Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
out of Chinggis Khot. Traffic is very light in the direction of Choibalsan (191km) and
you may have to wait a day or two for a lift.
HITCHING
This is difficult because few vehicles come here. Still, if you have plenty of time on your
hands, you can get a lift to Choibalsan, or Chinggis Khot; ask around at the jeep stand or
the petrol station.
GAZELLE UNDER THREAT
A highlight of eastern Mongolia, as you bounce along in your jeep, is the sight of
herds of up to 10,000 Mongolian gazelle darting across the steppe - among the
very last of the great migratory herds. When pre-eminent biologist George Schaller
first visited in 1989, he proclaimed the immense herds to be one of the world's
greatest wildlife spectacles.
Sadly, indiscriminate poaching for subsistence and bush-meat sale has reduced
their numbers by over 50% in the past 10 years, so you'll be lucky indeed to catch a
glimpse of a great herd. There is an estimated one to two million Mongolian gazelle
left in the wild, and it's believed that up to 200,000 of these creatures are illegally
shot every year, about 20% of their entire population. Many are shot outside the
legal hunting season, when females are lactating and make easier targets. An es-
timated 60% of herding households shoot about eight gazelle per year. Gazelle-leg
horse-whips are brazenly sold even at Ulaanbaaatar's Narun Tuul market - please
do not purchase these.
Habitat loss to overgrazing, road construction and the erection of barriers fur-
ther puts their numbers at risk. Mining is another threat: oil exploration in south-
east Dornod has brought large-scale infrastructure and thousands of workers into
a once-uninhabited region and the oil fields lie perilously close to the border of pro-
tected areas.
US-based international conservation NGOs such as the
Wildlife Conservation
gazelle habitat on the eastern steppe. The BBC's Planet Earthfeatured the gazelles
and the eastern steppe on their grassland series (go to YouTube and search for
'Mongolian gazelle').
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Dariganga
