Just arrived in the Bieszczady mountains in the far corner of southeast Poland and its snowing steadily for the first time here this winter. Out searching for wolves, bears, beavers, bison and birds for the next few days and snow will help with tracking… perhaps an ideal time to be here, but then there are terrific mammals and birds here year round with the added bonus of butterflies and flowers in the warmer months.

An historic meeting ended late last week in South Korea with the formation of an Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Led by the scientific community this independent platform will mimic a similar panel studying climate change. Those involved in climate change have had considerable success in catalyzing world-wide understanding and governmental action on global warming and it is hoped the configuration of the new body on biodiversity and ecosystems will have similar effects in its own field.

IPBES will facilitate decisive actions across governments worldwide based on ever increasing scientific documentation of accelerating declines and degradation of the natural world.

Let’s hope that this leads to a much greater understanding and appreciation of the real need for preservation of biodiversity and the protection of our wildlife and wilderness areas.

In a paper published today in Proceedings B of the Royal Society, Australian scientists have determined that dingoes are beneficial to ecosystems in which they are the top predator. Nothing unusual there perhaps, except that dingoes were an introduced species coming with settlers some 5000 years ago from Indonesia and usually alien species are detrimental to their environment. In some areas of Australia where fencing has removed dingoes, kangaroos have increased and destroyed much of the arid grasslands thereby reducing numbers of smaller mammals and other wildlife dependent on that ecosystem. The red fox was also seen to increase in numbers. However, in those areas of the outback beyond the dingo fences the wild dog retained its role as the top predator and more importantly retained a more diverse cascade of wildlife in the pyramid beneath it and the grasslands remained more intact. Therefore a role for dingoes in the conservation of outback wildlife and increased farming productivity is suggested.

Svalbard is a truly stunning wildlife holiday destination. The wilderness feels immense and I suppose as you sit among the pack ice that stretches 800km to the north pole and beyond, it is immense. In this awe inspiring group of islands there is a wealth of Arctic wildlife. On a 10 day reconnaissance cruise we saw polar bears, including a mother with two cubs curled up on an ice floe, walrus which were just incredible to be among. Weighing in at around 600kg they are huge members of the seal family and are rather inquisitive. Reindeer and Arctic fox made up the other mammals whilst bird watching was also splendid with the rare ivory gull, Brunnich’s guillemots by the thousands, puffins, little auks and Arctic terns among others. However, it is the small flowers such as saxifrages among highly dramatic mountain scenery and lonesome polar bears out on the ice that give a scale to the islands and their fragility. Besides the charters that we are running next year with wildlife photographer Andy Rouse, we shall be bringing a selection of the highest quality polar trips to you shortly so that you to can experience the a Spitsbergen wildlife holiday from a small ship.

    Lesser kudu in the Masai Mara

You must always expect the unusual on our safari holidays! Whilst many will travel with a tick list of ‘must see’ animals, African safari holidays will always be unique and this was exemplified last week when Greg Poole, one of the camp managers in the Mara observed a lesser kudu (Tragelaphus imberbis). This species is usually found far to the north in reserves such as Meru National Park. Even the greater kudu is infrequently seen in its preferred habitat, the wooded areas of the Mara. There have been no reported sightings of lesser kudu in the Mara in at least the last 35 years, making this a truly unusual occurence and definitely keeping the thrill of going on safari very much alive!

  With slow reproduction rates all primates             are vulnerable

At the Primatological Congress in Edinburgh it has been reported that almost 50% of the world’s 634 primate species are close to extinction. In Asia, things are worse and more than 70% of species are on the IUCN Red List, this figure reaching 90% in Cambodia and Vietnam where langurs, gibbons and leaf monkeys are all under threat. In Africa red colobus monkeys are under threat with 11 different species listed as Critically Endangered, one step away from a listing as Extinct.

The majority of the world’s primates live in forests, mostly tropical forests and are an integral part of forest ecology supporting a wide range of flora and fauna. The main reason for the desperate plight of primates is habitat loss, although bush meat, wildlife trade and in southeast Asia, trade in ‘medicinal’ parts to China are aiding destruction of populations.

These findings are the result of a 5 year study of the planet’s primate populations by collating data from many primatologists worldwide. However, they also show that since 2000 more than 50 species of primates have been described by science for the first time, 40 of these originating in Madagascar.

It is clear that if forests are protected then populations of primates can be a success story. Obviously, with larger primates with slow rates of reproduction the protection must be long term, but short term success has been demonstrated in the forests surrounding Rio Janiero in Brazil where over the last 30 years black lion and golden lion tamarins have increased in numbers through conservation of their forest habitats. They have been downgraded to Endangered but now require reforestation to enable populations to expand.

Of course gorillas and chimpanzees are more in the public eye and experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society have recently concluded a first census of the isolated northern forests in the Congo where they discovered a large group of western lowland gorillas with a population estimated around 125,000, twice that for some estimates for the world population of this species. The area is almost uninhabitable by humans and this is understood to be a key factor in the density of population of these gorillas. However, logging and hunting and the Ebola virus may rapidly bring these numbers down in the near future if they are not protected. It is understood that moves are being made to try and protect these remote areas of the country, whilst it is estimated that population crashes in other areas of west Africa may take over 120 years to recover.