Outside Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, lies one of the world’s oldest wildlife reserves, the Bogd Khan Mountain Strictly Protected Area (BMSPA). Now a UNESCO biosphere reserve, the area’s protected status stretches back to the 12th century, when restrictions on timber harvest and hunting were first imposed.
Today, stray dogs from the rapidly expanding city are encroaching upon what has long been considered a sacred mountain and wildlife sanctuary.
Urban-wildland interfaces
In collaboration with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, UW graduate student Jeff Dolphin1 conducted two seasons of field research to investigate concerns about stray dogs competing with wolves for ecological resources. The goal was to gather data that local administrators could use to inform management decisions and prevent conflict between dogs, wolves, and local herders.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) categorizes Mongolian wolves as a near-threatened population. The BMSPA, which is approximately 417 square kilometers in size, is thought to harbor one to two wolf packs. Despite a monthly removal program initiated by BMSPA officials, stray dogs continue to be found in the reserve.
In 2022 and 2023, Dolphin’s team worked with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences to set up and monitor 72 trail cameras at 36 survey stations in the BMSPA. Cameras were monitored from April through August each year. The photos and video footage captured with these cameras was used to assess the spatial and temporal ranges of stray dogs and wolves in the area.
On camera
In 2022, stray dogs were recorded in only 3 of the 36 survey stations while wolves were recorded at 20 survey stations. The following season, stray dogs were detected on camera at 8 survey stations, but wolves were detected at only 17, possibly indicating that a pair of wolves in the area had moved farther up the mountain and away from human activity.
In general, Dolphin’s team found that the number of dog detections was highest near urban areas, but overlapped with wolves in both space and time. The number of wolf detections increased as distance from the city increased. Wolf detections decreased closer to the city and near areas with more humans and livestock.
In addition to the study area in BMSPA, the Mongolian Academy of Sciences is using cameras to monitor three other sites on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar. Unlike the BMSPA, these sites do not have protected status, Dolphin notes.
Survey results
Dolphin’s team also conducted surveys in person and online to learn more about the impacts and public perception of wolves and stray dogs near the BMSPA. “We’re coming from a western scientific perspective, but they have management strategies they’ve practiced within their culture,” says Dolphin.
While in Mongolia, he interviewed 15 herders living near the BMSPA, all of whom reported suffering livestock losses to wolves in the past. Twenty-seven other local residents, including government employees, completed surveys online or in person.
Many herders rely on guard dogs to protect cattle, goats, and other livestock, but wolf predation remains a problem. While setting up cameras in 2023, Dolphin observed a single wolf and freshly killed calf in the protected area.
Even though wolves pose a threat to livestock, most locals do not seem to favor complete eradication. “Bears have already been eliminated from the BMSPA,” Dolphin comments. “It would be a shame to lose any more wildlife in the oldest protected space in the world and eventually just be left with an empty mountain void of its wildlife.”
To learn more, contact faculty advisor John Koprowski at jkoprows@uwyo.edu.
This article was originally published in the 2024 issue of Reflections, the annual research magazine published by the UW College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources.
