FOCUSING ON EXTREME SPECIES IN EXTREME PLACES

JOEL BERGER

Joel Berger is the Barbara Cox Anthony University Chair of Wildlife Conservation and professor at Colorado State University (CSU) as well as a long-time Senior Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society. Before joining CSU, he held the position of John J. Craighead Chair of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Montana. For almost five decades Joel has poured his passion and intellectual drive into understanding the natural world and doing everything possible to protect it.  This has involved long-term field work in some of the remotest regions of Africa, Asia, and North America on some of the most charismatic (yet, often unsung) and difficult to study mammals in extreme landscapes. 

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When we fail to inspire and to share knowledge about biodiversity, the richness of our lives and our future will grow silent.  

TREK TO EVEREST

THE WORLD'S HIGHEST CLIMATE SUMMIT

In May 2022, Professor Joel Berger traveled to Everest base camp for the World’s Highest Climate Summit. As part of the summit, Dr. Berger presented his research on the combined effect of climate change on high-elevation biodiversity.

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134 MILES OF HIKING

Domestic yaks hauling supplies for the ‘privileged’ against Khumba glacial remnants.

PRESENTING AT BASE CAMP

Berger led a presentation on Nepal’s legacy on biodiversity, focusing on snow leopards and wild yaks. He also touched on the American Everest expeditions as well as the loss of glaciers and the consequences of global warming on biodiversity.

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KALA PATTHAR

Trekking up to Kala Patthar at 18,519 ft (5,645 meters) at 4 a.m. on the way to base camp to get one of the best views of Mount Everest.

HIMALAYAN TAHR

Himalayan tahr – an endemic and very cool related ancestral form of the wild Caprinae tribe.

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SPECIES SPOTLIGHT

WILD YAKS & MUSKOXEN

The world knows that Earth’s glaciers and ice is in retreat.  What we know far less about is how animals of these extremes – the highest mountains (Himalayas) and the most northern latitudes are coping.  Our science-based programs have made some inroads into understanding the challenges these cold-adapted species face. 

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BLACK RHINO

Although once distributed across sub-Saharan Africa, black rhinos occur in the Namib Desert, an area with only 2 inches of precipitation a year.  Beside the challenge of persisting in an area of extreme heat and aridness, rhinos are slaughtered for their horns.  Our efforts here concentrated on bringing biological, ecological, and economic to form conservation decisions. 

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PRONGHORN

This North American endemic species experiences temperatures from -30o F to 115o F.  They also make the second longest migration of any land species between Tiera del Fuego (tip of South America) and the Canadian border, a round-trip migration in excess of 400 miles.  Our scientific work, coupled with outreach and informed decisions led to the USA’s first and only federally-protected migration corridor.

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CONTACT JOEL

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