Beyond 2000 Symposium

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Status of Wolves around the World - Thursday Session

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Beyond 2000:
Realities of Global Wolf Restoration

23-26 February 2000
Duluth, Minnesota USA

Tungalagtuya Khuukhenduu, World Wide Fund Office in Mongolia, PO Box 737, Ulaanbaatar 46, Mongolia; Dulamtseren Sanduin, Institute of Biology, Academy of Science of Mongolia, PO Box 1257, Ulaanbaatar 36, Mongolia; Tserendeleg Jachingiin, Mongolian Association for the Conservation of Nature and the Environment, PO Box 1160, Ulaanbaatar 36, Mongolia

Mongolia is country with a rich mammal composition, including one species of wolf, the gray wolf (C. lupus Linnaeus 1758). There are not many published materials on gray wolf research in Mongolia. In the 1930s and 1950s, some Soviet scientists studied wolves in the mountain ranges of Altai, Khangai, and Khubsugul, and in late 1980, Mongolian biologists did scientific research on the wolf in the Great Gobi Protected Area. From 1994 to 1999, wolf monitoring was done in Khustai Nuruu National Park. In ancient times there was also the jackal (C. aureus Linnaeus 1758) in the Mongolian south western territories and Gobi desert. The Russian scientist A.G. Bannikov wrote that there are two subspecies of the gray wolf in Mongolia. Another sub-species of the gray wolf may exist in Eastern Mongolia. The wolf is distributed throughout the country. In connection with domestic animals and wild ungulates, the wolf occurs in forest steppe, steppe, taiga zones -- more in the mountainous regions and fewer in the Gobi desert. Most of the wolf's diet is domestic herds in most of the area during all seasons. But in northern forest areas, wolves catch red deer, roe deer, wild boar, and brown elk. Gobi desert wolves mostly catch black-tale antelope, khulan, wild camel, argali sheep, ibex, hare, some rodents and other animals, while Eastern Mongolian wolves mainly catch Mongolian gazelles. In respect to Mongolia's traditional nomadic animal husbandry, hate for the gray wolf was apparent since ancient times. This point of view existed until 1990 in all people except a few biology experts. The wolf has been one of Mongolians' favorite game animal since ancient times. The ancient kings hunted the wolf to show their bravery, racing horses, their bow's accuracy, and for the wolf's pelt, but after the 1921 revolution, people started to hunt the animal on a large scale to reduce depredations on domestic herds and to export its pelts. An average of 3,689 wolves were killed every year from 1981 to1988. Nowadays, wolves are not being hunted in an organized manner. However they are still taken for sport. In recent years, people's view about the wolf's importance in nature has been changing due to improvement in their ecological education.