From Kathmandu to Peru, the Himalayas to the Amazon, Craig and Pam have 60 years of combined experience as full time internationally known wildlife biologists.

Nothing can keep them from their travels, but Pam and Craig will be scheduling their wildlife assignments so they can also spend daily one on one time with you at Bison Quest.

What better way to help create your own once in a lifetime adventure.

"We traveled to South America as part of a team of biologists funded by the New York Zoological Society to study Spectacled Bear habitat in the highland jungles of Peru. We typically went out on expeditions for 10 days at a time. These expeditions covered a wide variety of ecosystems from the 13,000 foot high mountain plateaus, to the dense jungle that often required "trocheros" - guides using machetes to clear a narrow path that would allow us to penetrate the thick vegetation."

"In the high mountain areas, we met the Quechwa Indians - a cheerful and generous people who made me realize how little one needs to have material goods to be happy. And who reminded me, again, how rich we are here in the US, and how much we take for granted."

"We went to Pakistan to "teach wildlife management" to the wildlife biologists there, but found that it's hard to manage wildlife if your environment is so heavily populated by people who haven't even the ability to feed their own children. How can you care if a Markhor goat or a blackbuck has enough land to roam in or enough food to eat, if you don't?

 

"We found that the real teachers were the Pakistanis and we the students. We loved Pakistan and her people, and are saddened that world events are such that we can not go back there at this time."

"Our trip to Hazargangi- Chiltan National Park in Baluchistan, Pakistan, was a real eye opener for us. Because Baluchistan is up against the Afghanistan border, there were numerous tribal wars occurring, not to mention the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union at that time. Therefore, travel wasn't particularly safe for foreigners and we traveled with armed guards (however, looking at the state of the guns and the way they were handled, sometimes I wondered if we wouldn't have been safer without them!)."

"Outside of the park, the landscape was a desert, with nomadic tribes grazing their cattle and camels on virtually bare ground, and no wildlife to be seen. Then came the chainlink fence surrounding the Park, patrolled by armed guards to keep the fence intact. And inside were rugged hills and grasslands of knee high grass, complete with several wildlife species.

 

Trips like this one taught us the value of wild lands, and how tenuous and precious they are. We just don't realize how lucky we are in the US that we have an abundance of public lands for our wildlife, and for us. And what's even more amazing, is that we can actually visit our Parks and Forests without having to cross armed guards."

"The Galapagos Islands are magical, enchanted lands and we'd do it all again in a heartbeat!

We swam with the penguins and hung out with the sea lions, hiked with the huge Galapagos tortoises, and watched manta rays glide under our small rowboat (the rays were bigger than the boat!)."

 

"We saw flying fish (they kept landing on the boat), and were escorted by herds of dolphins, ate fresh lobster as colorful as jewels, and were invited to battle with a moray eel (we declined his offer and skedaddled)."

"One of our favorite projects was studying rattlesnake hibernation in prairie dog colonies. We found up to 63 rattlesnakes in a day coming into prairie dog colonies to hibernate in prairie dog burrows. We'd cruise through the prairie dog towns in the truck, heads hanging out the window looking for long, slender snake bodies and listening for that warning rattle (and yes, you can hear a rattlesnake rattle from a moving truck!). Once we'd find one, we'd jump out of the truck and walk from burrow to burrow looking for more snakes."

"If we entered their "personal snake zone", they'd warn us off until we stepped back, and then go on about their business. It's humbling to realize that a snake doesn't think you're of any real interest!"

"Yup - that snake surveying was one fun time. Just enough adrenalin to keep one's blood pumping (when in a hibernaculum where one can see over a dozen snakes curled or sunning or slithering just yards away, it's amazing at how aware of every little sound and sight one can be. "

"From the jungles of Nepal, to the famous Himalayas, the one thing that you are never far away from is people. We don't realize in the western part of the US how much room we have compared to most of the rest of the world. Even hiking in the high Himalayas, you could hear chopping sounds as what little timber is left is hewn from living trees to start cooking fires, and the smell of smoke is a constant. We loved trekking in the Himalayas, but for sheer wildness and wilderness, we have to come back to our beloved Montana."