me. But it was his antlers that captured my attention.

At first glance they appeared as branches, twisting and contorting, reaching out towards the sky. The power and raw strength they possess was humbling.

Almost violent, the artistic curves created dark shadows that crept outwards, seeking their next victim. The sheer weight of them was staggering; they should be forcing the stag to bow down, surrender to their might, but instead they were carried with arrogance. These instruments of beauty and war a symbol of the isle of which the animal is native.

As we glided somewhat clumsily onward, I craned my neck to catch one last glance of the creature.

Almost as if it was part of a dance he merged back with the forest and into a world which we can observe but never be part of. Not really.

Eilis Quinn, Co Monaghan, Ireland

GETTING IN TOUCH POST: Letters to the Editor, Wild Travel, Archant House, Oriel Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 1BB EMAIL: editorial@wildtravelmag.com PHONE: 01242 211 080 We welcome your letters but reserve the right to edit them. Please include a daytime telephone number and, if emailing, a postal address (this will not be published)

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WILD TRAVEL 71

DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA Your essential guide to the ancient tribes and exotic wildlife of Papua New Guinea

74 Papua New Guinea overview

Regis St Louis offers his introduction to the wildlife and pristine wildernesses of this little-explored nation

87 Ones to watch

You could spend a lifetime trying to track down all of the country’s wildlife, but here are the 10 species to put at the top of your must-see list

92 Trip report: birds of paradise

© DAVID TIPLING

Karl Cushing enjoys a flying visit across Papua New Guinea in search of its colourful birds of paradise and discovers they aren’t the only avian show in town

Here: a juvenile saltwater crocodile comes to the surface in a Papua New Guinea lagoon

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

REGIONAL GUIDE

Home to an impossible array of unique and exotic creatures, the virgin forests and pristine waters of Papua New Guinea are some of the world’s last uncharted wildernesses.

Regis St Louis offers his guide to the country’s jungles, reefs, Highlands and islands

land of sheer mist-covered peaks, wild untamed rivers, and vast swaths of rainforest untouched by modern civilization: welcome to Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s great biological frontiers. The Melanesian nation north of Australia is home to the third largest rainforest on earth, after the Amazon and the Congo, and some of the world’s most extraordinary wildlife.

Kangaroos that hop among the trees, poisonous birds, carnivorous mice, finger-long parrots and butterflies so large they were once felled with shotguns. These are just a few of the many endemic species. Some two-thirds of New Guinea’s plant and animal life is found nowhere else on earth.

Wildlife watching in this little-explored country is like stepping into the great unknown. A jaw-dropping 1000 new species were discovered between 1998 and 2008, including mammals (the blue-eyed cuscus), reptiles (three species of monitor lizard), fish

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(a river shark and seven species of rainbow fish) and amphibians (an astounding 134 new frog species). Scientists think this is but a fraction of the yet unknown biological world that lies hidden among New Guinea’s pristine jungles and reefs.

This begs the question: why is the wildlife so rich and varied, and why is it still being discovered? One look at a map and you begin to see why. Roads are few and the terrain incredibly rugged, with jagged mountain ranges running the length of the country. Hundreds of remote islands extend north and west of the mainland, with active volcanoes sprinkled among them.

Small planes access some places, but in many other areas travel is only possible by foot or motorised canoe. Given such a pristine environment, travelling here presents some unforgettable experiences, from watching the magnificent displays of birds of paradise to feeling the first rays of dawn atop a 4000m summit deep in the rainforest. For nature at its most captivating, there’s no other place on earth quite like Papua New Guinea.

WILD TRAVEL 75

Essential Papua New Guinea WHO: SEAN DEKELVER PILOT, MISSION AVIATION FELLOWSHIP WHERE: YENKIS, ENGA PROVINCE, THE HIGHLANDS Some colleagues and I flew into Yenkis village on a Friday evening and I was first up on Saturday morning. I could hear the not-so-distant calls of several birds of paradise. The jungle was thick and I couldn’t see much so I asked a local where the birds liked to display. He pointed me down a garden path that opened into a small clearing edged by trees. In the slanted, bright morning sun the tallest tree appeared glowing with birds of paradise in full display. The strange staccato movements, flicking wings and jumping in circles must be one of the most unique displays in nature. The rusty red colour of the ragianna and the bright yellow of the lesser birds of paradise drew a beautiful picture against the jungle and garden-covered hillsides.

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THE HIGHLANDS Towering peaks roll across the middle of Papua New Guinea, concealing lush mountain valleys and raging rivers, unseen by Western eyes until less than a century ago. In fact, when European explorers first made their way across the forbidding cliffs of the Central Range in the 1930s, they were astonished to discover flourishing tribal cultures living just as their ancestors had, in complete isolation from the outside world.

Such seclusion, coupled with the wildly varied topography, has created no less an auspicious environment for the Highlands’ flora and fauna. From the dense lowland jungle to the misty high-mountain forests, there are an astounding number of endemic plants and animals, including 55 endemic bird species.

Described by early explorers as the ‘Papuan wonderland’, the Southern Highlands province is known for its perpetual spring-like climate – at least during the day when temperatures hover between 24 and 28 degrees Celsius. In the early morning, as the mists clear from mountain forests, the pure tones of the Papuan whipbird ring out, answered by the strangely mechanical song of the regent whistler.

Looming overhead is the jagged summit of Mount Giluwe, an old shield volcano surrounded by vast alpine grasslands, where the unique vocalisations of the New Guinea singing dog (a relative of the dingo) are sometimes heard. Among strands of Antarctic beech forest the birdlife is particularly rich, with torrent larks, tit berrypeckers and blue birds of paradise in abundance. At higher elevations in the upper montane forests, you’ll spy orange-billed lorikeets, hear the mellifluous call of the fan-tailed cuckoo and perhaps stumble across the odd flock of roving New Guinea thornbills.

Birders throughout the world are drawn to the spectacular Tari Valley, where diverse habitats and elevations (from 2700m to 3300m) support a dense concentration of more than 200 bird species, including 13 birds of paradise.

These are the stars of the avian kingdom, with magnificent plumage and mesmerising courtship dances. The famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough fell in love with the area on several visits to Papua New Guinea, and filmed the documentary Attenborough in Paradise there in 1996.

Several eco-conscious lodges make good

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

REGIONAL GUIDE

Clockwise from far left: the raw power of water carves into the New Guinea rainforest; the singing dog, named for its musical howl; a palm cockatoo; a tree kangaroo sleeping high in the branches

MINORITY REPORT

bases for wildlife watching trips into the valley. You can reach it by flying into the small village of Tari, which is one of the few towns in the country where people still wear traditional dress.

Southeast of Tari, Lake Kutubu lies in the heart of the Kikori basin, a vast region of rainforest, wetlands and grasslands. The lake itself is a jewel, with clear, sparkling waters encircled by mountains, dotted with islands and home to 11 endemic fish species. Harpy eagles soar overhead, while the forests beyond are full of cassowaries (both dwarf and southern variants), palm cockatoos and birds of paradise, among many other species. The lakeside Tubo Eco-Tourism lodge, one of the few guesthouses in the area, provides a great base for exploring the region.

High above rugged Simbu province, Mt Wilhelm is the country’s highest point, topping out at 4509m. The multi-day hike to the summit passes through tropical, temperate and alpine forests and provides a fine window into the biodiversity of the Highlands. Glacial lakes, wild orchids, misty forests and the kaleidoscopic colours of myriad bird species are on full display. The panorama from the top is captivating. On a clear day, you can see both the north and south coasts of the country.

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© WATERFRAME/FLPA, JUNIORS BILDARCHIV GmbH, LIZA LESKO/ALAMY

Introducing Papua New Guinea’s unique (and vastly outnumbered) mammals One question that often puzzles visitors is why Papua New Guinea is home to such a spectacular array of birds. Such flamboyant plumage and outrageous colours (not to mention the bizarre courtship displays) would seem an evolutionary disadvantage in a world full of threatening species. Part of the answer lies in the lack of mammalian predators in New Guinea: there are no tigers, leopards or foxes, and this has allowed the birds to develop in surprising ways.

Mammals, in fact, don’t figure prominently in the country’s rich fauna, especially in comparison to places like Southeast Asia. The mammals that do exist here, however, are quite unusual, including tree kangaroos, long-beaked echidnas and cuscuses (sometimes described as marsupial ‘monkeys’). In all, a whopping 70 per cent of the island’s 284 mammal species are endemic.

While undoubtedly unique, Papua New Guinea’s mammals have a deep biological connection to those in Australia. Some 25 million years ago, the island shared a shoreline with its southern neighbour, allowing

Australian marsupials to colonise. When the landmasses later became separated by rising sea levels, the isolated mammal migrants evolved independently, with the incredibly rugged geography further catalysing diversity. Larger, now extinct, mammals such as the giant wallaby and the two-ton diprotodon (the largest marsupial that ever lived) once roamed Papua New Guinea’s forests. Over time, though, only smaller mammals managed to survive.

Today, many of New Guinea’s mammals face an uncertain future.

Hunting and habitat loss threaten many of its larger creatures, including all six species of tree kangaroo, which are listed as critically endangered.

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

REGIONAL GUIDE

Clockwise from here: the female Blyth’s hornbill; an atoll in Milne Bay surrounded by waters rich in marine life; a male birdwing butterfly

© AVICO LTD, ALAMY

MILNE BAY The jagged Owen Stanley Range, which marches across the nation’s south eastern flank, ends abruptly at Milne Bay. This is the end of the road for mainland Papua New Guinea. From there, more than 600 islands extend out into the Pacific, creating the backdrop to some of the country’s most stunning scenery. Volcanic islands, coral reefs and topaz-hued atolls support incredibly rich plant and animal life, both above and below the sea.

The modest-sized town of Alotau is the gateway to the province and the first port of call for those heading off to the islands.

Thick jungle covers the steep hillsides beyond town, and daytrips are spent bushwalking in these verdant rainforests, where resplendent birdsong fills the air at dawn and dusk. Straight south of Alotau, the tiny cove of Wagawaga on the southern peninsula provides a journey back in time.

Primary rainforest lines the banks along the slow-moving Dawadawa River. Amid thick strands of rosewood and teak, the squawk of parrots mingles with the sound of hornbills, as black and white cockatoos glide back and

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Essential Papua New Guinea

forth across the river. Meanwhile, birdwing butterflies flit amongst the undergrowth, and the odd branch reveals epiphytic orchid species that have fallen from the canopy.

Out on the islands, there’s an image of paradise lost, with sparkling white-sand beaches, coral fringing reefs and sparkling blue lagoons. Across a narrow strait from the mainland, Normanby is the first of the three major D’Entrecasteaux islands, famed spots

WHO: DES HUME, GUIDE, GONDWANA CONNECTION TOURS WHERE: SAGARAI VALLEY, MILNE BAY Finding that special spot away from the influences of oil palm plantations and village activity, sometimes takes a little effort. We found such a place six hours walk from Siasiada Village in the Sagarai Valley, at over 600m altitude. The patient guides normally travel the track in two hours! Our goal was to view several bird of paradise (BOP) species. Our efforts were well rewarded. A short walk from our bush camp we had great views of an extremely active raggiana BOP lek, or courtship display. As nightfall descended, so did a green tree python, right on the edge of camp. The night continued to deliver: creatures like common cuscus, common tube-nosed bat and large tree-mice. First light produced growling riflebirds and a wonderful king BOP lek.

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

REGIONAL GUIDE

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are quite mountainous, Goodenough, the most north westerly of the group, towers above its neighbours. In fact, with the summit of Mt Oiautukekea reaching 2566m, this is one of the most steeply sided islands on earth. Little developed, Goodenough is home to a high number of endemic species, including the small black forest wallaby – the only wallaby native to a Pacific island.

Clockwise from here: a striped possum; reefs fringe the volcanic shores of Fergusson Island; a clownfish snuggles into its anemone host

© ALAMY, FLPA

for their pristine, mountainous forests and biologically rich reefs. Walks deep into the interior reveal one of the island’s treasures: Goldie’s bird of paradise. The males boast an outrageous display of crimson flank plumes, which turns into quite a show as groups of them dance and compete for a prospective female’s attention.

Although another bird of paradise found here, the curl-crested manucode, is not the most colourful with its large, glossy black plumage, it is easily recognisable for its bizarre call – a piercing fluting sound that can reach considerable distances.

Hot springs, bubbling mud pools and spouting geysers all attest to the geothermal activity of massive Fergusson Island, the largest of the archipelago. The climb up to the caldera of Mt Lamanai (one of three extinct volcanoes on the island) affords the chance to encounter flocks of singing starlings, spy eclectus parrots flying overhead or perhaps catch a glimpse of one of the island’s rare mammals, such as the Fergusson Island striped possum.

Though all of the D’Entrecasteaux Islands

Essential Papua New Guinea WHO: JOSEPH YENMORO, GUIDE FOR WALINDI PLANTATION RESORT WHERE: KIMBE BAY, WEST NEW BRITAIN When I first arrived at Walindi Plantation Resort 14 years ago I was a dive guide, and it was around the time when pygmy seahorses, less than 1cm long, were starting to come into the minds of divers everywhere. I had seen pictures in magazines but no one had ever seen any in Kimbe Bay, yet we knew they had to be here. After learning of the particular gorgonian sea fan the little seahorses prefer to live on, I started searching on every dive. I finally found them on a deep ridge.

The joy and satisfaction of being the first person to see them in Kimbe Bay gave me great pride.

But it was even more rewarding leading other divers to this highly prized animal. Now that we know what sea fan they prefer, we have found them all over the bay.

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THE BISMARK ARCHIPELIGO Full of mystery and little studied by biologists, the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago are a world unto their own. This is a land of smouldering volcanoes, mountainous rainforests and lowland swamps. Owing to the volcanic formation of the islands – which were never part of the mainland – species here have followed their own unique evolutionary paths, and differ considerably from their mainland relatives.

Crescent-shaped New Britain is the largest island of the group and the biggest in all of Papua New Guinea, encompassing over 35,000 square kilometres. Lying directly above a volatile tectonic zone, New Britain is also one of the most volcanically active islands on earth. With five active volcanoes and more than 16 dormant ones, the landscape is continuously being altered by tectonic and volcanic activity. Nowhere is that more apparent than on the Gazelle Peninsula, where smoke-belching Mt Tavurvur continues to create dramatic changes along the coastline. In 1994, it buried the nearby town of Rabaul in volcanic ash.

Kimbe Bay, situated near the western half of the island, harbours sensational marine life. The sole dive operator in the area, Walindi Plantation

Resort, provides daytrips out to pristine sites in the bay, with large pods of spinner dolphins often tagging along on the way. Photogenic coral gardens, with large gorgonian fans, flame-red sea whips and large barrel sponges abound in the nearby reefs, while further out sea-mounts and pinnacles attract big fish and pelagics, with the occasional orca or hammerhead sighting.

Inland from Kimbe Bay, the wildlife is just as profuse in the forests as it is in the seas.

Screeching flocks of blue-eyed cockatoos are among the 16 endemic bird species found here, while another 30 bird species exist only in the Bismarck Archipelago, not on mainland Papua New Guinea. Other birds impossible to miss are the brightly hued eclectus parrots (the males are red and green, the females blue and red), singing parrots, the strange channel-billed cuckoo, which lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, and various kingfishers, including the endemic paradise kingfisher. Travelling solo, except when mating, the dwarf cassowary can sometimes be spotted prowling the forest floor for fruit.

Admired by local tribes, this striking flightless bird is even featured in a traditional dance.

On the slopes of the active volcano, Mt

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

REGIONAL GUIDE

Clockwise from here: volcanos played a large part in shaping the Papua New Guinea landscape; a platymantis schmidti frog; a dwarf cassowary forages in a lagoon; the endangered hawksbill turtle; a shoal of bigeye snappers

LIFE BENEATH THE SEAS

© REINHARD DIRSCHERL, DANIEL L GEIGER, SNAP/ALAMY, PETRA WEGNER

Why Papua New Guinea is one of the world’s top diving destinations

Papua New Guinea is part of the Coral Triangle, the epicentre of marine biodiversity on this planet. There are twice as many fish species here as in the Red Sea, and 10 times as many coral species as in the Caribbean. Needless to say, diving in Papua New Guinea is nothing short of spectacular. Brilliantly hued hard and soft corals, mesmerizing fish life and dramatic underwater scenery are just a few reasons why divers rate these waters so highly. Adding to the appeal are the scores of wrecks from World War II scattered north, south and east of the mainland. Today these sunken warships, barges and fighter planes have been transformed into living, flourishing reefs.

World-class diving lies just off New Britain, the largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago. Here you’ll find towering seamounts that attract a staggering array of marine life, including 350 types of coral and nearly 900 fish species, from the pygmy seahorse to massive killer whales.

North east of New Britain, the long narrow

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island of New Ireland is famed for its big pelagics. Rays, tuna, barracuda, giant trevally, numerous turtles and sharks are frequently spotted.

Just off New Guinea’s southeast tip, Milne Bay has some of the country’s most varied dive sites, with sheer walls, spiralling pinnacles and magnificent reefs, all teeming with fish. Several large bommies host manta ray cleaning stations, where these graceful giants of the deep wing their way past tiny wrasses, sometimes in groups of up to 10. There’s also excellent muck diving, where you can go eye-to-eye with countless fascinating creatures, including seahorses, octopi, scorpionfish, dwarf lionfish and many other species.

As is the case with land-based tourism, diving in Papua New Guinea remains in its infancy, with only a handful of dive operators based in the country. Yet, this also makes for uncrowded reefs and unparalleled opportunities for exploring uncharted territory.

Garbuna, flow the sulphurous springs known as the Garu Hot River. Nearby is a breeding ground for the Melanesian scrubfowl. Here you’ll find hundreds of burrows where these unusual, but quite successful, megapodes lay and bury their eggs, using the warm volcanic soil to help incubate them. By nightfall the jungle is noisy with the chorus of frogs, particularly the various species of the platymantis, one of New Britain’s most successful groups. These frogs are unusual in that they lay their eggs directly onto the rainforest floor, and the offspring completely bypass the tadpole stage of development.

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

REGIONAL GUIDE

Clockwise from left: a king bird of paradise displaying; the vast rainforests of the province are largely uninhabited; the rusa deer is an introduced species that has taken well to its tropical surroundings

THE WESTERN PROVINCE

© SUPERSTOCK, WILLIAM BRADLEY/ALAMY

Off-the-beaten-path travel doesn’t get any wilder than this. Despite being the nation’s largest, the Western Province is also its least densely populated, with fewer than two inhabitants per square kilometre. Vast wetlands stretch across its southern half, fed by the impressive Fly River as it journeys from the Star Mountains through the foothills of the Highlands and down into a seemingly endless delta of river islands and mangrove swamps.

There are very few roads here, and travel is challenging to say the least. The only real way to get around is by foot, canoe or light aircraft. Yet the rewards for making the journey are outstanding, particularly in the realm of birdwatching. With more than 300 species found here, this is one of Papua New Guinea’s megadiversity hotspots. There are few international visitors, so those who come can experience this magical place, far from the madding crowd.

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The Tonda Wildlife Management Area, one of Papua New Guinea’s largest sanctuaries, covers a region of savannah and grasslands. Resident and migratory waterbirds, such as the gregarious brolga, are found here, along with mammals not found in other parts of New Guinea, including the spectacled hare-wallaby, the little studied bronze quoll (a type of carnivorous marsupial) and the rather surprising rusa deer, which was introduced

by Dutch missionaries more than a century ago. Over 50 fish species swim in the waters alongside the predatory saltwater crocodile, the smaller New Guinea crocodile and other reptiles.

Further north, near the small river town of Kiunga, the virgin rainforests are favoured nesting sites for nearly a dozen species of bird of paradise. The spectacle of a male king bird of paradise in full display is unforgettable.

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

REGIONAL GUIDE

Clockwise from left: the amazing colours of the rainbow lorikeet; the green tree python is equally at home on the ground; the saltwater crocodile has given rise to many local tales and customs

THE SEPIK

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prominently in the folklore and rites of passage of local Sepik tribes. An aweinspiring number of birds flourish here, from dusky lories, which fly in great flocks over the river, to fast-flying groups of rainbow lorikeets, and various species of cockatoo and pigeons – including the blue Victoria crowned pigeon, an absurdly elegant bird with lace-like, white-tipped crests and royal blue coloration.

A host of other creatures appear by night, including the tiny black antechinus (a mouselike marsupial), ring-tailed possums and the impressive giant fruit bat. The latter plays a central role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem by dispersing the seeds of many of the rainforest plants over great distances.

One remote eco-resort, the aptly named Karawari Lodge provides access to this pristine environment, though the only way in is by light aircraft or a nine-hour journey downstream by motorised canoe to the first small village that connects to a road.

© GORDON PHOTOGRAPHY, ALAMY, SUPERSTOCK

The mighty Sepik River flows for over 1100km from its headwaters in the central mountains to its mouth at the Bismarck Sea. Along the way, it winds and coils, serpentlike, flowing west, then north and east and south, then finally east again where it churns through one of the most biologically rich wetlands in all of the Asia-Pacific. Like many other parts of Papua New Guinea, the geography is exceptionally complex, with cloud-covered peaks, vast swaths of uninhabited rainforest and freshwater marshlands.

In East Sepik Province, an exceptionally pristine environment surrounds the Karawari River. Along the banks, you can spy the flashing neon colour of common green birdwing butterflies and the dazzling blue of Ulysses butterflies, while the 4m long Papuan olive python slithers along the forest floor. Out in the river lurk two species of crocodile, including the locally revered saltwater variety, which is the world’s largest reptile. Indeed, crocodiles feature

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

ONES TO WATCH

ONES TO WATCH

GOLDIE’S BIRD OF PARADISE

GOODFELLOW’S TREE KANGAROO Dendrolagus goodfellowi Like other tree kangaroos, this species spends much of its life off the ground, and its features differ notably from its ground-dwelling relatives. It has strong arms, with short curved claws that aid in climbing, short hind limbs and a long tail for leaping among the branches.

Its fur is short and woolly, usually chestnut or reddish brown in colour, with a pale underside and two golden stripes running down its back. About the size of a small dog, these tree kangaroos weigh six to 10kg on average, and tend to be solitary creatures. Although quite agile in the trees, they appear clumsy when moving about on the ground. They are listed as critically endangered owing to over hunting and habitat loss.

Spotting tip: This hard-to-find, largely nocturnal species lives throughout the Highlands between 700m and 2,800m elevation.

© JACKIE ELLIS/ALAMY, AUSCAPE, SUPERSTOCK

EASTERN LONG-BEAKED ECHIDNA Zaglossus bartoni These unusual creatures are one of three existing species in Papua New Guinea, which are relics of prehistory and one of the last survivors of the world’s earliest mammals. They can reach up to 1m in length and weigh nearly 10kg. They are slow-moving and covered in spines, and when threatened they roll themselves into

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Papua New Guinea’s top 10 birds and mammals to see

Paradisaea decora As with many other birds of paradise, the male gets all the attention for his spectacular plumage and mesmerising courtship display. Males have dark orange-yellow heads, velvety green throats, mauve breasts and fiery crimson flank plumes, which become a cascade of finery during the dance. Males often perform in groups – sometimes in pairs, sometimes in gatherings of up to 10 – calling out to prospective mates as they gyrate back and forth, ruffling their feathers in a magnificent arc of plumage.

Spotting tip: Endemic to D’Entrecasteaux Islands off Milne Bay, Goldie’s bird of paradise can be spotted in the forests of Normanby and Fergusson Islands. It prefers to live at elevations of 300m to 700m.

a ball. Like other mammals they are warm-blooded and have mammary glands.

However, they do not give birth to live young, but rather lay their eggs in burrows. All three of the long-beaked species are critically endangered.

Spotting tip: These rarely found nocturnal creatures inhabit the Highlands from 2,000 to 3,000m in elevation, although some have been found as high up as 4,000m.

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HOODED PITOHUI Pitohui dichrous Although this endemic songbird bird has long been known to ornithologists, it wasn’t until 1992 that its most astonishing attribute was discovered. The hooded pitohui is poisonous: its skin and feathers

KING BIRD OF PARADISE Cicinnurus regius Although the smallest of the birds of paradise, the king bird is one of the world’s avian stars, with a dazzling courtship dance. Males of this species boast crimson red feathers with a snow-white breast, vivid green plumes on the shoulder, and blue feet. Streaming behind are two elongated tail wires tipped with green disks, which he puts to artful use during his dance. When a female he hopes to impress is near, the male puffs up his body, creating a wide collar around his neck, and vibrates his wings. He then spins his tail about as a pendulum, sometimes hanging upside down

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contain an incredibly powerful neurotoxin that is hundreds of times more toxic than strychnine. This poison is found nowhere else in the world aside from the poison dart frog in South America. No less surprising is the bird’s colouration of brilliant orange and black, present on both males and females.

This is also found in other noxious species

like an acrobat in the process. It’s an astonishing ritual that only occasionally ends in copulation. His prospective mate is a brown, rather plain-looking bird, paling to insignificance next to his splendour.

Spotting tip: This bird is widespread in lowland rainforest throughout New Guinea, although the most reliable sightings have been outside of Kiunga in the Western Province.

such as the monarch butterfly and the coral snake, and appears to be a warning to would-be predators of its lethality.

Spotting tip: The hooded pitohui is widespread throughout Papua New Guinea, but has most easily been spotted at Varirata National Park near Port Moresby.

DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

ONES TO WATCH

SOUTHERN CASSOWARY Casuarius casuarius Papua New Guinea’s largest land animal is neither mammal nor reptile, but a striking flightless bird known as the southern cassowary. Resembling a rather theatrically attired old dame, the cassowary has bristly black plumage, a blue face and neck, and two long red wattles hanging from its throat. A hornlike casque extends from its head – the name cassowary deriving from the Papuan for horned head. Although they generally avoid people, when provoked the cassowary is capable of causing serious injury with its blade-like 12cm-long claw present on each of its feet. Surprisingly, it is the males that care for the nests and rear the chicks, sitting for up to 60 days on the eggs to incubate them. After they hatch, the young stay with their father for up to 16 months. Two other species are found in New Guinea, including the dwarf cassowary, which generally inhabits higher rainforest elevations.

Spotting tip: The southern cassowary is found throughout lowland tropical rainforests of Papua New Guinea, preferring elevations from just above sea level to 1,000m. They are notoriously shy, but dawn or dusk are the best times to see them. Reliable sightings have occurred in the Tari Valley in the Highlands and the Western province near Kiunga.

SUPERB BIRD OF PARADISE Lophorina superba

©DANIEL HEUCLIN/NATUREPL.COM, SUPERSTOCK, ALAIN COMPOST/FLPA, KEVIN SCHAFER

Of all the bizarre courtship dances in the animal kingdom, few can measure up to that of the superb bird of paradise. After meticulously clearing a dance floor, removing twigs and stray bits of brush from his performance space, the male attracts a female with a piercing call. As soon as she nears the male uses his unusual plumage to create an utterly mystifying prop. His black erectile cape and the flayed two-pronged iridescent shield on his breast join to create a perfect ellipse. He then dances wildly around the female, beating his tail on the ground in rhythm. Males are quite territorial, and competition for a female mate is fierce. To make matters worse, females are incredibly picky, rejecting an average of 15 potential suitors before finally accepting one.

Spotting tip: Sightings of this and a dozen other bird of paradise species are common in the Tari Valley in the Highlands.

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

ONES TO WATCH COMMON SPOTTED CUSCUS Spilocuscus maculatus These nocturnal tree-dwellers have long prehensile tails and opposable toes and fingers, which they use with monkey-like agility for climbing through the rainforest canopy. Roughly the size of a house cat, and weighing around 5kg, these marsupials have brown and white spotted fur and a gentle, docile appearance. They spend much of their lives in the treetops, feeding by night and sleeping by day. Cuscuses mate year round with multiple partners. Females typically have just two or three offspring at a time, which spend six to seven months in the mother’s pouch from just after birth.

Spotting tip: Widespread across Papua New Guinea, the common spotted cuscus is not a threatened species since it inhabits a range of different ecosystems, including lowland rainforest, mangroves and eucalypt forest. They are, however, hunted for their meat, and sightings can be rare.

SOUTHERN CROWNED PIGEON Goura scheepmakeri This magnificent creature is a far cry from its urban relatives of London and New York.

Its most striking features are its lacy blue-grey headdress and its black mask with red eyes, all of which give it a warriorlike appearance. Its wings are deep blue and its breast a saturated maroon colour. It’s a fairly gregarious species, usually

encountered in groups of three to eight.

Like other pigeons, the southern crowned produces crop-milk, a secretion that is regurgitated to feed the chick. Owing to hunting and habitat loss it is listed as a vulnerable species.

Spotting tip: The southern crowned is found in the southern lowlands of Papua New Guinea. Reliable sightings occur in the Western province near Kiunga.

Sericulus aureus True to name, the flame bowerbird has vivid yellowish-orange plumage with a bright vermillion head and yellow eyes, along with black-tipped wings and tail. Like other male bowerbirds, this endemic rainforest bird builds a small enclosure made of thin branches, which he decorates with purple and blue seeds, fruits and flowers. This is all part of an elaborate stage where he will showcase his courtship dance when a female comes near. Like the birds of paradise, the flame bowerbird has unusual moves. He wriggles his body up and down, inflating his plumage in a writhing dance not unlike a flickering tongue of fire.

Spotting tip: This bird is widespread in lowland rainforest throughout Papua New Guinea, though the most reliable sightings have been outside of Kiunga, in the Western Province.

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© SUPERSTOCK, NICK GARBUTT/NATUREPL.COM

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Travelling to the wilds of Papua New Guinea to track down its glamorous birds of paradise, Karl Cushing discovers that there’s much more to this intriguing country’s wildlife than its avian superstars

Paradise

FOUND 92 WILD TRAVEL

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

TRIP REPORT BIRDS OF PARADISE

Here: the lesser bird of paradise displaying his impressive plumage.

Below: the coral reefs and islands of Kimbe Bay, West New Britain Island

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Š DAVID TIPLING, SUPERSTOCK

C

runching through the dried leaves and twigs on the parched jungle floor we approached the displaying area of the lesser bird of paradise with all the subtlety of someone trying to eat a bag of crisps quietly in a cinema.

With a breeze building in the treetops, and my guides having warned me that the skittish birds were both quick to flee from any disturbance and loathe to display their unwieldy plumage in such weather conditions, it wasn’t boding well for a good sighting.

Yet, we were in luck. One lone male had ventured out and for more than two hours we followed his plaintive calls for female company, catching glimpses of him in four separate trees. As the day wore on the tension, and the mosquito bite count, mounted. Would I ever get to see the whole glorious creature?

The light was fading when the bird of paradise, in a sudden yellow-brown flash and with perilously long white tail feathers wafting behind, burst from his veil of branches and revealed himself as he took off to roost in the valley below. For us, it was a triumphant end to what show there had been.

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By this time in the trip, my camera and I had been playing cat and mouse with birds of paradise for more than a week. During outings from the Highlands to Madang I’d enjoyed numerous far sightings, training my zoom lens on distant specks pointed out by my keener-eyed guides. Sadly, though, the eagerly anticipated, jaw-dropping close ups of merrily displaying birds had eluded me.

This lesser bird of paradise would make up for all the rest.

Clockwise from left: a red grasshawk dragonfly; the Blyth’s or Papuan hornbill that’s found in lowland forests; a blue bird of paradise; wildlife guide William in his dugout canoe; the suspension bridge and circular palm-leaf huts of Ambua Lodge

STRICTLY COURTING Birds of paradise aren’t the only avian show in town, however. I’d been able to delight in the psychedelic hues of eclectus parrots and the size and splendor of a pair of Blyth’s hornbills, their heavy wings churning the air with an almighty whoomph, whoomph, whoomph as they passed overhead. Lacking natural predators, birds truly rule the roost in Papua New Guinea, with more than 760 recorded species in the country, many of them endemic. Birds of paradise aside, I had seen some sights.

The most striking thing anyone can see is the courtship dance of the male flame bowerbird. This pigeon-sized bird is a feast for the eyes with his fluorescent red head and shoulders and yellow body plumage. His wings and tail are tipped with glossy black, and he has sexy smudgy dark eye rings to give the come-hither look to the much dowdier female.

She hangs around in a nearby thicket, in

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her greeny brown and pale yellow livery, while he paces the ground, shrugging his gaudy shoulders and rolling his body around.

Every now and then he offers her a berry titbit while ushering her with an outspread wing into the avenue of vertical twigs he has constructed for a nest. This wing-beckoning gesture becomes faster and more frantic as the dance progresses.

The whole episode climaxes in the giving of the gift with much bowing and bobbing,

and then the process starts all over again until she succumbs and allows him to mate.

Quirky and unique experiences like these, however, were just distant objects of desire when I arrived at Ambua Lodge in Tari, tired but full of anticipation, after a series of connecting flights and a brief overnight stay on my journey from London. I was in the southern Highlands region where habitats such as the floodplains around the Bensbach and Baiyer Rivers and the Wasi Falls play

DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

TRIP REPORT BIRDS OF PARADISE Whne they take off, the Blyth’s hornbill’s heavy wings churn the air with an almighty whoomph, whoomph

BEGUILING BIRDS

Clockwise from here: the short-crested forest dragon changes colour in breeding season; a Wallace’s frog glides down to the forest floor; one of Danum Valley’s orangutans; the fiercelooking three-horned rhinoceros beetle is actually harmless to humans; large aerial pitcher plants

Introducing birds of paradise, the stars of Papua New Guinea’s avian show

home to many of the country’s endemic species.

At almost 7,000 feet above sea level, the Lodge offers lofty panoramas of the skies and the valley below. The first time I stepped out onto the resort’s terrace a brahmani kite did a fly past, and great woodswallows careered at impossible speeds around the thatched rondellas and main reception. The lodge is surrounded by muddy, mossy nature paths with a suspension bridge over the river, where you can see waterfalls and some of the many species

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© KARL CUSHING, ALAIN COMPOST/FLPA

B

irds of paradise have been entrancing visitors to Papua New Guinea since the first Western explorers named them thus. They judged that, with their exotic and outlandish plumage, they must surely have descended from the heavens. And its not just tourists that are transfixed by these glorious birds; naturalists and experienced ornithologists are just as fascinated by the varieties of their plumage and the intricacies of their behaviour.

The country is home to 38 of the world’s 43 known species of bird of paradise, including manucodes, parotias and sicklebills, some of which are endemic.

They vary in size from the greater, which is up to 43cm long excluding its tail, to the tiny king, at around 16cm long. Despite ongoing deforestation, and being hunted for their prized feathers, the birds survive in numbers, especially on the mainland.

Spying the glossy colour palettes incorporated in their plumage is one thing, witnessing the way they employ their wings, tail streamers and head dresses in the elaborate displays they put on for each other is quite another. Arguably the most gifted proponent of the art is the male blue bird of paradise. In the course of its spectacular courtship it suspends itself upside down to fan out its spectacular blue tail feathers while it emits a rhythmic sound and pumps its chest.

For a wildlife photographer than can be no greater thrill than capturing an image of this brilliant display.

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© KARL CUSHING, DAVID TIPLING

of exotic wild orchids that grow here.

At half past five on the morning after my arrival, I was heading out on the road to Tari Gap, a renowned birding area. The guides at Ambua Lodge certainly know their birds, as evidenced by the fact that my guide Stephen advised making an unlikely stop on the way, near a massive oil and gas project. Despite our vigil being conducted at the side of a main road, with trucks speeding past, honking their horns over-excitedly, we saw four species of bird of paradise – a brown sicklebill, a female Stephanie’s astrapia, a male ribbon-tailed astrapia and a distant King of Saxony.

Tari Gap itself brought further rewards, with kites circling lazily on the distant thermals and tiny birds flitting among the tall grass of plains that melted into the foothills of the mountains beyond.

The Highlands is one of the country’s most populous areas and a major cultural centre. It is home to some of the most prominent of the country’s 1,000 or so tribal groups and while I was in Tari I took the opportunity to visit some villages of the Huli Wig Men. Their dances draw inspiration from the birds of paradise, the plumes of which they also covet for their costumes. Having seen the birds, I could understand why.

The next stage on my tour was the volcanic coastal fjordland of Tufi, in Oro Province, which provided a marked contrast to the rainy, misty mountains of the Highlands. Tufi’s trump card is its scuba diving. Papua New Guinea sits within the Coral Triangle, which is home to the highest concentration of marine diversity in the world. The 30-plus dive sites accessible from Tufi Resort offer a solid taste

Wild orchids grow in the damp ground around the waterfalls

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DESTINATION PAPUA NEW GUINEA

TRIP REPORT BIRDS OF PARADISE

Dolphins dived and darted all around, playing in the wake

Left: Karl and his guide William are dwarfed by a vast ceiba tree trunk in the tropical forest; the spinner dolphins round the Duke of York islands enjoy a game with passing boats

REMOTE AND UNIQUE Offshore, it’s a different matter. The bountiful waters surrounding the picture-perfect Duke of York Islands are home to large pods of dolphins, which merrily played chicken and chase with our boat as we head out to sea.

Not wanting to miss out on a unique event, I jumped in to watch them dive and dart around me on all sides. Not even the fact that I was royally yanked and banged about on the boat’s side as I clutched the stubby guide rope could dim the pleasure of the experience.

Travelling around Papua New Guinea’s 460,000 square kilometres is not the easiest of things to do. It tends to be a little expensive, due in part to a lack of competition among local operators. Plus the absence of major roads in many places, and a paucity of long-distance boat services, mean that you are very reliant on costly air transport.

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Accommodation options are also limited and service standards vary wildly.

The question is, though, what price can you put on visiting a place that is unlike anywhere else? Its very remoteness is what have made it what it is, a natural paradise.

The birding is exemplary, the flora remarkable, the landscape seldom less than breathtaking, and the locals some of the

most welcoming and engaging I’ve met anywhere. Indeed, I spent so much time waving from the back of minibuses to acknowledge the constant greetings and shouts of ‘Hello!’ I began to feel like royalty.

For sheer adventure and the mesmerising spectacle of nature running riot, Papua New Guinea stands unique, offering all-too-rare glimpses of heaven on earth. WT

TRIP ADVISER >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> COST RATING SAMPLE PACKAGE TOUR: Karl flew from London Heathrow to Singapore via Bangkok with Thai Airways, continuing to Port Moresby on Airlines PNG. He stayed at Rondon Ridge in Mt. Hagen; Ambua Lodge in Tari; Loloata Resort near Port Moresby; Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort in Rabaul; and Malolo Plantation Lodge, near Madang. His itinerary was arranged by Londonbased Original Travel, the sister company of Original Diving.

GETTING THERE: Most UK visitors fly to Port Moresby via Singapore, where they switch to Airlines PNG – around a 24-hour trip. Alternative transit points include Hong Kong, Cairns and Bali.

Once in PNG, most trips involve internal flights.

VISA REQUIREMENTS FROM THE UK: UK citizens with 100 Kina (about £25) and a passport photo

can obtain a 60-day tourist visa on arrival at major ports of entry such as Jackson’s Airport in Port Moresby.

TIPS & WARNINGS: There can be a risk of opportunistic crime in urban areas so take precautions to secure your valuables and stay with a group at night. To reduce the risk of contracting malaria and other insect-borne diseases in low-altitude areas take lots of high-strength insect repellent and keep covered where possible. Trekking in the mountains of the Highlands can bring on altitude sickness so take time to acclimatise.

WHEN TO GO: The dry season, roughly June to November, is the best time to see wildlife and go trekking. The major cultural shows, such as the National Mask Festival and Goroka Show, are held between June and September.

TOUR OPERATOR

■ ORIGINAL TRAVEL, Tel: 020 7978 7333;

© KARL CUSHING

throughout my visit. Between them they annihilated the city in 1937 and 1994.

Moreover, its natural deepwater port, itself a massive volcanic caldera, led to Rabaul being seized for a naval base by the Japanese during World War II. It was consequently much targeted by Allied bombing raids.

Today, while a few dogged enterprises such as the quirky Rabaul Hotel remain, much of the town’s former area has been given over to an eerie, ash-bowl wasteland. One of the few beneficiaries of this otherwise largely unproductive terrain is Tavurvur’s resident megapode birds, which lay and incubate their disproportionately large eggs in its toastywarm ashy slopes.

www.originaltravel.co.uk

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

YOU’LL GO A LONG WAY TO FIND A BETTER APP

The NEW World Travel App, NOW available and FREE to download from

THEKNOWLEDGE The wildlife travel survival guide

HOW TO

SKILLS

How to...

BOOKS

APPS

WEB

PHOTO WORKSHOP

KIT REVIEWS

Q&A

MAKE A GARDEN HIDE

There’s lots of interesting wildlife to be found in your garden, you just have to watch for it. Amy Lewis from The Wildlife Trusts shows how building a simple garden hide can get you closer to nature in comfort

Your very own nature reserve Gardens are the perfect place to experiment with a spot of homemade hide building. These have several advantages: you have control over where you site your hide; they are enclosed spaces with minimal disturbance from passers-by; and, hopefully, the local wildlife is already

predisposed to visit to take advantage of bird feeders, berry-bearing shrubs and other habitat features you’ve created.

You can also set out your own photo props, whether it’s the traditional robin-on-a-spadehandle or a more natural shot with an aesthetically pleasing, lichen encrusted branch.

Location, location For photographers, a low hide with viewing access close to the ground could be important, particularly for capturing mammals such as foxes or badgers.

Alternatively, the hide may be better placed close to the branches of trees surrounding a bird feeding station to catch birds approaching and scoping out the feeding area.

For those watching or taking notes of birds and their behaviour, comfort may be a more important requirement.

Hides that allow a seated position close to feeders could be best here. Observe the movement of birds and wildlife in the garden before choosing a position.

Mammals may be using favoured trails between gardens, and ponds or bird baths may be hotspots of activity on hot, dry

days. Ripening fruit trees could be perfect in autumn.

Keep it simple You don’t need a degree in architecture or a shed full of power tools to put up an effective hide. A simple frame of poles lashed together in a classic tepee or tent arrangement can suffice. It only needs to be sturdy enough to support a sheet draped across it and, depending on your comfort requirements and intended use, with enough space inside to sit or lie comfortably.

Any dark material will provide your cover. Colour really doesn’t matter – so long as it’s thick enough to shield you from nervous eyes. For our purposes, an opaque gingham tablecloth is

just as good as camouflage net.

You could even dispense with the frame altogether; the key is to break up your human-shaped outline and mask movement that would give you away. When cutting a viewing flap, keep the hole small and ensure it only opens onto a dark interior.

The waiting game Once your hide is set up you need to be prepared for the long haul. Going in and out too often will quickly give the game away.

Be prepared with warm clothing, charged batteries and non-noisy snacks. Some movement of the hide in the wind will help to mask any fidgeting. Rapid-fire shutter sounds can spook your subjects, so set your camera to single shutter release, relax and enjoy.

Have you built a hide in your garden? We would love to see pictures of it! (www.facebook.com/wildtravelmag).

Or write and tell us about it by emailing editorial@wildtravelmag.com

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WILD TRAVEL 101

© SHUTTERSTOCK

A

s any serious birdwatcher or wildlife photographer will tell you, patience, preparation and the ability to stay hidden are essential ingredients if you want to capture that magical shot, spot that shy species or share an animal’s secret world without causing disturbance. But you don’t need fancy camouflage gear or high-tech equipment to get close to wildlife. Watching natural behaviour up close can be easier than you think.

THEKNOWLEDGE SKILLS Insider’s guide to...

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET LOST Wilderness expert Ray Mears advises on how to regain your bearings if you find yourself in a tricky situation

T

he important thing when trying not to get lost is to be accurate and try to pick up mistakes early. When people learn navigate they can slavishly use the compass to the exclusion of using their common sense, which can lead them into trouble.

Before

you use a compass, estimate roughly what your bearing is likely to be, so if you get it wrong it will

be wildly wrong and you’ll pick up the error before you actually make it.

Also, if the weather is bad, be wise. Know when to stop and wait for it to change. When you do that, you start to tune into nature and pick up a natural rhythm to your journey, and that actually enhances the experience.

I always teach people to stop and think, observe and plan if things go wrong, which is a drill you can follow. There is usually a reason why you have become lost and that reason is usually dehydration, so stopping, having a drink and something high-energy to eat before trying to solve the problem, can be a massive help. If we were to analyse the cases of people of getting lost in the mountains, it would nearly always be a result of exhaustion and dehydration.

The key thing, though, is to maintain a sense of humour as things go wrong. Avoid panicking. So long as you can keep laughing, that’s great. It means you’ll be in a better frame of mind to plan your way back.

FOUR OF THE BEST…

MARINE LIFE APPS MARINE BIOLOGY GLOSSARY

A must for the marine biologist, whether student, professional or amateur. It provides the meaning of around 450 marine terms, and needs no internet connection.

All marine life is included from plants to the largest sea creatures.

£0.60, iPhone and Android www.itunes.apple.com

NZ MARINE LIFE

View more than 260 marine mammals, fish, reptiles, shellfish, invertebrates, seaweeds and plants from the waters around New Zealand.

Features include high quality images for each species and access to peer-reviewed scientific data on common coastal marine species.

Free, iPhone http://www.aucklandmuseum. com/apps/nzmarinelife

Survival skills

STARTING A FIRE

If you find yourself without matches there are several ways to create flames, says Joe O’Leary from Wilderness Survival Skills

You can magnify the sun’s rays through a bottle bottom or the magnifier on your compass base plate. Or you could try touching the terminals of a battery on to fine wire wool to make it glow red-hot. Striking a soft steel penknife against a sharp flint edge can also create sparks, or even rotating two seasoned wood components against each other at speed.

This will create a hot glowing pile of wood dust, which can be added to dry tinder to create flame.

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Before you begin your fire starting, though, all the surrounding foliage should be cleared back for at least 2m.

Gather tinder first: dead dry grass, bark peelings, bracken and some lichens are perfect.

Kindling is your first stage in firewood and should be no more than matchstick thick.

After this comes your fuel wood, starting out as pencil thick and gradually increasing in size.

Place your tinder bundle on the

stick base in your fire pit and introduce a flame to the bottom of your tinder bundle. Allow the flame to grow upwards, add the smallest fuel wood, then keep adding the rest of the fuel.

When extinguishing your fire, douse the area with water and only leave it when all the charred wood, ash and the earth underneath are completely cold. www.wilderness-survival.co.uk

OCEAN ENCOUNTERS

This app features 250 stunning photographs by Brandon Cole that capture the beauty and diversity of Earth’s marine life.

Features 25 galleries, iTunes integration, built-in music player, map-based navigation and slideshow player.

£1.20, iPhone www.itunes.apple.com

WORLD OF MARINE LIFE

An indispensable guide to the many different species that call the world’s seas and shores home. Each of the 300 creatures is illustrated with detailed full-colour artwork and entries are arranged by family.

Needs no internet connection.

iPhone, £2.43 www.itunes.apple.com

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

THEKNOWLEDGE BOOKS 5 minutes with...

STEVE WINTER

Photojournalist and director of conservation charity Panthera, Steve Winter, shares his thoughts on his new book, Tigers Forever, packed with evocative stories and images (National Geographic, £25) Tell me about the book?

My wife is conservation writer Sharon Guynup and it was her idea to put the stories I’ve written for magazines together to make a book. It shows local people’s usage of the forest and how it relates to the tiger’s biggest threat, loss of habitat. We can’t live without these forests, so if we save the tiger’s range, we save ourselves. My book gives you the chance to help, as 10 per cent of the cost goes to Panthera (www.panthera.org).

Why tigers?

I didn’t choose cats, they chose me. If you protect the top predator in every ecosystem you protect everything below it. The easiest way to kill a tiger is to kill off all of its food. That’s why the first thing you have to protect is the tiger’s prey, not the tiger.

How did your passion for wildlife start?

I was a photojournalist for a news agency and they got me a job at a pharmaceutical company in Costa Rica to cover their work trying to find new drugs.

So my wife and I went into the rainforest and we were hooked; it changed our lives for both of us. Being in the jungle for the first time was immense; before that I had never even taken a picture of an animal.

That was more than 20 years ago, and I decided then that if I was going to do a story I had to cover the lair, the people and the threats

Sharks of the World David A Ebert, Sarah Fowler, Leonard Compagno and Marc Dando (Wild Nature Press, £45.00) A major reference work and beautifully illustrated book, this is the only single guide to more than 500 shark species, and includes the most recent taxonomic revisions. Its detailed descriptions cover biology and behaviour to distribution and Red List status. The combined information makes it an exhaustive compendium.

Birds: ID Insights Words Dominic Couzens, artwork David Nurney (New Holland, £16.99) Ideal for birders of all levels, this is a pocketsized companion to identifying the more difficult birds found in Britain and north-west Europe. Couzens and Nurney have spent years compiling field notes and sketches as part of an ongoing series for Bird Watching magazine, and this draws their efforts together in one volume.

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52 Wildlife Weekends James Lowen (Bradt Travel Guides, £14.99) Who needs BBC’s Springwatch when this book has 52 good reasons to get out and see British wildlife for yourself?

It covers a year of unforgettable wildlife watching breaks stretching from Cornwall to northern Scotland and from butterflies to basking sharks, with descriptions and tips.

Aurochs: Born to be Wild these animals faced. My job is to tell the whole story.

Why did you become involved with Panthera?

They give themselves a goal-oriented programme to help save the tiger, and they pick locations where people on the ground believe it can be done. They are in five countries now and have exceeded their expected goals in many locations.

WORLDWILDWEB

www.able-travel.com

Goderie, Helmer, Kerkdijk-Otten, Widstrand (Rewilding Europe, €29.99) Extinct for 400 years, the aurochs were ancestors to the world’s cattle and have inspired many myths and legends. This is a fascinating account not only of the animal’s place in our cultural heritage but also of the Taurus Programme’s plans to breed it back into existence.

Four of the best websites to learn about birds and their conservation, in the UK as well as abroad

RSPB www.rspb.org.uk

BRITISH TRUST FOR ORNITHOLOGY www.bto.org This website gives up-todate news on the status of UK birds, their migratory patterns, and seasonal movements in the UK. The BTO is an independent charitable research institute that employs scientists to monitor bird populations. It has a range of surveys for volunteers that are listed on the site.

Britain’s largest nature conservation charity, the RSPB works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment through campaigns, petitions and management of nature reserves. Learn on the website what they do, where their reserves are, news and how to help.

BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL www.birdlife.org This website has the latest global bird news, concerns and campaigns.

Birdlife International is a partnership of independent organisations, with 121

BirdLife Partners worldwide and growing. It liaises with governments, communities, agencies, the private sector and other conservation and development NGOs, to influence key decisions.

WILDFOWL & WETLANDS TRUST www.wwt.org.uk WWT works with other organisations across the world to monitor, research, create and restore wetlands and the wildlife that depends on them.

Details of projects are on the website. It has a network of nine UK reserves that comprise 2,600 hectares of globally important wetland habitat.

WILD TRAVEL 103

THEKNOWLEDGE KIT 1

2 3

NIGHT OWLS

4

Your choice of night-time equipment will ensure you’ll see whatever wildlife is lurking under the cover of darkness

10

9

8

6 Goggle box One for the gadget lover. These Cobra Optics Storm Pro binocular goggles have 1x magnification (any more and it becomes disorientating) and are great when wildlife spotting on the move. £699.95, www.cobra-optics.co.uk 7 Hide and seek Let the wildlife come to you while you sit comfortably in a pop-up hide. This Ameristep Doghouse Pop Up Hide weighs just 14lb, takes minutes to put up and features shoot-through mesh. £91.95, www.opticswarehouse.co.uk 8 Closer and closer Get closer to the night time action with these Pulsar Edge GS 3.5x50 binoculars.

Features include R-contact optical system, multi-coated lenses and a built-in IR illuminator with variable power. However, take note this is an image-intensified device and so it will be damaged if exposed to bright light. £589.95, www.thomasjacks.co.uk/pulsar 9 Solar power For a handy light when darkness falls, you can’t do better than Lumilife Inflatable Solar LED Light Bag. It features a mini solar panel that provides light for up to 16 hours. £9.98, www.ledhut.co.uk 10 Into the red If you don’t want to disturb the wildlife with the glare of a flashlight, an infra-red torch is a must. This traditional-looking torch has a high powered infra red lamp that produces invisible IR light which can be seen by night vision scopes or night-shot cameras. £80, www.gowildlifewatching.co.uk

W

ILD TRAV

EL

1 Night-time catch If studying moths appeals to you, try this lightweight and portable trap. You put it out in the garden at dusk, and in the morning visit to see what’s been been attracted to it. £55- £125, www.nhbs.com 2 Mono-vision Ultra-compact, lightweight, easy to use and designed for night-time viewing, the NVMT Monocular offers 2.0x image magnification and a wide 30 degree field of view. There’s a hands-free option and a built-in IR illuminator with variable power. £235, www.gowildlifewatching.co.uk 3 Taking the heat As thermal imagers detect heat they are perfect for night-time viewing, as they can give clues to where potential wildlife is hiding. These thermal imaging monoculars from Pulsar come with a high resolution microbolometer sensor, and frost-proof OLED display.

Up to £2,299.95, www.thomasjacks.co.uk 4 Touchy feely On a cold night the last thing you want to do is take your gloves off to work touch screens.

These microfibre and stretch fleece touch screen gloves by Totes Isotoner will both keep you warm and allow you to use the latest technology. £18.99, www.touchscreengloves.co.uk 5 On the trail Enjoy the antics of your night time visitors in colour with this 8MP, FL-8 trail camera from SpyPoint. Features include a 35 infrared (IR) LED module, and can be remote controlled and triggered. £189.95, www.spypoint.com

RECOMMENDS

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6 7

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WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

Here: I arrived at a local lake at dawn to photograph the elaborate courtship display of these great crested grebes. The mist cut down contrast and allowed me to capture important detail in the shadow areas Below: the backlighting here has created a subtle rim-lighting effect around the body of this seal Right: by shooting into the sun and towards an area of shadow, I was able to capture the breath of this deer as it roared its gutteral threats to nearby stags Below right: I photographed these orcas off the coast of Iceland. As the sun started to dip I switched to a wide angle lens to capture these impressive animals

Part thirteen

LIGHT AND SHADOW A

s long as I have been a photographer I have never understood the rule of keeping the sun behind you. I find that often the most evocative images are captured when shooting into the light. Depending on the situation and the intensity of the sun, the outcome of back-lighting your subject can vary dramatically, and range from a solid silhouette to a rim-lit subject that still shows detail in the shadows. This technique is known as contre-jour and when the results are compared to a front-lit image, it can be seen that backlighting can add a tremendous amount of atmosphere and be used to create a certain mood.

Silhouettes A silhouette occurs when shooting directly into the sun. Your subject loses all detail and appears as a solid shape. Silhouettes can be

106 WILD TRAVEL

both simple and dramatic. By representing your subject as a shape you are stripping the image down to the bare essentials, and often colour forms a big part of the picture.

Winter is the perfect time to search for silhouettes. Big, dramatic skies full of colour often materialise at dusk and offer an ideal backdrop for silhouetting birds in flight. Each year, during early winter, large flocks of whooper and Bewick swans arrive on our shores, along with similar numbers of pinkfooted geese. Witnessing huge skeins of geese flying in formation against a beautiful winter sky is a sight in itself, and to capture an image of such an event is not so difficult as it may seem.

To expose correctly, take a meter reading from a bright area of sky and use this exposure by either dialling it in manually, or using your exposure lock button. This will prevent any highlights from burning out and

your subject will fall naturally into silhouette.

Try visiting a local wetland reserve at dawn and dusk for the best opportunities. It may take a few visits before you learn to predict the flight patterns of the birds and, indeed, this is a vital part of the process. But by spending as much time as possible observing, you should soon begin to learn your subject’s behavioural traits, making the task of capturing images that much easier.

When looking for silhouettes, you are not

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

Š BEN HALL

Ignoring the rule of keeping the sun behind you can be used to great effect in your photography, adding unique atmosphere to your images, writes Ben Hall

THEKNOWLEDGE PHOTO WORKSHOP SEASON’S HIGHLIGHTS – JANUARY During periods of cold weather, I always keep a look out for interesting ice patterns. Air bubbles that have become trapped in frozen puddles can sometimes resemble landscapes. Leaves trapped in a frozen pond or stream can also offer interesting possibilities.

With a macro lens a whole new world is waiting to be discovered. A tripod will be essential for this type of work, as you will need to use a small aperture in order to gain enough depth

of field for front-to-back sharpness. Abstract patterns can be found in the most unlikely places, especially during winter, so always be aware of your surroundings.

Short-eared owls occur in greater numbers in the winter. They are impressive birds that never fail to excite, and their behaviour can often be predictable. Despite being largely nocturnal, they can often be seen hunting during dawn and dusk, quartering fields and

limited to birds against the sky, water can also be used as the backdrop. By seeking out an area of water that reflects the brightly coloured sky, interesting colours and textures can be found, which can add an abstract feel to your images.

It is also possible to shoot for a short time after the sun has set. During the few minutes following sunset, the warm yellow and red hues fade and are replaced by cooler tones, predominantly made up of blues. This change of colour can be used to add a different mood to your images so it is always worth staying around that little bit longer!

Rim-lighting As the sun approaches the horizon, shooting into the light can create a halo around your subject, accentuating its shape and form.

WILDLIFEEXTRA.COM

moors, especially during harsh weather. If you are patient and put in some fieldwork you should be able to find their regular hunting patches. The key is to observe them as much as possible and note down traits in behaviour.

By keeping a log you should soon be able to predict their movements.

Rather than attempting to stalk your subject, try to remain still and wait for the owl to approach you.

This is often the most productive method.

This is known as rim-lighting, and its effect can be mesmerizing. Rim-lighting can only be achieved when the sun is very low in the sky, so dawn and dusk are the best times to seek out this type of image. Mammals with fur coats, such as deer, hare and rabbits, are perfect candidates for this technique as the light picks up the hairs surrounding the body. It also works well with birds, especially when the wings and tail feathers are outstretched, as it creates a beautiful translucency to the plumage.

Care must be taken over the exposure in these situations, however, to prevent loss of both highlight and shadow detail. I often seek out this effect early in the morning when the light is diffused by a layer of mist. Fog and mist will lessen the glare of the sun and cut down contrast, making it easier to expose and

allowing you to shoot into the light for longer.

This type of weather is surprisingly easy to predict, as it mostly occurs following a cold but clear night, usually in valleys. By exploring your local patch early in the morning you should be able to find a suitable location.

When exposing in these situations, keep a close eye on the histogram, and adjust the exposure using your compensation dial when necessary. Always watch the background carefully. Shooting towards an area of shadow can yield dramatic results and help the subject to ‘pop’ from the frame. Large bodies of water are often covered by a layer of rising mist early in the morning, and usually offer an abundance of subjects.

Once you have found a suitable spot from which to shoot, get down as low as possible, ideally with the lens just a couple of inches from the surface of the water. This will help to create a misty foreground, adding depth and an air of intimacy. My choice of support in these situations is the humble beanbag. It offers a solid support but allows a greater freedom of movement when compared to a tripod – essential when making last minute adjustments to composition.

When backlighting your subject, you will also need to keep an eye out for flare. I use large lens hoods which help, but often moving to one side so the light isn’t directly in front of you is enough to prevent any problems.

As always, the key is to experiment as much as possible. Light is the most important aspect of every photograph we take; it can quite literally make or break an image. By gaining an understanding of the fundamentals of light, and thinking of different ways of using available illumination you will find a world of opportunities opening up.

WILD TRAVEL 107

THEKNOWLEDGE TRAVEL CLINIC

Q&A

Ask the experts Our team of experts tackle your questions on animal cruelty abroad, frog spawn and studying ecology on a part-time basis

Last January I spotted some spawn in our pond but I never found out whether it turned into frogs, newts or toads. How can I tell the difference so I know this time round?

Q

Q

I would like to study ecology parttime, around my job, but there are no courses at my local college. Can I study it through the Open University and what would this involve?

Seven out of 10 of Open University students are studying for employment and career reasons and most of them also fit their learning around full-time or part-time work.

A good place to start studying is with the free OU course on ecosystems, which has just launched on the social-learning platform FutureLearn. This is a six-week course aimed at those who are new to the subject. It uses video case studies featuring, among others, Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham, to help explain the delicate balance of Earth’s ecosystems. Registration is open now, and you can see a trailer of the course here: www. futurelearn.com/courses/ecosystems

www.facebook.com/ wildtravelmag

Q

I have just been travelling and have witnessed animal cruelty – is there anything I can do about it?

There are many abuses of animals that take place abroad specifically for the benefit of tourists coming from the UK and other countries, and we therefore have a responsibility to do all that we can to stop it. Often, politely explaining why you object to a particular type of treatment can immediately benefit the animals concerned. In cases of institutionalised cruelty, such as bullfighting, a letter to the embassy here in the UK urging the country to do what it can to promote compassion, not cruelty, can be an effective way to voice your opposition.

If you witness individual acts of violence towards animals whilst abroad, please take immediate action by informing the police or a local animal advocacy group.

Every country has an organised group of compassionate people standing up and speaking out for animals. For them, the problem is local, and they will be your best source of information about the

Don’t forget to upload your wildlife images and videos to our Facebook page as we would love to see them!

In the UK we have seven species of amphibian – common frogs, pool frogs, common toads, natterjack toads, smooth/common newts, palmate newts and great crested newts.

A quick rule of thumb for differentiating between the species is remembering these words: clumps, strings, folds. Also, bearing in mind the time of year can give a clue.

Frogs lay their spawn in clumps, often in the shallow parts of the pond. These are the earliest of the amphibians out of hibernation country’s laws and other relevant matters.

To find animal rights groups in a particular area, consult www.WorldAnimalNet.org, a website that offers an extensive listing of organisations categorised by country.

MIMI BEKHECHI is the Associate Director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) UK www.peta.org.uk

There are also many relevant Open University courses which can lead to a degree in this field. The Level 1 course Environment: Journeys Through a Changing World will start you out on the path to a degree in Environmental Studies or Environmental Science.

Studying with the OU will bring you into a large university community of more than 250,000 students. A key element to OU study is the flexibility that it offers. You will learn in your own time through online forums, blogs, video conferencing, face-to-face tutorials, DVDs and printed study materials, and be supported along the way by your own tutor.

DR DAVID ROBINSON is a senior lecturer in biological science at the Open University www.open.ac.uk/study

and they lay at any point from January to February if the weather is warm enough. So chances are your spawn was a frog’s.

Toads lay their spawn in strings, normally in deeper water wrapped around the stems of water plants. Toads normally come out of hibernation about two weeks after frogs, so they will be laying between February and March. Newts tend to fold a single egg in a flexible object submerged in the water – leaves, blanket weed or even discarded plastic bags. Often you can’t see the eggs but you can spot the folded leaf. Great crested newts and natterjack toads are protected by law, and you must not disturb the animals, touch or move eggs without a licence.

SIVI SIVANESAN is the public engagement officer for Froglife www.froglife.org

Got a wildlife or travel question you want our team to answer? Email editorial@wildtravelmag.com

108 WILD TRAVEL

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fter the moa, the huia (Heteralocha acutirostis) is perhaps New Zealand’s most iconic extinct bird. Members of the wattlebird family, both male and female huia were around 45cm long, their plumage bluish-black, with white wingtips and orange wattles. However, the most striking feature of the huia was the pronounced difference between the sexes.

While the male’s bill was short, stout and straight, the female huia’s was longer, thinner and curved wickedly downwards. The contrast was such that ornithologist John Gould initially described them as separate species, and the huia’s genus name Heteralocha derives from the Greek for ‘different wife’.

Though there has been much contention over the reason for the sexes’ differing bill shape, what is beyond dispute is that the Maori and then, more destructively, the Europeans, brought big trouble for the huia.

Arriving in New Zealand around 1280, the Maori introduced predators to the island, while huia also became treasured for their feathers and bills. Despite a hunting ban enforced for part of the year, demand for their plumage, as well as habitat destruction meant

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that when European settlers arrived in the 1840s, the huia was only found in the south of the North Island.

The Europeans introduced cats, rats and stoats, which doubtlessly further impacted the grounddwelling huia. They also began deforestation on an unprecedented scale, gutting ancient forest containing the wood-boring larvae the huia depended upon.

A surge in hunting delivered the final blow.

Museums and collectors worldwide clamoured for specimens, and the money they offered was too good to ignore. Attempts at preservation were undersupported – in 1892 the killing of huia was made illegal, but scant heed was paid to enforcing this.

Finally, in 1901, the then Duke and Duchess of York visited Rotorua. As a royal welcome, one Maori guide fatefully presented the future King George V with a huia feather for his bowler hat. This simple gift made the bird an international fashion trend, and sadly it could not survive against the pull of market forces.

The huia’s decline was rapid. The last confirmed sighting was in 1907, though credible reports of later sighting mean exact extinction cannot be ascertained. WT

© WORDS: ANDY PENFOLD

The distinctive huia of New Zealand survived the impact of the Maori, but European settlers and their fashions led to the bird’s decline in the early 20th century

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