资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Over last 7 decades, trans-Siberian railroad (Altanbulag to Zamiin-Uud) is effectively dividing Mongolian gazelle population, leading to continuous decline of Mongolian gazelle population, especially the population in western part of the railroad. To avoid such harmful infrastructure development, WWF-Mongolia initiated wildlife friendly passage standard which was approved in 2015. In order to mitigate a threat from fragmentation and proper implementation of the standard, WWF-Mongolia aimed to locate most needed locations of the wildlife crossings along the railroad to be built through Eastern Mongolia that would cut the main habitat of Mongolian gazelle, the long-distance migrating ungulate, into 4 fragments. Our specialists conducting monthly monitoring along the proposed railroad to identify the overlapped important sites for Mongolian gazelle crossed by railroad, such as calving sites, connectivity areas that facilitates migration of the large herd.
Moreover, we are studying Mongolian gazelle movement and habitat preference by satellite tracking collars on 34 individuals of Mongolian gazelle in 2016 and 2017. As of December 2018, 21 individuals are live and 4 individuals were poached. Study results confirmed that the migration of Mongolian gazelle in trans-boundary areas are severely restricted by border fences, yet, border crossing still happening between damaged fences. Over the course of this period, three collared Mongolian gazelles migrated across Russia and two returned to Mongolia after a certain period of time. The one who stayed is wintering in Russia. Another collared gazelle migrated across the border to China on January 14, 2018, where it stayed for 2 months until its death. The results of this study show that gazelles are not only wondering in Mongolia but also migration to neighboring countries are not uncommon. There is a need for joint action to facilitate free movement of Mongolian gazelle along state borders and eliminate a death of Mongolian gazelle tangled by border fences.