International Nature Conservation

Nature Conservation 2/2009 — 21. 4. 2009 — International Nature Conservation — Print article in pdf

The Gobi B National Park

author: Evžen Kůs

The unique diversity of nature in the largest Asian desert – the Gobi - resulted in...

The unique diversity of nature in the largest Asian desert – the Gobi - resulted in establishing some large-size protected areas there. In 1975, the Great Gobi National Park was established in Mongolia, covering an area of 53,000 km2. Particularly due to its remarkable fauna, the Great Gobi National Park became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1991. The National Park consists of two separate parts, the A part (an area of 44,000 km2) and the B part (an area of 9,000 km2) which differ from each other in the landscape, climate, vegetation and fauna. The author particularly aims at the B part, which had been the last refuge for the only recent wild horse species – the Przewalski’s Horse (Equus przewalskii). In the 20th century, some drivers contributed to its dramatic decline – raids by horse hunters from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the 1940s, some subsequent hard winters with high snow cover and development of livestock grazing in the 1950s and 1960s. In the 1990s, the Mongolian go­vernment transfered shepherds from the National Park’s territory outside its borders. In 1992 the re-introduction of captive Przewalski’s horses from European zoos into native habitats began. At present, there are 140 wild horses in the western part of the Gobi B National Park: most of them have been born in the wild.