Flora & Fauna
Long hailed as a wildlife paradise, Mongolia offers photographers and enthusiasts 133 mammal species, nearly 400 types of birds and 76 species of fish. From the abundant wolves to the globally endangered snow leopard, there is myriad wildlife to track, photograph and hunt.
Compared even to its Central Asian neighbors, Mongolia has little industry and an exceptionally unspoiled environment. Eastern Mongolia is famous for its bird life, boasting lakes brimming with storks and pelicans, while vultures can be topped across the country and species as rare as the Altai snow-cock and mute swan maybe observed in the countryside by the vigilant.
Marmots can be seen almost everywhere, as can fox and hares. The Gobi is home to the incredibly rare Gobi bear, gazelles and the Siberian ibex. Mongolia’s wild cats (mainly the snow leopard and lynx) inhabit far-western parts of the country.
A nationwide ban on the export of falcons was lifted in the autumn was lifted in the autumn of 1997, when a small number of the majestic birds was licensed for sale. But smuggling remains a problem: falconers are still known to pay extortionate amounts to purchase falcons in Mongolia and transport them to other parts of Asia and Middle East.
Conservationists have little money to monitor endangered species, although public awareness is slowly growing. The Mongolian Conservation Union has been Monitoring illegal hunting for the last 20 years, and over-hunting is now being recognized as a national problem. While local hunters generally seek to feed their families and sell the excess within their local communities, medicinal hunters target rare species such as the brown bear for incredibly lucrative one-off kills. Mongolia’s musk deer have been slaughtered almost to the brink of extinction for their valuable musk glands, which are used in perfume manufacturing.
Trophy hunters usually come from Europe and the US. They have to buy expensive permits issued directly by the Mongolian Cabinet before they can plan expeditions to hunt protected species like Argali-sheep, deer or gazelles.
One of the wildlife conservation problems is that herders perceive many wild animals as predators. Increasingly armed with guns, herders frequently target wolves, which are responsible for the deaths of thousands of cattle every year. There are also now estimated to be to be just 1,700 snow leopards in Mongolia, another legacy of relentless over-hunting.
In the 1950s, the small, stocky Przewalski horse was wiped out in Mongolia. For the last seven years this wild horse has been slowly reintroduced to the steppe from zoos in Holland and Switzerland. The Ministry of Nature and the Environment says it wants to do the same for the endangered musk and saiga deer, but lacks sufficient funds.