Ranger Diaries

The reptile sightings In summer, when temperature was reaching up to 45C, insects, spiders and snakes became too active. With the sunny days the reptiles also leave their winter quarters in holes and burrows. Reptile sightings include an Agama (Laudakia caucasia) and a Schneider’s skink (Eumeces schneideri princeps) listed in the Red Book of Armenia…

Protecting the reserve and monitoring wildlife The winter of 2013/14 brought icy temperatures and masses of snow to the South Caucasus. The snow was up to a metre deep in places and in higher parts where the wind blows faster, snow cover reached up to three metres. The temperature in the CWR plummeted to -27…

Report from CWR Spring is coming back and with the warmer season we can also observe the restart of the circle of life in the area. The winter 2012 brought icy temperatures and masses of snow which hampered our daily routine  as some parts of the CWR were not reachable neither by jeep nor on…

Keeper of the wild in Armenia Gor Hovhannisyan is a wildlife ranger employed by the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) and he works in the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge. Gor: I live in the village of Urtsadzor, which is 10 minutes by car from the ranger’s station in the Caucasus Wildlife…

The leopard is still in our area It was already March. Very much concerned about the leopard’s welfare after such a harsh winter (temperature up to -27C and no single video recording since the autumn of the last year), I hiked to the mountains to set up the trap camera and suddenly noticed  a leopard…

Wildlife in the reserve It began as any other working day. When we have started our patrol, it was a perfectly clear day, sunny but already cool. We began our tour of the refuge in the territory where most of the camera-traps are placed, an area known to be the hunting ground of at least…

Brown bears in CWR Photos by Andrej Didenko Late summer/ early autumn is always a very busy time in CWR as the entire area is totally dried out and we have to be extremely attentive to prevent wildfires. That means we have to patrol the area more thoroughly. Another priority in these months is the…