Govi Trip part 1

Umnugovi (South Gobi Aimag/Province) is the largest and most southern aimag (province) and is home to the Tost mountain range, where the Snow Leopard Trust (SLT) has been conducting what may be the most studied Snow Leopard population in the world. Here is a link to their website for more information and rare footage of Snow Leopards in the Tost Mountains...

The South Gobi is also being pillaged for it's rich mineral resources, which is another issues involving herders and the ecosystem.

We have been collaborating with the SLT and now they would like to place our Bankhars dogs in the Tost Mountain area where there is a serious conflict between herders and snow leopards and wolves. So on Friday we took a road trip to the Gobi. Our goal was to interview the herders that we might be placing our dogs with and answer any questions they had. We wanted to find out what kind of livestock losses they dealt with, predator encounters, specific husbandry practices and many other questions that would dictate IF we place our dogs and who with.

We started out in Ulaanbaatar Friday morning, drove 7 hours south to Dalanzadgad (DZ), the capital of Umnugovi Aimag, and a central location for all the mines in the South Gobi. From Dalanzadgad we drove west to Noyon Sum/Soum/cym, a district in the SLT area of study and where we would be placing our dogs. From DZ to Noyon takes about 7 hours on dirt, sand and steppe.

Some wildlife along the way to DZ.

White tailed Antelope

A wild Doug in hibernation.

2 day old camels (domesticated). 

 More Camels (also domesticated, the wild camel is rare).

We arrived in DZ, a dry and dusty town. The Altai Mountain range begins somewhere around here.

The SLT was a day late to DZ, where we planned to rendezvous, so we spent a night in Lammergeyer valley in the nearby mountains. The Gobi area changes drastically from barren steppe to beautiful and rugged mountains, valleys, rivers and gorges. The herders like to tuck themselves in the mountains to hide from the harsh winds but they are more likely to encounter predators there. I believe there must be more to their reasoning, but I have yet to find out what.

Pictures from Lammergeyer valley...

Frozen rivers.

 Gorges...

 According to out dung expert, Soyolbolod, the best dung to use for fires are the dry purple cow dung.

Tucked away in the valley, we felt far from civilization. The hills were laced with juniper shrubs and the valley floor littered with every kind of dung. Night fell quickly and the temperatures did too but with zero pollution of light or smoke, the stars where a sight for sore eyes. Finally settling down for the night, I found that my goose-down sleeping bag was almost too generous of an insulator. On the other hand, Doug's sad, withered and defeated, rental sleeping bag had him massaging cold feet all night. Happy to feel the warmth of the sun the next day, we were faced with another predicament.

Our hired truck (and driver) happened to be a diesel Toyota Prado, generally a great truck, this sadly was in sad shape. Last nights cold was hassling the diesel engine. The cold combined with bad fuel, bad piston rings (oil mixing with the fuel for harder combustion), and a slew of other issues; including not bringing the tools to fix this, left us in a tricky spot. We amassed piles of dung, burnt them down to embers and placed it under the cars engine block in hope that it would give it the heat it needed to start. 

No luck... With the bad rings there just wasn't enough compression to keep her going. We packed some backpacks and made our way to the nearest herder. To our surprise a convoy of shamans came driving right into the valley. They we're reluctant to help but one let us use his car to jump start it. Again the Prado would't turn over and the shaman had a ritual to attend. We we're stuck again. Doug and our driver, Micky, set out again for the nearby herder. They returned quickly with another truck. Some miners on work leave happened to be parading the valley and we're happy to help.

The guy on the right happened to be an ex-coworker of our translator Soyolbolod, on the left. Soyolbolod was the the safety officer for Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolias largest copper and gold mine. There was no hope for the truck, so in return for towing us back to DZ we cooked them some bacon. 

However with our mining friends happily drunk by 12 in the afternoon, we were faced with an incredibly stressful tow back to DZ, involving shit towing cables, lack of communication and overall lack of sense. Doug and I where on edge and tired. We managed to pry the drunk driver away from the wheel and had two sober people steering the vehicles. We rolled back into DZ, dropped the truck off at a mechanic, located a hotel and then found the nearest huushuur joint. 

Digesting huushuur is exhausting too.

That evening, we met with the SLT to debrief on our trip to Noyon Sum. There we would meet a local vet, Adal Bish (This name literally translates to Not the Same) who would take us to the families interested in our project.

To be continued!

Back from the South Gobi Aimag, where we were discussing our Bankar Program with herders in the Altai Mts. There are numerous snow leopard and wolf problems there, and the locals are really looking forward to using livestock guardian dogs to lessen their livestock deprivations. We are teaming up with the Snow Leopard Trust, which works in that area, to place dogs with families who are part of the snow leopard co-op.
As of now we have our hands full of bloated/gassy puppies and a newborn lamb. The gassy pups are getting checked at the vet, and it looks like it may have been a de-worming mishap. Thankfully they are fine now. More information and pictures to come on both the South Gobi trip and the newborn lamb.

We got loads of snow this weekend! Like 3 whole inches of it...

This past Saturday, a field researcher we've been collaborating with, Sophia, came to visit our dogs and check out our facilities. She is working here in Mongolia on her PhD, on infectious disease and tick-born pathogens. She is thrilled with our project and has been very helpful on advice for keeping our dogs healthy as well as research and funding ideas. Here are some pictures from Saturday... 

Meet our caretaker, Suldee! Named after a local mountain in Gachuurt, where our dogs are kept, and where he grew up. We feel lucky to have found such an awesome guy because he is passionate about dogs and takes his job seriously. He is genuinely concerned for the dogs and treats them well. Although we often have to encourage him not to sleep so late, but that is the least of our worries.

He is generous and has a great sense of humor. He often invites us to his moms house or as he says, "Excuse me, Suldee mama house?", for dinner. He has taught himself some basic English words regarding dogs so that Doug and I have a pretty easy time communicating. For example, if he wanted to tell us that in three days the dog food would run out, he would say, "Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow, dog food eat, no". Or that two dogs got in a fight, "Baavgai, girl dog, smackdown". Or my favorite is, "Mr. Suldee, dog food eat, speed time", which means he will feed the dogs very soon.

Suldee with his Central Asain Ovcharka. He has several dogs of his own including, a Cocker Spaniel, English Spaniel, Pitbull and a Mongolian mixed breed.

Suldee with one of our male Bankhars, Kilgore.

 First to the top of Bayanzurkh Mountain.

Messing around with Arslan.

Check out our friend, Woody Packard's blog! He is living and teaching English here in UB and has written two stories about us. In the Notebook section, scroll down to the post titled "Mongel Bankhar ~ 2014-12-06" then the more recent post titled "Nomadic Guardian Update ~ 2015-01-24".
Woody Packard

Our oldest puppy litter romping around, wrestling and hanging out with the sheeps.

Currently we have 3 of the 4 litters directly exposed and interacting with sheep (about 4-5 sheep per litter). The hope is that by growing up and interacting with the sheep from day one, combined with minimum human interaction, these Bankhar will bond with the livestock and become Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGD). It's not too difficult to train an LGD; it's like teaching a child manners. But it can be tricky, especially with 19 puppies. It's important that the sheep do not harass the pups and traumatize them at a young age. And it is equally important that the pups don't harass the sheep and learn bad habits that they will carry with them as adults. We've gotten lucky so far. The sheep are calm, gentle, and allow the pups to touch and lick them! This was awesome to see! AND the pups seem to take out all of their playful behavior on one another. However, we bought 5 pregnant ewes in the hopes that they would be more calm towards people. And they were! But of course they had developed into protective mothers and were harassing the pups for no reason, investigating the pups and ramming them with their heads. I removed the pups immediately and placed them back with the calmer sheep. As we progress forward, I will be looking for the signs that the puppies are bonding with the sheep and correcting any bad behaviors.
For those who are uncertain what an LGD is or what we are doing in Mongolia, here is great video explaining the role of an LGD: Livestock Guardian Dogs: Working on Common Ground
We will be raising a native Mongolian breed, the Bankhar, known for its LGD instincts, and placing them with nomadic herders to help them protect their livestock and prevent the nomads from killing wolves and snow leopards.