The year of 2012 was very eventful. This is an attempt to summarize some of the things that happened in my life during last year.

2012 started out with me launching a blog, http://www.jonatanborling.com, which I use to write about my work with carnivore conservation and all the issues that are facing the living world.

I spent one week in Ladakh in India seeing snow leopard twice in the wild. I got a nasty altitude sickness so I had to cut the expedition short.

Together with author and photographer Jan Fleischmann I signed a contract with a publisher to write a book about the snow leopard.

As part of a deal, Madelene taught me how to use a snowboard. It turned out to be so much fun so we went another three times during the winter season.

I led the work of Naturskyddsföreningen Värmland with arranging the carnivore symposium Rovdjurssymposium – Framtiden which took place in Karlstad on 25 February. The symposium was covered by various media and I was interviewed by one of the regional newspapers.

I worked on and off for two months in February and April with censusing lynx and other carnivores and doing a wildlife census on Forsmarks Kärnkraftverk, a nuclear powerplant.

I was elected onto the board of the Swedish Society for Carnivore Conservation, Svenska Rovdjursföreningen.

I wrote an article about the black-footed cat for the magazine Kattliv and an article about the Iberian lynx for the magazine Våra Rovdjur.

I took a course at Viltskadecenter in how to build carnivore-safe fences for domestic animals and helped to construct one in Gävleborgs län.

During a few days in Stockholm I visited what seems to be the only rooftop gardening project in our capital. The idea of the visit was to get more experience for my proposed rooftop gardening project in Karlstad.

In the big field season I worked for 54 days in May, June and July doing wildlife censuses and looking at how moose feed on trees. I concluded these intense months with the following words: “After two and a half months and 54 field days I have covered 1 122 kilometers with car, traveled through 16 out of 21 counties and lived in 10 different hostels, slept in tents, friends’ houses, canoed on rivers and lakes and seen tens of thousands of mosquitoes.”

My lovely friends Patricia and Christian got married in Sweden and arranged a fully vegan and ecological marriage. Also in the summer I tried water skiing for the first time thanks to Linda, I kayaked for two days in the Lurö archipelago in Vänern with Linda and Martin sleeping under the bare sky, and I canoed on the river Klarälven for three days with my friends Jimi and Nathalie.

After a more than one year hiatus I started training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) again. These two sports are strangely addictive and just beyond exhausting. I often come home too tired to sleep.

I managed to improve the selection of vegetarian and vegan options in Värmland and Sweden by getting Konsum Värmland to import Fry’s Vegetarian’s products, ICA Maxi in Karlstad to take in vegan Christmas ham and later meltable cheezly, sausages, göttbullar and many more products.

Together with my friend Madelene I trekked on Sonfjället looking for bears. Although not seeing one, the scenery was breathtaking enough to make the trip worthwhile.

I traveled to Spain two times in the fall of 2012, snorkling in the Mediterranean, seeing Madrid, visiting Doñana National Park looking for the Iberian lynx and meeting the awesome people at El Acebuche Breeding Center for the Iberian lynx.

I held three lectures about carnivore conservation and lynx in 2012, one for the Swedish Society for Carnivore Conservation at Nordens Ark, another for the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation in Gävleborg and the third for the wildlife and tourism students at Klarälvdalens folkhögskola.

At the end of 2012 I set out on a five and a half week expedition to India to learn about the grand country’s culture, nature and people. During this time I saw Bengal tiger, jungle cat, Asiatic lion, Asiatic elephant in three differrent national parks, enjoyed the beaches of Goa, the tranquility of Diu and the intensiveness of Delhi, Agra and Varanasi. The trip continued into 2013.

Thank you all the beautiful people who are my friends! ❤