Mongolians place hay near habitats to protect wildlife from harsh winter

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, January 17, 2021
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ULAN BATOR, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Bayankhongor, a southwestern Mongolian province, has been providing hay near wildlife habitats to help animals survive the extreme wintry weather, a local official said Sunday.

"It can be said that our province did not see summer in 2020. There was no grass last summer," Jalbuu Enkhbat, deputy governor of the province's Bayanlig soum, told Xinhua.

"A hundred bales of hay have been allocated to our soum. Just yesterday, we put some hay in an area called 'Ariin Usnii Tsakhir,' which is a habitat of the Siberian ibex," he said. "We also plan to put out hay and feed for other wild animals such as gazelles and roe deer."

This harsh winter has become a big challenge not only for wild animals, but for herders, the official said, adding that there are about 800 herder households in the soum, around 40 percent of whom have migrated with livestock for better grasslands elsewhere.

At least six of all 21 Mongolian provinces are likely to experience a dzud or near-dzud this winter, according to the country's Food and Agriculture Ministry.

A dzud is a type of brutal weather when a dry summer followed by a frigid winter kills a vast number of livestock, through either starvation or freezing temperatures. In 2016, a dzud killed more than 1 million livestock in Mongolia, a nation where pastoral herding is still common. Enditem

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