Mongolian Gobi supports the world's largest populations of khulan<i>Equus hemionus</i>and goitered gazelles<i>Gazella subgutturosa</i>

Buuveibaatar, Bayarbaatar; Strindberg, Samantha; Kaczensky, Petra; Payne, John C.; Chimeddorj, Buyanaa; Naranbaatar, G.; Amarsaikhan, S.; Dashnyam, Bumbein; Munkhzul, Tserendorj; Tsolmonjav, Purevsuren; Hosack, Dennis; Fuller, Todd K.

doi:10.1017/s0030605316000417

Cited by 22 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…This consistent use is remarkable as all khulan travelled independently of each other, were collared during two different capture events spaced two years apart, and in two different capture locations spaced >150 km apart. The combined range of the 20 khulan captured in 2013 was almost identical with the range of those captured in 2015 and matched the range from independent surveys from 2012-2015 27,43 . We are therefore confident, that our 41 collared khulan constitute a representative sample of the larger khulan population in the South Gobi Region and that the 53 most frequented waterpoints constitute a resource of population-level importance.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…Hence, identifying important waterpoints is essential for wildlife friendly land-use planning and the mitigation of infrastructure 25 .Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus; regionally called khulan) once were widespread and abundant throughout the deserts and steppes of Central Asia and Mongolia. In modern times, they have become confined to less than 3% of their range, with a last stronghold in the Mongolian Gobi 26,27 . Population decreases and range contractions have been attributed to a combination of land conversion, overhunting, displacement by, and competition with livestock for pasture and water.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Hidden treasure of the Gobi: understanding how water limits range use of khulan in the Mongolian Gobi

Payne

Buuveibaatar

Bowler

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Most large herbivores in arid landscapes need to drink which constrains their movements and makes them vulnerable to disturbance. Asiatic wild ass or khulan (Equus hemionus) were widespread and abundant throughout the arid landscapes of Central Asia and Mongolia, but have undergone dramatic population declines and range constrictions; denying khulan access to water is believed to have played a major role. Mongolia's South Gobi Region now houses the world largest remaining khulan population, but is undergoing rapid land use changes. Khulan water use is poorly understood, largely due to the difficulty of mapping waterpoints used by khulan throughout their exceptionally large ranges, prone to high variations in precipitation. We used the special movement path characteristics of GpS tagged khulan to show us where water is located. We identified 367 waterpoints, 53 of which were of population importance, characterized the seasonal and circadian use, and identified snow cover as the most important variable predicting khulan visits during the non-growing season, and vegetation greenness during the growing season. our results provide a data layer to help guide a regional khulan conservation strategy, allow predictions for other part of the global khulan range, and illustrates the overall importance of waterpoints for dryland herbivores.Wildlife adapted to drylands have developed specific strategies to minimize water loss and optimize water recycling through anatomical, physiological, and behavioural adaptations 1,2 . Although some large herbivores can extract enough water from their food 3 , most need to drink regularly, and the availability of water strongly influences their daily, seasonal, or annual movements 4-7 . In arid environments standing water from precipitation is typically absent, thus requiring large herbivores to regularly access waterpoints. Because waterpoints tend to be scarce and spatially explicit, they constitute areas where herbivores are particularly vulnerable to competition, disturbance, and predation 8-10 . Hence, understanding the factors affecting water use in space and time is a precondition for understanding movement strategies and habitat use of large herbivores in arid ecosystems.Water availability and access to water in the world's drylands is increasingly driven by human exploitation of water for agriculture, industry, and domestic use. Livestock grazing is typically constrained to pastures close to water, thereby often reducing water and pasture accessible to wildlife 8,[11][12][13][14] . Shared use of waterpoints harbours the risk of disease transmission between livestock and wildlife 15,16 . Finally, diversion of water for irrigation results in habitat conversion and when associated with fencing tends to block access to water by wildlife altogether. Actual or perceived competition with wild herbivores over water and nearby pastures often results in negative attitudes, facilitating retaliation actions including illegal killings particularly under drought conditions 17 . Identifying key ...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

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confidence: 99%

Hidden treasure of the Gobi: understanding how water limits range use of khulan in the Mongolian Gobi

Payne

Buuveibaatar

Bowler

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…A protein microarray (PA) technique as described previously (9, 10, 11) , was used to identify the influenza virus strains in the kulan serum samples. Samples where inactivated in a water bath at 56° C for 4 hours due to regulations for testing of animal samples from food and mouth disease endemic regions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bearing the brunt: Mongolian khulan (Equus hemionus hemionus) are exposed to multiple influenza A strains

Soilemetzidou

Bruin

Czirják

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…Water sources are sparsely distributed, occurring in the form of springs, which sometimes form short rivers and oases, as well as ephemeral basins and drainages. With an estimated 40,000 khulan and 30,000 goitered gazelle, the Mongolian Gobi Desert supports the largest remaining population of khulan and goitered gazelle in the world (Buuveibaatar et al 2016b). In addition, the Gobi Desert sustains a small population of a distinct subspecies of the critically endangered saiga antelope (IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group 2018).…”

Section: Study Species and Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Both the mesic steppe and xeric desert are characterized by variable rainfall in space and time (Khishigbayar et al 2015, Vandandorj et al 2015. The Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem supports the largest populations of Mongolian gazelle Procapra gutturosa, Asiatic wild ass (or khulan in Mongolian) Equus hemionus, goitered gazelle Gazella subgutturosa, and a subspecies of saiga antelope Saiga tatarica mongolica (Young et al 2010, Batsaikhan et al 2014, Buuveibaatar et al 2016b; Fig. 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability in nomadism: environmental gradients modulate the movement behaviors of dryland ungulates

et al. 2019

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Studying nomadic animal movement across species and ecosystems is essential for better understanding variability in nomadism. In arid environments, unpredictable changes in water and forage resources are known drivers of nomadic movements. Water resources vary temporally but are often spatially stationary, whereas foraging resources are often both temporally and spatially variable. These differences may lead to different types of nomadic movements: forage-vs. water-driven nomadism. Our study investigates these two different types of nomadism in relation to resource gradients from mesic steppe to xeric desert environments in Mongolia's Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem. We hypothesized that in the desert, where water is a key resource, animals are more water-dependent and may show water-driven nomadism with frequent revisits to spatially fixed resources, while in the steppe, animals are less water-dependent and may show forage-driven nomadism, tracking high-quality foraging patches with infrequent revisits to previously used resources. We utilized GPS movement data from 40 individuals of four ungulate species (Mongolian gazelle, goitered gazelle, saiga antelope, and Asiatic wild ass) in the Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem. We calculated displacement distances and recursion metrics and subsequently performed a principal component analysis to quantify the variation in movement patterns. The satellite-derived vegetation greenness served as a proxy for the resource gradient and was associated with variation in movement behaviors described by the first principal component, demonstrating that the variability in movements was closely related to the resource gradient from mesic to xeric habitats. We showed that ungulates in the resource-rich steppe tended to move long distances with few revisits (forage-driven nomadism), while ungulates in the resource-poor desert tended to move shorter distances with more revisits (water-driven nomadism). Our results suggest that xeric and mesic habitats promote different types of nomadic strategies. These results have important implications for conservation strategies: Forage-driven nomads primarily require a high degree of landscape-level permeability, and water-driven nomads additionally require the protection of ephemeral water bodies and actions to maintain the functional connectivity between them.

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Mongolian Gobi supports the world's largest populations of khulanEquus hemionusand goitered gazellesGazella subgutturosa

Cited by 22 publications

References 21 publications

Hidden treasure of the Gobi: understanding how water limits range use of khulan in the Mongolian Gobi

Hidden treasure of the Gobi: understanding how water limits range use of khulan in the Mongolian Gobi

Bearing the brunt: Mongolian khulan (Equus hemionus hemionus) are exposed to multiple influenza A strains

Variability in nomadism: environmental gradients modulate the movement behaviors of dryland ungulates

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