Wild Horses and the Enviroment

On Monday, our first speaker about the environment was a guy from the UNDP. He talked about various small projects help with biodiversity and combating desertification (41% of Mongolia is currently considered Gobi desert). Amazingly, about 15% of the country is protected land for national parks, reserves, and other protected areas. In the afternoon, a woman from the Wildlife Conservation Society came to speak to us about the efforts to curb the illegal trade of endangered animals. Unfortunately,, enforcement is impossible and many animails can be found in the markets in UB. The animals are used for their pelts, their meat and for traditional medicinal practices. Marmots, which are a traditional delicacy in Mongolia are being so overhunted that the government outlawed their hunting from 2007-2009, yet there were over 200,000 killed last year.

Tuesday brought with it more language class in the morning. I’ve actually learn some language now, but the grammar is so complicated and has so many exceptions that it would be impossible for me to really get this language down beyond very basic stuff. In the afternoon our lecturer, GreenGold (not his real name, but the project he worked for—we just called him that), talked about his current project to help educate rural families on pasture management. Pastures are badly damaged all over Mongolia mostly due to an increased goat population (goats can used for cashmere which is big money here, but goats pull out grasses by the roots, which permanently destroys pastures). His program has made significant progress in reseeding and reclaiming land in specific areas all over Mongolia. GreenGold himself used to run the Khustai Reserve where we will be going to tomorrow. He also worked with a few Americans to catch and tag the first wild snow leopards.

On the 15th, we had a speaker from the Boroo Gold Company in Mongolia. This girl was just out of college in the U.S. and spoke about the environmental monitoring by her company. Boroo tests the ground, water and air constantly and reseed land around their mine site as they finish with it. The companies work seems astounding as whole hillsides go from gravel pits to lush green land in as little as 6 months. They keep all the topsoil they displace and are very forward thinking; it gives hope that not all mining practices destroy and that mining has really come a long way at least for international companies. Mongolia still has a huge problem with illegal mining and “ninja” miners that do not follow any environmentally conscious practices at all.
After our lecture we took off for Khustai Reserve, which was only a short 3 hour drive. We took a tour of the visitors’ center and pretty much called it a day. After dinner, I pretty much taught the entire group how to play Durak and we played with 7-8 people for about 3 hours. It was a great time. In the morning we woke to the thickest pea soup fog I have ever seen. I was like being in Stephen King’s “The Mist”. We hung out at the research station in the park until the fog lifted about midday and only had to drive for about a mile before we came across The Takai horses, the reason the reserve exists. These are the only wild horses on earth. The horses are very distinctive with a stiff mane, solid light brown colored bodies, and stripes on their legs.

The story of the Takai could not be more incredible. The horses all died out in the 1960’s on Mongolia (yes, they went extinct in their natural habitat). Several of the horses were in zoos around the world with a significant population in zoos in the Netherlands, which created a reserve for the horses. Several Dutch proprietors and Takai lovers realized that the last of these horses would die out if not returned to their natural habitat, so they funded the transport of 15 of these horses from the Netherlands to Mongolia. For several years after more horses were shipped from around the world back to Mongolia to achieve the most genetic variation possible for the horses. They now number 400 in Mongolia and have returned to being wild horses (can you believe this). Takai are the last wild horses on earth not only historically but also genetically (those of you who believe in the wild mustang here’s proof that it what not originally wild). Takai have 66 sets of chromosomes while every other horse species on earth has 65 because Takais have been separated from other horses for so long, thus they cannot interbreed; in addition, zebras also have 66 chromosomes for the same reason and are why they are considered wild horses.

While we were sneaking up close enough to get good pictures of the Takai we stopped and sat on a hillside. Bagnaa, one of our instructors held up a handful of dirt to me and said “we’re sitting on gold”. Sure enough, we were sitting on tons of gold dust. It was all over my hands and my pants and just sparkled in the sunlight. Gold dust is not practical to mine and we were in a protected area, but Mongolia is so mineral rich that you can literally reach down and pull precious meatless out of the ground. After seeing the Takai, we drove to see some Turkish monuments left from when they ruled Mongolia. The stones were in the figures of men and animals and the site was a suspected burial site. Stones were also placed in a line for about 500 meters leading to the nearest river. We also saw white-tailed gazelle on the way back to the camp, which are another endangered species. After lunch we went to the northern edge of the Gobi desert and played in the sand dunes for a while. I found a porcupine skin, which is supposed to be very good luck if you take a few quills with you, so I did.

We returned to UB and slept the night (actually to be honest I’m still not getting full nights of sleep, and I cannot figure out why). On Friday, we had one last lecture on the environment from a man, Mr. Munkhbayar, who has started a project to protect and extend a river that all but disappeared in the early 1990’s. The river used to supply his family with water but dried up over the years as the river was diverted for irrigation and mining. He started the program and organized both locals and other environmental leaders to pressure the government and actually save his river and many others. He now is considered one of the foremost civil society leaders on environment and has grassroots campaigns that are actually effective on the national level. We also had a student led discussion before our UB home stay introductions. I am living with a 50 year old woman who is a trained accountant, but babysits for money currently; her 28 year old daughter who runs her own sowing show; and her 20 year old cousin who is taking a year off from school in Russia to be home.