In this edition, we went to Hustai National Park. There are many things to see in this Valley, which is 110 km from Ulaanbaatar.
About 65 km out of town, we saw a herd of deer grazing behind a wire fence along the road. After leaving here, 10 km away, we came across a herd of gazelles. As we got closer to Hustai, I felt as if the animals were welcoming us. We also saw a rabbit running and a vulture flying.
Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przewalski, was a Russian geographer of Polish descent and a renowned explorer of Central and East Asia. He confirmed the existence of wild horses in Mongolia and brought a valuable find to science. Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przewalski, famous for his Central Asian studies, crossed Mongolia three times in 1873, 1878, and 1880.
On his way back home from his second trip in 1878, he received a gift of a horse's head bone from A.K.Tikhonov, the head of the Russian-Chinese border guard at that time. The head bone was compared with 22 species of the horse, and it was proved that it is not the same as any of them, and it is a completely new species of horse. Subsequently, the horse was registered in science in 1881 under the name of Przewalski.
Przewalski's horses have 66 chromosomes, compared to the 64 that domestic horses have. Westerners, who had the idea that wild horses were completely extinct, did not believe that there were wild horses in Mongolia. Nine years later, in the early 1890s, horses were recognized as truly wild horses.
Between 1992 and 2000, a total of 84 horses were introduced to Mongolia through five shipments. Currently, horses are being reintroduced in three places in Mongolia.
- 423 wild horses in 45 breeding herds in Khustai
- Over 410 wild horses on the Takhiin tal of Bugat Soum, Govi-Altai province
- 20 horses in Khomiin tal of Durvuljin Soum, Zavkhan province
In the 30 years since the wild horse was first reintroduced, Mongolia now has more than 1,000 wild horses.
In addition to 423 wild horses, there are more than 2,000 deer, more than 100 wild sheep, more than 1,000 antelopes, and about 11,000 marmots in Hustai. In the last three years, 3,500 marmots have been reintroduced from Hustai to 17 soums of five provinces.
WHAT IS THE BEHAVIOR OF WILD HORSE?
We met Ts.Batzaya, a biologist at the Khustai National Park, and drove to see wild animals. The first wild horse we met is called Bolor /Crystal/. Bolor stallion herd his pack for 11 years, and in 2019 he lost his pack to a young stallion and started living alone. There is only one law among wild animals; the strong one defeats the weak one. When age passes and strength weakens, the stallion loses his pack to the young one. There will be cases of death due to the competition for the herd. The biologist explained that 7-8-year-old stallions take packs led by 17-18-year-old stallions.
The most horrific fight among Hustai’s stallions is related to the stallion called Uv. He fought to protect his herd and was kicked in the forehead. And there are many cases of breaking the tibia of horses. Because it is a wild animal, it does not restrain its movement and dies without drinking grass or water. As for the Bolor stallion, the only option left for him was to live alone and die alone.
If a foal of another stallion is born in the pack, a stallion kills the foal. This behavior is strong. The biologist explained the lack of opportunities to protect foals. For example, in 2022, out of more than 80 mares that gave birth, 65 foals survived and 15 foals were killed.
Wild horses or takhis never breed with their own blood. But they remove them from the pack when the foal is 3 or 4 years old. In doing so, there are cases where the ears and tail are bitten by the stallion.
Every year, information about the reproduction and extinction of horses in the Hustai National Park is reported to the Prague Zoo. More than 2,500 wild horses living in the world are registered in the zoo.
Every wild horse in Hustai has its own name. Dinal, Zuunmod, Eko-5, Khuvisal, Khukh Sum are the names of stallions that are harvesting their herds. Biologists keep a record of who is added and who is removed from the herd.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT HUSTAI NATIONAL PARK
- When two stallions named A and B are fighting for their herd, and stallion C abandons one mare and seizes it. This is a very strange phenomenon.
- In some cases, the stallion does not remove the foal from the pack. Thus, there will be a fight with the stallion and the foal together in order not to lose the pack to another stallion.
- In 2022, the BBC came to Hustai and filmed a documentary about the relationship between wolves and horses for a month. During this time, a camera was placed for 24 hours. And Khulgar stallion was recorded the image of how the stallion is protecting his three mares from wolf attack.
- Mares give birth between April 10 and June 10. At this time, newborn or 7-14-day-old foals often sleep next to their mothers near springs and fountains. While the pack is resting, wolves attack the sleeping foal. It was observed that the mother usually comes first to protect the foal, followed by the stallion. Also, nearby mares help protect the foal.
- In one herd, there are 5-6 mares. The pack with the most members is that Gal stallion has 5 foals and a herd of 17 members. The pack with the fewest members include one stallion and one mare.
- The longest-lived mare in the herd was named Altan, who lived to 26 years.
- According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a wild horse was categorized as “extinct in the wild” in 1960. Due to reintroduction of the wild horse, the status has been improved by two, and now Przewalski's horse is in the "endangered" category.
- People can name the takhi foal of their choice. Price is USD 250. And you will receive a confirmation certificate in return. This means that the horse registration with the name you provide will be registered in the World Horse Pedigree.
- Khustai has an area of 50,620 hectares. It ranks second from the bottom among 120 protected areas in Mongolia.
- The books "Animals of Hustai", "Flowers of Hustai", "Birds of Hustai" were published.
- The Japanese NHK television crew had arrived in Hustai when we visited.
HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE WILD HORSES?
Przewalski's horses do not have a long bushy mane like the Mongolian horse, and its tail is very thin. Wild horses are distinguished by other colored spots on the body skin and hair. There is a mole under the leg. And the moles are as small as a dot or it can cover the whole horse leg.
Click HERE to watch the 24-hour live camera installed in Hustai National Park.
SERVICE AND PRICE OF TOURIST CAMP
Khustai Camp, open for four seasons a year, is run by a Non-Governmental Organization. Their main source of income is tourism. In 2019, due to the spread of Covid-19 infection in the country, its activities were disrupted. In 2019, a total of 30,000 people were received, of which 17,000 were foreign tourists.
Starting from 2019, a ranger with binoculars has been placed at points where horses are located. As a result, travelers and tourists have the opportunity to see the wild horses through binoculars. Therefore, tourists are able to see wild animals every time they visit.
Hustai tourist camp offers comfortable Ger accommodation & good food for visitors (domestic tourists at MNT 185000 including 3 meals a day, and MNT 250,000 for foreign tourists). The price also includes a visit to the camp's information center to learn about the history of the wild horses and watch a 17-minute documentary.
The tourist camp is capable of receiving 50 people in winter and 120 people in summer. On the same day, you can go with a professional researcher and observe wild animals. This service costs MNT 25,000 per hour.
ACTIVITIES DURING WINTER IN HUSTAI
If you visit Hustai National Park during winter, you can see wild animals and leave your car at the parking lot and walk to see wild horses. There is no doubt that hiking in the mountains and watching wild animals will give you a sense of nature and a source of energy.
You can also bring your family and friends to go sledding and horse riding. If you want to get more interesting information about Hustai, you can hire a professional guide and get advice from a ranger.
Wild animals are more calm during winter. Therefore, you can see the wild animals up close, take beautiful pictures and record videos. The peaceful, meditative nature and wild animal behavior will create unforgettable memories in your life.
Ts.Batzaya, a biologist from Hustain, guided our trip and gave us information. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Zoology from National University of Mongolia, and after studying for a master's degree in the Department of Ecology, he has been working as a wild horse and wild animal biologist in Hustai since 2019.
Staff at Hustai National Park are happy when many foals are born healthy and safe. In 2021, when the world's top 20 protected areas were selected, Hustai ranked at 17th. It increased their motivation and responsibility.
All the people working in the protection and research department of the natural park have a master's degree or higher. That is why the special protection department strives to conduct its activities based on research.
INAPPROPRIATE ACTIONS OF TOURISTS
In the protected area, people must travel through authorized routes only. However, some people go off the road with their cars and drive too close to wild animals, scaring them away. People are only allowed a maximum of 300 meters from wild animals.
When someone drives off the road, other people follow. So please travel on approved roads. Screaming is also prohibited in the protected zone. Some people try to camp in the protected zone. In this case, the ranger gives a warning.
Drones are forbidden in Hustai. Especially at the end of March and the beginning of April, the period of mares carrying foal. If pregnant mares are turned away at this time, there is a risk of the foal being misplaced inside. There is a story that the foal of the mare named Khairbilig was misplaced and the mare developed a fever and her body temperature reached 42. The foal was aborted and the mare was saved. Both the mare and the foal would have been at high risk if this incident was not known.
FACING ISSUES?
There are more than 80,000 livestock of over 120 herder families around the protected zone of Hustai. 10% of this livestock are horses. Since horses are long-legged animals, they often enter the protection zone. Therefore, those horses are taken out every day.
In 2018, a research on the capacity of pastures was conducted in Hustai. As a result, the carrying capacity of pastures was exceeded 7-8 times in winter and 4-5 times in summer. Therefore, rangers are constantly vigilant to prevent domestic animals from mixing with wild animals.
It is good news that due to reintroduction of wild horses, other animals also have favorable breeding conditions.
Facebook page of Hustai camp: Hustai National Park
Contact number: +976 99499331
In this edition, we went to Hustai National Park. There are many things to see in this Valley, which is 110 km from Ulaanbaatar.
About 65 km out of town, we saw a herd of deer grazing behind a wire fence along the road. After leaving here, 10 km away, we came across a herd of gazelles. As we got closer to Hustai, I felt as if the animals were welcoming us. We also saw a rabbit running and a vulture flying.
Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przewalski, was a Russian geographer of Polish descent and a renowned explorer of Central and East Asia. He confirmed the existence of wild horses in Mongolia and brought a valuable find to science. Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przewalski, famous for his Central Asian studies, crossed Mongolia three times in 1873, 1878, and 1880.
On his way back home from his second trip in 1878, he received a gift of a horse's head bone from A.K.Tikhonov, the head of the Russian-Chinese border guard at that time. The head bone was compared with 22 species of the horse, and it was proved that it is not the same as any of them, and it is a completely new species of horse. Subsequently, the horse was registered in science in 1881 under the name of Przewalski.
Przewalski's horses have 66 chromosomes, compared to the 64 that domestic horses have. Westerners, who had the idea that wild horses were completely extinct, did not believe that there were wild horses in Mongolia. Nine years later, in the early 1890s, horses were recognized as truly wild horses.
Between 1992 and 2000, a total of 84 horses were introduced to Mongolia through five shipments. Currently, horses are being reintroduced in three places in Mongolia.
- 423 wild horses in 45 breeding herds in Khustai
- Over 410 wild horses on the Takhiin tal of Bugat Soum, Govi-Altai province
- 20 horses in Khomiin tal of Durvuljin Soum, Zavkhan province
In the 30 years since the wild horse was first reintroduced, Mongolia now has more than 1,000 wild horses.
In addition to 423 wild horses, there are more than 2,000 deer, more than 100 wild sheep, more than 1,000 antelopes, and about 11,000 marmots in Hustai. In the last three years, 3,500 marmots have been reintroduced from Hustai to 17 soums of five provinces.
WHAT IS THE BEHAVIOR OF WILD HORSE?
We met Ts.Batzaya, a biologist at the Khustai National Park, and drove to see wild animals. The first wild horse we met is called Bolor /Crystal/. Bolor stallion herd his pack for 11 years, and in 2019 he lost his pack to a young stallion and started living alone. There is only one law among wild animals; the strong one defeats the weak one. When age passes and strength weakens, the stallion loses his pack to the young one. There will be cases of death due to the competition for the herd. The biologist explained that 7-8-year-old stallions take packs led by 17-18-year-old stallions.
The most horrific fight among Hustai’s stallions is related to the stallion called Uv. He fought to protect his herd and was kicked in the forehead. And there are many cases of breaking the tibia of horses. Because it is a wild animal, it does not restrain its movement and dies without drinking grass or water. As for the Bolor stallion, the only option left for him was to live alone and die alone.
If a foal of another stallion is born in the pack, a stallion kills the foal. This behavior is strong. The biologist explained the lack of opportunities to protect foals. For example, in 2022, out of more than 80 mares that gave birth, 65 foals survived and 15 foals were killed.
Wild horses or takhis never breed with their own blood. But they remove them from the pack when the foal is 3 or 4 years old. In doing so, there are cases where the ears and tail are bitten by the stallion.
Every year, information about the reproduction and extinction of horses in the Hustai National Park is reported to the Prague Zoo. More than 2,500 wild horses living in the world are registered in the zoo.
Every wild horse in Hustai has its own name. Dinal, Zuunmod, Eko-5, Khuvisal, Khukh Sum are the names of stallions that are harvesting their herds. Biologists keep a record of who is added and who is removed from the herd.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT HUSTAI NATIONAL PARK
- When two stallions named A and B are fighting for their herd, and stallion C abandons one mare and seizes it. This is a very strange phenomenon.
- In some cases, the stallion does not remove the foal from the pack. Thus, there will be a fight with the stallion and the foal together in order not to lose the pack to another stallion.
- In 2022, the BBC came to Hustai and filmed a documentary about the relationship between wolves and horses for a month. During this time, a camera was placed for 24 hours. And Khulgar stallion was recorded the image of how the stallion is protecting his three mares from wolf attack.
- Mares give birth between April 10 and June 10. At this time, newborn or 7-14-day-old foals often sleep next to their mothers near springs and fountains. While the pack is resting, wolves attack the sleeping foal. It was observed that the mother usually comes first to protect the foal, followed by the stallion. Also, nearby mares help protect the foal.
- In one herd, there are 5-6 mares. The pack with the most members is that Gal stallion has 5 foals and a herd of 17 members. The pack with the fewest members include one stallion and one mare.
- The longest-lived mare in the herd was named Altan, who lived to 26 years.
- According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a wild horse was categorized as “extinct in the wild” in 1960. Due to reintroduction of the wild horse, the status has been improved by two, and now Przewalski's horse is in the "endangered" category.
- People can name the takhi foal of their choice. Price is USD 250. And you will receive a confirmation certificate in return. This means that the horse registration with the name you provide will be registered in the World Horse Pedigree.
- Khustai has an area of 50,620 hectares. It ranks second from the bottom among 120 protected areas in Mongolia.
- The books "Animals of Hustai", "Flowers of Hustai", "Birds of Hustai" were published.
- The Japanese NHK television crew had arrived in Hustai when we visited.
HOW TO DISTINGUISH THE WILD HORSES?
Przewalski's horses do not have a long bushy mane like the Mongolian horse, and its tail is very thin. Wild horses are distinguished by other colored spots on the body skin and hair. There is a mole under the leg. And the moles are as small as a dot or it can cover the whole horse leg.
Click HERE to watch the 24-hour live camera installed in Hustai National Park.
SERVICE AND PRICE OF TOURIST CAMP
Khustai Camp, open for four seasons a year, is run by a Non-Governmental Organization. Their main source of income is tourism. In 2019, due to the spread of Covid-19 infection in the country, its activities were disrupted. In 2019, a total of 30,000 people were received, of which 17,000 were foreign tourists.
Starting from 2019, a ranger with binoculars has been placed at points where horses are located. As a result, travelers and tourists have the opportunity to see the wild horses through binoculars. Therefore, tourists are able to see wild animals every time they visit.
Hustai tourist camp offers comfortable Ger accommodation & good food for visitors (domestic tourists at MNT 185000 including 3 meals a day, and MNT 250,000 for foreign tourists). The price also includes a visit to the camp's information center to learn about the history of the wild horses and watch a 17-minute documentary.
The tourist camp is capable of receiving 50 people in winter and 120 people in summer. On the same day, you can go with a professional researcher and observe wild animals. This service costs MNT 25,000 per hour.
ACTIVITIES DURING WINTER IN HUSTAI
If you visit Hustai National Park during winter, you can see wild animals and leave your car at the parking lot and walk to see wild horses. There is no doubt that hiking in the mountains and watching wild animals will give you a sense of nature and a source of energy.
You can also bring your family and friends to go sledding and horse riding. If you want to get more interesting information about Hustai, you can hire a professional guide and get advice from a ranger.
Wild animals are more calm during winter. Therefore, you can see the wild animals up close, take beautiful pictures and record videos. The peaceful, meditative nature and wild animal behavior will create unforgettable memories in your life.
Ts.Batzaya, a biologist from Hustain, guided our trip and gave us information. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Zoology from National University of Mongolia, and after studying for a master's degree in the Department of Ecology, he has been working as a wild horse and wild animal biologist in Hustai since 2019.
Staff at Hustai National Park are happy when many foals are born healthy and safe. In 2021, when the world's top 20 protected areas were selected, Hustai ranked at 17th. It increased their motivation and responsibility.
All the people working in the protection and research department of the natural park have a master's degree or higher. That is why the special protection department strives to conduct its activities based on research.
INAPPROPRIATE ACTIONS OF TOURISTS
In the protected area, people must travel through authorized routes only. However, some people go off the road with their cars and drive too close to wild animals, scaring them away. People are only allowed a maximum of 300 meters from wild animals.
When someone drives off the road, other people follow. So please travel on approved roads. Screaming is also prohibited in the protected zone. Some people try to camp in the protected zone. In this case, the ranger gives a warning.
Drones are forbidden in Hustai. Especially at the end of March and the beginning of April, the period of mares carrying foal. If pregnant mares are turned away at this time, there is a risk of the foal being misplaced inside. There is a story that the foal of the mare named Khairbilig was misplaced and the mare developed a fever and her body temperature reached 42. The foal was aborted and the mare was saved. Both the mare and the foal would have been at high risk if this incident was not known.
FACING ISSUES?
There are more than 80,000 livestock of over 120 herder families around the protected zone of Hustai. 10% of this livestock are horses. Since horses are long-legged animals, they often enter the protection zone. Therefore, those horses are taken out every day.
In 2018, a research on the capacity of pastures was conducted in Hustai. As a result, the carrying capacity of pastures was exceeded 7-8 times in winter and 4-5 times in summer. Therefore, rangers are constantly vigilant to prevent domestic animals from mixing with wild animals.
It is good news that due to reintroduction of wild horses, other animals also have favorable breeding conditions.
Facebook page of Hustai camp: Hustai National Park
Contact number: +976 99499331