Counting animals in Mongolia

In October 2009, the Ministry of the Environment and Tourism undertook a census (count) of wild mountain sheep, wild goats, black tailed gazelle, antelope and wild horses.

The results currently available are:

Antelopes 466,352 from 560 herds
Wild goats 24,370 from 162 herds
Wild sheep 19,701 from 385 herds
Black tailed gazelles 2,610 from 255 herds
Wild horses 3,404 from 56 herds
Reindeer unknown

The last count of reindeer was at the end of the 1980s conducted by the National University of Mongolia and the University of Irkutsk in Russia. The students counted 400 reindeer at the time. Apparently, no-one has seen them in the wild since.

Each year, Mongolians celebrate the “Thousand Reindeer Festival” for the domestic reindeer. However, in 2009, the Mongolians did not celebrate because the number did not reach a thousand.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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