Monitoring Przewalski - horses and wolves in Mongolia

The Przewalski horse (Equus przewalskii), or takhi in Mongolian, was extinct in the wild by the mid 1960`s and the species has only survived due to captive breeding. Since 1997, five herds have been released into the desert-steppe of the Gobi-B National Park in Mongolia with the aim to re-establish a sustainable and viable population. Four additional herd releases will follow in the next three years. For the reintroduction to be successful 1),it has to be socially and culturally accepted by the local people, and 2) it is necessary to implement a monitoring program to study takhi interactions with other wildlife and the vegetation. The reintroduction of captive-born Przewalski horses into their former range also brings them back into contact with their main natural predators, the gray wolf (Canis lupus). Even though takhis can defend themselves against predators, losses have happened, and predation could become an important factor limiting the population size. Alternative prey species among wild ungulates in the Gobi-B area are argali sheep (Ovis ammon), ibex (Capra ibex), black tailed gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) and kulan (Equus hemionus), but little is known about their status. Overgrazing and competition with wild herbivores makes it necessary to minimize nomadic livestock grazing within national parks and nature reserves of Mongolia. On the other hand, removal of livestock will reduce the prey base of the wolf population. Instead of preying on readily available domestic stock, wolves could prey on wild ungulates, including takhis. In 1999 we established a research field station at Tachin Tal on the edge of the Gobi-B NP. Using this infrastructure and the established co- operation with the University of Ulaan Bataar, we propose the following main study objectives: 1) Examine spatial organization and habitat use of reintroduced takhi in a desert-steppe environment, 2) evaluate the impact of wolf predation on the takhi population demography and 3) evaluate interspecific competition with wild ungulates and livestock. To investigate the proposed research aspects we suggest a 3 year study involving the following general techniques: a) capture and collaring of takhi and wolves with GPS-ARGOS radio-telemetry; b) on-site visual and ground tracking; c) prey search and scat analysis e) wildlife surveys using transect techniques; f) livestock inventories using interviews of normadic herders; g) a predator-prey model approach for the Gobi B