Postcard from Bishkek

Kyrgyzstan lies on the flight path for a number of migratory species of birds, perhaps the most notable of which are cranes. These long legged, long necked, migratory birds with powerful wings, live either in marshlands on the steppes where they feed on plants, insects and even small animals.  In fact, species of cranes are […]

26th August has been National Dog Day since 2004, but in recent years it has been marked in Australia, Canada , Italy, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom,  as well as in the United States where the idea originated. Now, if the British are widely known as “animal lovers”, this is not necessarily thought of as a […]

July 15th is St. Swithun’s Day – and in Britain there is a tradition that the weather on this day will continue for the next forty days: if it’s dry today then the next forty days will be dry but if it rains then the next forty days will be wet. To be honest, I […]

Sheep have an important place at the heart of Kyrgyz culture – probably, rivalled only by that of the horse. Sheep were, however, far more important in economic terms than the horse. They were much more versatile in that they provided the nomadic Kyrgyz with meat, fat, milk and wool for the felt – which […]

In Bishkek we don’t have a zoo, although there are plans afoot to introduce one.  As it happens, a few weeks ago we had a travelling zoo here in Bishkek and Maxim picked up his camera and went off to have a look.  Some of the photos he took are a bit depressing – large […]

The other day I came across a page on a blog that I often visit which, for some reason, I had never seen before.  The blog is written by an American who seems to be based in Tokmok, and this page was about Birds she had seen whilst here.  On it, she says: “The best […]

  The Russian explorer Nikolai Prezhervalsk was born in Smolensk on 12th April 1839 and died at the age of 49, in what is now Karakol, on 1st November, 1888. One of the things for which he is famous is the discover of the breed of horse which now bears his name.  The Prezhevalsky horse is […]

Today happens to be International Biodiversity Day, and when I was thinking about today’s postcard my mind went back to a series of articles which used to appear in the Bishkek based newspaper “Obshestniye Reiting“, (“Public Rating”), called “The Magnificent Seven“.  One of which was entitled: “The seven rarest animals in Kyrgyzstan.” It is not […]

One of the first groups of tourists that I had here in Kyrgyzstan was  a family of four: Mum, Dad and two children, six and eight years old and they had two particular requests. The first was easy to satisfy: the kids loved swimming and wanted to swim.  There are several swimming pools here in […]

  Tigers and cheetahs once roamed through the forests of Kyrgyzstan – but the Snow Leopard is the only example of the “Big Cats” still to be found in Kyrgyzstan.  They are extremely athletic – capable of making huge leaps over ravines – and can bring down prey almost three times their own size.