Svalbard – Top of the World

In 2019 a group of us went to Antarctica on a mid-sized ship with only 80 passengers. The sights there were incredible with icebergs, whales, and millions of penguins. A few years later we heard about an opportunity to do a trip to the arctic hosted by ecologist Chris Morgan. It focused on arctic wildlife, including polar bears around the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Unfortunately Mr. Morgan wasn’t ultimately able to join us, but we had excellent guides and naturalists.

In late June 2023 we set off for Norway, eventually reaching the settlement of Longyearbyen at 78 degrees north. It was started as a coal mining town in 1906 by an American, John Munro Longyear, but has been increasingly focusing on polar research and tourism (coal mining has largely ceased). Since this town is above the arctic circle the sun never sets in the summertime, and never rises in the winter.

In 2008, the Norwegian government decided to create a secure facility to protect world crop diversity by storing seeds. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault now contains millions of seeds from distinct crop samples, including hundreds of thousands of different kinds of wheat and rice.

Our ship, the Polar Pioneer, started off life as a Russian research vessel, built in Finland in 1982. It was subsequently retrofitted for arctic and antarctic expeditions, and is capable of ice breaking.

Our first excursion was to a well-known gathering of male walruses. They were mostly sleeping on the beach. Since this wasn’t the breeding season, the males were peaceful. Female groups are in different areas with the young.

Breaking through the ice was amazing with the sound of it cracking, and the birds looking for fish that were newly exposed

Along the way we took small zodiac boats to land to do some hiking and saw arctic flora, reindeer, and endless views of glaciers.

We next travelled to Svalbard’s largest ice cap, Austfonna. It’s Europe’s third-largest glacier. At this time of year it has waterfalls in a few places.

At one point, the captain called out “fogbow!” over the PA. So we rushed out to see. It’s like a rainbow, except without much color.

For a few days we hadn’t spotted any bears on the ice. When we finally left the most dense ice areas, we started spotting them, both in the water, and small icebergs, and land. One of them was a small bear that was probably born this year, but we never did see its mother.

Next up was an extremely large colony of thick-billed murres (also known as Brünnich’s guillemot). Arctic foxes are known to visit this colony and we were lucky enough to follow one as it searched for anything edible. At this time of year the foxes have dark coats (in winter they are white).

Finally, as we were returning to Longyearbyen, we spotted a beautiful medium-sized polar bear. The ship slowly approached next to the ice. The bear became curious, possibly due to smell and circled the boat many times.

Looking at reflection

Shortly thereafter we saw blue whales, spouting

Having seen nine polar bears, a few blue whales, walruses, endless birds, an arctic fox, reindeer, and lots of flora we returned to Longyearbyen for one more day, and celebrated with a fantastic birthday dinner for Roger (details in a future post).

Return of the Sloth

Roughly three and a half years ago, our neighbor did a major tree trimming. Before that, we regularly saw 3-toed sloths just off our balcony in the cecropia tree. Afterwards, we never saw a sloth again because the sloths couldn’t reach the cecropia tree from the surrounding branches.

In December, during our last trip to Costa Rica, I looked out toward the Pacific Ocean and I spotted something moving in the cecropia. I assumed it was a monkey. Then I realized, oh my god, It was a young male 3-toed sloth. He was chowing down on cecropia leaves (a favorite sloth food) and Todd and I celebrated the return of the sloths!

Adventures in Africa – Magashi

Three years ago, a number of us were on a boat in Antarctica and started talking about taking a trip together to Africa. We planned it for 2020, but the pandemic repeatedly delayed it until this year. With the help of our travel agent, Mama Tembo Tours in Zambia, we chose two destinations in Rwanda and three in Zambia. The first location, Magashi Camp, is in Akagera National Park in Rwanda and has cabins right on Lake Rwanyakazinga. All night long we heard hippos from our cabin because they were bellowing right outside which made for quite the experience (we got used to it). We also heard lions roaring from a distance and hyenas as well.

Our cabin on the lake
Noisy noisy hippos

Every morning was fairly similar. Get up at 5-5:30, have a bit of breakfast, and get on a land cruiser looking for birds and animals. Mornings and evenings are typically the best viewing times, so we also had some after-dark drives where we would see completely different animals and even a few birds.

Our crew starting out the day

We saw the “big five”: lion, leopard, both black and white rhinoceros (the white ones were recently re-introduced via 747 cargo plane!), elephant, and cape buffalo. It can be hard to find leopards but there was one near the camp that likes to fish for catfish at the lake during the day.

The birds and animals in Akagera were everywhere, and we hardly ever saw any other people.

There were a few fun traditions: in the morning there is a break for tea. And in the afternoon we had “sun-downer” cocktails out in the bush, both prepared by our talented guide Luke, turned bartender.

Luke with the morning tea
Sun-downer cocktails
Cocktails in hand

One afternoon we got word that an extremely rare bird, the African pitta, had been spotted nearby. Dedicated enthusiasts will go to extreme lengths to spot this elusive bird. We went to a nearby cafe where it had been seen and were fortunate enough to spot it in the underbrush.

We also spent some time cruising along the lake, which gave us views of quite a lot of amazing birds.

The camp and staff at Magashi, and our guide Luke were really helpful and knowledgeable (photos courtesy of Christine Simon).

Magashi and Akagera are a special place, and we were so fortunate to visit. Hopefully we will visit again some day!

Us and the Land Cruiser
Sunset at the lake

Dian Fossey, the Mountain Gorillas and Me

Conservation of the Mountain Gorilla: a Snapshot from 1978

Figure 1. Beethoven, the dominant silverback of Group 5, being groomed by a female

In 1978, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda working on fish culture development. On July 4 of that year, I attended the U.S. ambassador’s Independence Day party. A friend of mine, Bill Weber, came over to me and told me that he had just received a grant from the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation to conduct a census of the mountain gorilla which had not been done in quite a few years. He said the problem was that he needed two teams to do the census and he didn’t have another biologist to lead the second team. I told him to not move. I raced over to the Peace Corps Director and explained that my fish culture project was on hold and Bill needed another biologist to conduct the census. He said “go for it.” I went back to Bill and told him he had his biologist.

Figure 2 Bill Weber and the Rwandan gorilla census staff at a campsite in the park

When I finally hiked up to the Karisoke Research Center, I was pumped and ready to get started on the census. However, I wasn’t quite feeling right. Soon afterwards, I started getting a fever and a pain in my lower right side. When Dian heard about this, she decided to check me out. I might be the only person in the world who ever had Dian Fossey feel their groin and lower abdomen. Obviously, there was concern about a potential appendicitis. Dian said that if I wasn’t better in the morning, she would arrange to have me taken down from the volcano and brought to a local hospital. I was afraid my dream was over. Luckily, the next morning I was totally fine.

Figure 3 Here I am in Volcanoes National Park with the Sabyinyo Volcano in the background

Of course, I had to go through a significant training program to learn mountain gorilla culture and behavior. I visited the two habituated groups, Groups 4 and 5, and practiced my belch vocalizations. Normally, I did this with researcher Amy Vedder, Bill’s other half. My final exam was having to approach an unhabituated group and face an irate silverback by myself. That went well and I was ready to work on the census. The core technique of the census was to find fresh gorilla trails and track back to a recent nest. There you could confirm what group you were following and count the number of gorillas because each gorilla makes their own nest. However, babies and very young gorillas sleep with their mothers, so you also needed to carefully examine the nests for baby gorilla scat.

The census team moved out from the Karisoke Research Center and set up a base camp between Visoke and Sabyinyo volcanoes. The two teams started tracking gorillas, relying heavily on the excellent tracking skills of several of the Rwandan staff. Everything seemed to be going well.

Figure 4  I am checking a gorilla nest to confirm whether this was a lone gorilla or a mother with a baby

Soon after the beginning of the census, a Rwandan staff member from the Karisoke Research Center came into camp with an urgent message. Poachers had attacked Group 4 and some gorillas had been killed. Dian was ordering everyone to return to Karisoke immediately. Everyone would get assignments. When we got there, we learned what our role was to be. Because I was new to camp, but had gone through extensive gorilla training, Dian wanted me to become part of Group 5 in order to protect them. She gave me her revolver and indicated that I should join the group each morning as they were starting to leave the nests where they spent the night. Late afternoon, as they were starting to construct their new nests for the night, I would return to Karisoke. Dian also wanted me to go on anti-poaching patrols with one of the Rwandan trackers; mostly this was about finding and destroying snares that caught and/or wounded many animals, including sometimes gorillas. Eventually, the danger from poachers seemed substantially reduced but the census was put on hold for quite a while. Bill later completed the census but I was no longer available.

Figure 5 The headless corpse of Uncle Bert, the dominant silverback of Group 4
Figure 6  Sometimes when we found snares there would be a dead animal in them. This time we found a healthy black-fronted duiker that was happy to be released

The most rewarding part of this whole adventure was when I was assigned to be part of Group 5. I knew how to behave around the gorillas and the adults pretty much ignored me. One exception to this was one day when I was in a small clearing with the group and a young blackback male began wrestling with Beethoven. The silverback would tolerate this for a short time and then he would toss the younger male away from him. One time the young male’s head landed near my thigh. He looked over at me, grabbed me, and started pulling me over to Beethoven. Apparently, he wanted me to help him wrestle Beethoven. I didn’t want anything to do with that, so I strongly resisted. He finally gave up on me and went over to Beethoven on his own. Although most of the gorillas mostly ignored me, the younger members of the group were very curious about me. In particular, a 4-year old named Pablo, frequently hung out with me, sometimes sitting in my lap and staring into my eyes (see Figure 7). He also liked to jump on me from behind, sometimes knocking my notebook and camera out of my hands.

Figure 7  Apparently Pablo was fascinated with me. Even though I never initiated contact with him, he constantly hung out with me

Roughly 20 years later, I was at home in the U.S. and decided to do some channel surfing. I found a documentary on mountain gorillas, so of course I had to watch it. The first half of the show focused on a group of gorillas that lived around the summit of Karisimbi which of course is quite cold. They had to adapt to that climate and vegetation in a number of ways. Then, about halfway through the program, the narrator said now we are going to visit another group that lives at a much lower altitude near the park boundary. He said this is the largest group of mountain gorillas on record and it is led by a massive silverback named…Pablo! When I heard this and saw the group, tears started streaming down my face. It took a long time for me to calm down emotionally. I couldn’t believe that my buddy, little Pablo, was now a 450-pound silverback and the leader of his own group.

To learn more about the mountain gorillas in 1978 and to understand the bigger story, both before and afterwards, get a copy of Bill and Amy’s book, In the Kingdom of Gorillas. It is gripping and extremely well written. Click on the link above or the book cover below.

In the Kingdom of Gorillas: The Quest to Save Rwanda's Mountain Gorillas by [Bill Weber, Amy Vedder]

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So now, 44 years later, my husband, Todd Huston, and I, along with several of our friends, are going to Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas. While in Africa, on June 17, Todd and I will be celebrating 29 years together. It will be my first time in Rwanda since 1978. None of the gorillas that I had contact with in 1978 are still alive but I am so excited to go back and meet the gorillas that are living there now. This trip was originally supposed to take place in 2020, then 2021. However, the pandemic squashed those two opportunities. Now it looks like the third time will be the charm.