Conserving the World's Finest Grassland Amidst Ambitious National Development

Batsaikhan, Nyamsuren; Buuveibaatar, Bayarbaatar; Chimed, Bazaar; Enkhtuya, Oidov; Galbrakh, Davaa; Ganbaatar, Oyunsaikhan; Lkhagvasuren, Badamjav; Dejid, Nandintsetseg; Berger, Joël; Calabrese, Justin M.; Edwards, Ann E.; Fagan, William F.; Fuller, Todd K.; Heiner, Michael; Ito, Yoichi; Kaczensky, Petra; Leimgruber, Peter; Лущекина, А. А.; Milner‐Gulland, E.J.; Mueller, Thomas; Murray, Martyn G.; Olson, Kirk A.; Reading, Richard P.; Schaller, George B.; Stubbe, Annegret; Stubbe, Michael; Walzer, Chris; Wehrden, Henrik von; Whitten, Tony

doi:10.1111/cobi.12297

Cited by 60 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Central Asian remote rangelands are home to several charismatic, rare and far ranging ungulates which are increasingly becoming under pressure from human encroachment (Schaller 1998, Robinson and Milner-Gulland 2003, Mallon and Zhigang 2009, Batsaikhan et al 2014. Reliably monitoring species is a challenge due to the vast *Address correspondence to this author at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1, A-1160 Vienna, Austria; Tel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mongolia's change to a free market economy resulted in dramatic socioeconomic changes, also affecting the Gobi regions. Infrastructure developments, particularly associated with mining, threaten to fragment and destroy habitat (Mallon and Jiang 2009, Kaczensky et al 2011a, Batsaikhan et al 2014. Overstocking with livestock results in competition for and degradation of pastures , Sheehy et al 2010, Berger et al 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Monitoring of Khulans and Goitered Gazelles in the Mongolian Gobi – Potential and Limitations of Ground Based Line Transects

Kaczensky¹,

Ganbaatar²,

Altansukh³

et al. 2015

TOECOLJ

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Central Asian remote rangelands are home to several charismatic, rare and far ranging ungulates which are increasingly becoming under pressure from human encroachment. Population monitoring is challenging due to the vast expanse of the species ranges, tight budgets and limited availability of suitable fixed winged-aircraft. Consequently, many current population estimates are based on pragmatically designed ground-bound transect surveys. Although, ample literature exists on how to design surveys in an ideal world, little effort has been made to demonstrate the potential and limitations of a time-series of ground-bound transect surveys under real world constrains.Since 2003 we have been monitoring the two sympatric steppe ungulates, Asiatic wild ass ("khulan", Equus hemionus) and goitered gazelles ("gazelle", Gazella gutturosa), in the Great Gobi B Strictly Protected Area in south-western Mongolia using ground-bound line transects. Both species showed clear species-specific seasonal variation in group sizes which seem related to birthing and mating periods. Data on annual recruitment were impeded by the long flight distances and the difficulty to reliably identify and count young of the year. Distribution of khulans and gazelles showed clear speciesspecific seasonal patterns and highlighted the importance of two oasis complexes. Population estimates of 33 surveys covering 10,383 km² were highly variable even between consecutive surveys and had huge 95% confidence intervals (khulan: range: 1,707 to 45,040, gazelles: range: 2,564 to 10,766) making them unsuitable to obtain robust baseline population estimates.Although our individual surveys were poor measures of population abundance, they provided important data on group sizes and species distribution and are presently used for Bayesian hierarchical trend modelling and species specific habitat suitability analysis. The ground surveys are relatively inexpensive as compared to aerial surveys and thus can be conducted at short temporal intervals, engaging park staff and researchers with local people thereby helping mutual understanding, information transfer, and detection of illegal activities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring of Khulans and Goitered Gazelles in the Mongolian Gobi – Potential and Limitations of Ground Based Line Transects

Kaczensky¹,

Ganbaatar²,

Altansukh³

et al. 2015

TOECOLJ

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“…Mongolia's Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem is the world's largest area of intact grassland (827,000 km 2 ), and it is much larger than other globally famous grasslands as wildlife habitat, such as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (108,000 km 2 ) in the western United States and the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem (25,000 km 2 ) in East Africa (Batsaikhan et al 2014). The Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem is a wide and intact steppe and semi-desert ecosystem in northern China, Mongolia, and southern Russia where great migrations of wild ungulates still occur.…”

Section: Environments Of Mongolia's Gobi-steppe Ecosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mongolia's Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem is facing the threats of new railway development (Batsaikhan et al 2014). Large mining projects are being developed in southern Mongolia, and there are plans to develop a railway network to transport mining products and connect cities.…”

Section: Railway Development As a Threat To Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat Fragmentation by Railways as a Barrier to Great Migrations of Ungulates in Mongolia

et al. 2017

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Mongolia's Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem is the largest grassland in the world and the habitat of long-distance movement ungulates, such as the Mongolian gazelle (Procapra gutturosa) and the Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus). The international railway between Russia and China bisects this habitat, and there has been concern that it may impede the movements of wild ungulates. We tracked ungulate movements on both sides of the Ulaanbaatar-Beijing Railway, and found that most of the tracked animals never crossed the railway. The construction of additional railways to permit mining projects in the area is therefore a further threat to maintaining the great migrations of ungulates across Mongolia.

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“…In Mongolia, border fences pose a serious problem for nomadic ungulates by restricting movements and increasing mortality (Olson et al, 2009;Kaczensky et al, 2011;Ito et al, 2013). In regions with continuous, impermeable fencing, crossing structures or fence gaps for wildlife, therefore should be considered (Olson et al, 2009;Ito et al, 2013;Batsaikhan et al, 2014), yet placement of these structures requires careful evaluation of regional connectivity. Mitigating the effects of transboundary development on wildlife requires information on movement behavior and landscape structures that foster connectivity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Potential Conservation Corridors Along the Mongolia-Russia Border Using Resource Selection Functions: A Case Study on Argali Sheep

2013

Mong. J. Biol. Sci.

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Cite this paper as:The disruption of animal movements is known to affect wildlife populations, particularly large bodied, free-ranging mammals that require large geographic ranges to survive. Corridors commonly connect fragmented wildlife populations and their habitats, yet identifying corridors rarely uses data on habitat selection and movements of target species. New technologies and analytical tools make it possible to better integrate landscape patterns with spatial behavioral data. We show how resource selection functions can describe habitat suitability using continuous and multivariate metrics to determine potential wildlife movement corridors. During 2005-2010, we studied movements of argali sheep (Ovis ammon) near the Mongolia-Russia border using radio-telemetry and modeled their spatial distribution in relation to landscape features to create a spatially explicit habitat suitability surface to identify potential transboundary conservation corridors. Argali sheep habitat selection in western Mongolia positively correlated with elevation, ruggedness index, and distance to border. In other words, argali were tended use areas with higher elevation, rugged topography, and distances farther from the international border. We suggest that these spatial modeling approaches offer ways to design and identify wildlife corridors more objectively and holistically, and can be applied to many other target species. Chimeddorj, B., Buuveibaatar, B., Onon, Y., Munkhtogtokh, O., & Reading, R. P. 2013. Identifying potential conservation corridors along the mongolia-russia border using resource selection functions: a case study on argali sheep. Mong. J. Biol. Sci., 11(1-2): 45-53.

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Conserving the World's Finest Grassland Amidst Ambitious National Development

Cited by 60 publications

References 14 publications

Monitoring of Khulans and Goitered Gazelles in the Mongolian Gobi – Potential and Limitations of Ground Based Line Transects

Monitoring of Khulans and Goitered Gazelles in the Mongolian Gobi – Potential and Limitations of Ground Based Line Transects

Habitat Fragmentation by Railways as a Barrier to Great Migrations of Ungulates in Mongolia

Identifying Potential Conservation Corridors Along the Mongolia-Russia Border Using Resource Selection Functions: A Case Study on Argali Sheep

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