Field Notes from Mongolia: Studying Przewalski's Horses www.czs.org

Racquel Ardisana, a senior animal care specialist at Habitat Africa, shares some field notes from Mongolia where she studied steppe ecology and reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses.

In June 2019, I set off on a great adventure. I departed from Chicago early one morning —two planes, one taxi, and several bumpy miles in an old Soviet van later I arrived in the central Mongolian steppe. As a graduate student in biology through Miami University’s Global Field Program, I was in Mongolia to learn about the ecology of the steppe ecosystem and the reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses to the wild. As part of my job as a senior animal specialist here at Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo, I work with Przewalski’s horses, so I was excited to learn more about the world’s last truly wild horses and the vital role zoos played in their return to the wild.

My trip started at the remote research site of Pallas’s Cat Conservation Project located in Altanbulag. While there, my classmates and I spent our days in field classes studying the unique fauna and flora of the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland and our nights resting in gers, the traditional circular homes of Mongolian nomads.

Collecting data on the Mongolia’s native rodents by safely catching and releasing them from Sherman traps. When we caught an animal, we took measurements and recorded the species and sex of each individual. Then we released them in the same spots they were found. This data helps researchers study rodent populations and how they change over time. The Mongolian hamster, gray marmot, and Mongolian gerbil are just a few of the many species of rodents that live in the steppe.

I stayed in this ger while visiting the Pallas’s Cat Conservation Project. On our last day, we learned how to break down the ger and pack it up for travel. Mongolian pastoralists are nomadic, moving seasonally to make sure their livestock have plenty of grass to eat, so their homes must be portable.

At night, the kitchen ger became a makeshift lecture hall, where researchers like Dr. Bariushaa Munkhtsog of Pallas’s Cat Conservation Project and Irbis Mongolian Center gave us presentations on his research and steppe conservation.

Mongolia falls within the Eurasian steppe belt, which stretches from the mouth of the Danube River in Budapest in the east to northern China in the west. This is the largest temperate grassland in the world —it reaches almost 1/5 of the way around the globe! The steppe ecosystem is semi-arid, only receiving about 10-20 inches of rain in any given year. Because of the low amount of rainfall and drastic swings in temperature between seasons, grasses are the main type of plant that grow in the steppe. Mongolian nomads have grazed their livestock, including their cashmere goats, on these grasses for generations. Unfortunately, as herds of livestock have grown increasingly larger in number, overgrazing has become a problem that threatens both the nomadic people and native plants and animals.

The steppe has seen better days. Tall grass once covered this area but it has undergone partial desertification. Overgrazing from livestock is threatening this ecosystem and the animals that live in it. If you look closely, you can see remote Ger Camp in the bottom left of the photo.

Livestock are sometimes penned for safety overnight. Gray wolves roam the steppe and sometimes take livestock for prey. Pens and guard dogs help protect them.

The steppe is also home to a variety of native animals –some of the ones we came across in Altanbulag included corsac foxes, Brandt’s voles, steppe eagles, and demoiselle cranes. We even managed to catch a glimpse of a rare Pallas’s cat while out in the field one day!

We were very lucky to get a quick peak at a Pallas’s cat. These cats, known as ‘manul’ in Mongolian, are a threatened species due mainly to habitat degradation and fragmentation.

After several days of classes and fieldwork at Altanbulag, we departed southward to Hustaai National Park in search of Przewalski’s horses. These horses have never been domesticated and are considered the last remaining wild horses in the world. Known to Mongolians as ‘tahki’, meaning spirit, Przewalski’s horses are a symbol of national pride for the country.

Mongolians are horsemen who have used their own breed of domesticated horses for herding, travel, war, and sport since before the time of the Mongol Empire and Genghis Khan. Because of this, the Mongolian people hold horses, both domestic and wild, in high regard. I had a chance to explore part of Hustai National Park on horseback.

Przewalski’s horses were once common throughout much of the steppe. By the early part of the 20th century, livestock had overgrazed much of the grasslands that the horses relied on and that, coupled with some extra harsh winters, caused their populations to decline rapidly. By 1960, Mongolia’s Gobi region was the last place you could find Przewalski’s horses in the steppe. Just 9 years later, they were declared extinct in the wild.

Luckily, for both the tahki and us their story does not end there! There was still a population of tahki living in zoos —almost a thousand of them between Europe and the United States. In 1992, zoos and scientists teamed up. Zoos sent Przewalski’s horses born and raised in managed care to Mongolia, and began the first release efforts to restore Przewalski’s horses to their ancestral home on the steppe. Release efforts continued throughout the 1990s and 2000s and thanks to their success, there are around 380 horses living in Hustai National Park today.

While modern zoos are often considered centers of informal learning and entertainment, they are also huge contributors to global conservation efforts through both funding and research. In the case of Przewalski’s horses, zoos were crucial to their survival, serving as an ark to preserve individual animals and their genetic material from complete loss. Without an already established breeding program and population of Przewalski’s horses living in zoos when their population rapidly declined, they would almost certainly be extinct today.

Our second morning in Hustai National Park we woke up early, before the sun was even up. We got in our vans and drove to a valley in the middle of the park. We set up on a ridge, binoculars in hand. Not long after we arrived, someone spotted movement in the valley and everyone’s hearts started beating a little faster. Could it be what we came here for? What I spent the whole trip anticipating? Excitedly we watched three Przewalski’s horses —a small harem—appear out of the birch trees and then make their way across the valley.

It was a quick glimpse and from a distance away but we were buzzing with excitement for the rest of the day. Many of the graduate students in my field class are zoo professionals and the Przewalski’s horse reintroduction story was one of the things that inspired our passion for both zoos and conservation. We could not wait to get back into the field the next day.

For the next several mornings, we returned to the valley and each time we spotted horses. On the last morning, we found ourselves surrounded on all sides by several harems of horses, over 60 animals in total, there were even foals —it felt like a dream. We observed and studied their behavior and watched as some of the harems interacted.

Spending time with those horses in the valley in Mongolia reminded me of all the important work that places like Brookfield Zoo do for conservation of wildlife around the globe. They educate, fund conservation efforts, perform critical research, and in the case of the Przewalski’s horse, serve as an ark —without places like Brookfield Zoo, Mongolia would have lost its spirit forever.

"The example of Przewalski’s horse conservation shows us that extinction events may be difficult to predict and how important it is to have a captive population to draw upon should reintroductions become necessary.” From Przewalski’s Horse: The History and Biology of an Endangered Species, Boyd and Houpt, 1994

Total outstanding loans of NBFIs reach MNT 1.3 trillion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. According to the Financial Regulatory Commission (FRC), the total outstanding loan balance of non-bank financial institutions increased by 19.2 percent compared to the previous year, reaching MNT 1.3 trillion.

Non-performing loans in banking system amount to MNT1.9 trillion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. At the end of July 2020, the total amount of outstanding loans to enterprises and individuals amounted to MNT 17.3 trillion, decreased by MNT 40.4 billion (0.2%) from the previous month and decreased by MNT 945.1 billion (5.2%) from the same period of the previous year. In the total outstanding loans, MNT 8.7 trillion (50.3%) was the loan to individuals.

The performing loans reached MNT 14.3 trillion at the end of July 2020, decreased by MNT 194.9 billion (1.3%) from the previous month and MNT 1.2 trillion (7.9%) from the same period of the previous year. The performing loans make up 82.2% of the total loans, which decreased by 2.4 percentage points from the same period of the previous year.

At the end of July 2020, the non-performing loans in the banking system amounted to MNT 1.9 trillion, increased by MNT 25.0 billion (1.3%) from the previous month and MNT 10.9 billion (0.6%) from last year. The non-performing loans in the banking system make up 11.2% of the total loans, increased by 0.6 percentage points from the same period of the previous year.

At the end of June 2020, the loans from commercial banks to individuals amounted to MNT 8.7 trillion, increased by MNT 40.1 billion (0.5%) from the previous month, while it is decreased by MNT 708.9 billion (7.6%) from the same period of the previous year. By types of the loans to individuals, 41.3 percent were loans for individual business activities, 33.8 percent -- salary loans, 7.9 percent -- herder loans, 6.5 percent -- deposit-backed loans, 3.0 percent -- car loans, 2.9 percent -- credit card loans, 1.8 percent -- pension loans, 0.8 percent -- household consumption loans and 1.9 percent --others.

At the end of June 2020, credit repayments of individuals to commercial banks reached MNT 927.3 billion, increased by MNT 77.5 billion (9.1%) compared to the previous month and MNT 114.9 billion (14.2%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

At the end of June 2020, the loans to small and medium enterprises and individuals amounted to MNT 4.0 trillion, increased by MNT 148.5 billion (3.9%) from the previous month, while it decreased by MNT 15.5 billion (0.4%) from the same period of the previous year.

By the economic activities of small and medium enterprises and self-employed individuals with loans, 28.5 percent operate in wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, 13.2 percent -- in manufacturing, 11.9 percent -- in construction, 4.7 percent -- in the service sectors and 3.4 percent -- in agriculture, forestry and fishing and 38.3 percent -- in other sectors.

The principals in arrears in commercial banks and Mongolian Mortgage Corporation /MMC/ reached MNT 4.7 trillion at the end of June 2020, increased by MNT 48.4 billion (1.0%) from the previous month and MNT 242.9 (5.4%) billion from the same period of the previous year.

Source: National Statistics Office of Mongolia

Term deposits in foreign currency grow by 56.7 percent from last year www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. The money supply (M2) reached MNT 21.4 trillion at the end of July 2020, increased by MNT 1.1 trillion (5.3%) compared with the same period of the previous year. The main reason for this increase was resulted from MNT 1.7 trillion (56.7%) increase of time deposits in foreign currency, MNT 243.2 billion (2.2%) increase of time deposit in domestic currency and MNT 16.5 billion (2.6%) increase of currency outside depository corporations.

Equilibrated balance shows deficit of MNT 2.5 trillion www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. According to the preliminary results in the first seven months of 2020, the total revenue of the general government budget was MNT 5.3 trillion. The equilibrated revenue of the general government budget was MNT 4.9 trillion and 93.1% of the total revenue of the general government budget.

Traded pieces of securities decreased by 87.9 percent from previous month www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. In the first seven months of 2020, securities worth of MNT 23.7 billion were traded at the national stock market, which is decreased by MNT 101.0 billion (81.0%) compared to the same period of the previous year.

Ivanhoe and China’s CNMC announce Africa partnership www.mining.com

Ivanhoe Mines on Tuesday announced a deal with China Nonferrous Metal Mining (CNMC) under which the companies would jointly look for African mining projects to explore, develop or acquire.

The destination of the 30,000 sheep donated by Mongolia is clear www.tellerreport.com

Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, Mongolia has donated 30,000 sheep to China. On the 17th, Chinese Ambassador to Mongolia Chai Wenrui stated that these sheep will be slaughtered in a centralized manner after entering China, and then the destination of this batch of mutton will be decided according to the intentions of China and Mongolia. It is understood that Mongolia will dedicate these mutton to the people of Hubei and Wuhan who have shown bravery in the fight against the epidemic.

China is the biggest winner of the US renewables boom www.rt.com

As the shift to clean and renewable energy begins to gain serious momentum, the US is now facing another conundrum: Being too dependent on China for the minerals used to build clean energy systems.
Since the days of President Jimmy Carter and the 1970s oil crisis, the US has relentlessly pursued the utopia of becoming energy independent. But with persistent oil crises and severe oil price shocks, it has become glaringly obvious that Washington will never achieve true energy independence by relying solely on fossil fuels, even if the United States finally becomes a net oil exporter. The majority of America’s citizens also feel that the government should ‘‘...focus on developing alternative sources of energy over expansion of fossil fuel sources’’ in a bid to alleviate climate change.

Whether it’s in the pursuit of energy independence or in a bid to ameliorate climate change, there’s an undeniable shift to renewables going on in the US, with renewable energy accounting for 11.4 percent of total US energy consumption in 2019 compared to only four percent two decades ago.

But as the shift to clean and renewable energy begins to gain serious momentum, the United States is now facing another conundrum: Being too dependent on China for the minerals used to build clean energy systems.

China supplies ~80 percent of the rare earths elements (REE) used by the United States to manufacture windmills, solar panels, electric car batteries, cellphones, computers, medical equipment, national defense systems, and even in oil and gas technologies.

Back in 2018, the Interior Department released a list of 35 minerals it classified as being ‘critical’ to the US economy. The alarming part: The US entirely relies on imports from China for 14 of these minerals, and imports 75 percent of at least another ten.

Those figures are not exaggerations: According to the US Geological Survey, China supplied 80 percent of the US’ REE in 2019. Yet another worrying statistic: Although the US mined 18,000 metric tons of its own rare earths in 2018 and 26,000 metric tonnes in 2019, the US Geological Survey has revealed that all domestic production of mineral concentrates was exported. Only three decades ago, the US was the world’s number-one producer of these minerals but has slipped down to seventh place.

China’s vice-like grip on the US REE supply chain would become as clear as daylight if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ascends into the Oval Office and starts to implement his $5 trillion climate plan.

Biden has pitched a highly ambitious $5 trillion-plus climate proposal that he says would be necessary if the US is to match the EU by becoming a net-zero carbon emission country by 2050. Biden has proposed a staggering $1.7 trillion in federal spending over the next decade to achieve this goal, with the private sector expected to chip in with the balance. Biden says the taxpayer costs can be recovered by repealing the generous tax bonanza that Trump granted US corporations and also by eliminating subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

Becoming Self-Sufficient
With China being home to nearly half of the world’s known REE deposits, the US will have little choice than to ramp up its imports of these minerals from the Middle Kingdom as it transitions to renewables, something not made easy by the fact that the entire globe is in the same race to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy. Further, the specter of China using its strategic control of REE’s in a trade war remains very real.

Several energy experts have acknowledged this reality, and have emphasized that the US will only achieve true energy independence by inventing affordable clean energy technologies and ensuring that they are made locally and sold globally.

As US Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has declared: "We need to reverse our damaging dependence on China and other nations and rebuild domestic supply chains for everything from personal protective equipment to clean energy technologies.”

But this is not just about lowering our dependence on China out of an abundance of caution. Dr. Arun Majumdar of Sanford University and co-Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy has pointed out that we import more than 50 percent of our oil at a cost of about $300 billion a year--money that could be used to create jobs if we became self-sufficient in our energy needs.

Battushig to work at Evaluation Committee for 2030 Asian Games www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced the composition of the OCA Evaluation Committee on August 12, and First Deputy President of the Mongolian National Olympic Committee, Member of International Olympic Committee B.Battushig have been selected as one of the 10 members of the Evaluation Committee.