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Mongolian Gobi Supports the World's Largest Populations of Khulan Equus Hemionus and Goitered Gazelles Gazella Subgutturosa

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Mongolian Gobi Supports the World's Largest Populations of Khulan Equus Hemionus and Goitered Gazelles Gazella Subgutturosa Mongolian Gobi supports the world's largest populations of khulan Equus hemionus and goitered gazelles Gazella subgutturosa B. BUUVEIBAATAR,S.STRINDBERG,P.KACZENSKY,J.PAYNE,B.CHIMEDDORJ G. NARANBAATAR,S.AMARSAIKHAN,B.DASHNYAM,T.MUNKHZUL T. PUREVSUREN,D.A.HOSACK and T . K . F ULLER Abstract Mongolia’s Gobi Desert ecosystem, a stronghold of khulan and goitered gazelles in the world, and we provide for populations of the Asiatic wild ass (khulan) Equus hemi- a critical update on the status of the two species. onus and the goitered gazelle Gazella subgutturosa, faces Keywords Distance sampling, Equus hemionus, Gazella conservation challenges as a result of rapid economic devel- subgutturosa, Gobi Desert, Mongolia opment, including mining-related infrastructure projects. There is a paucity of reliable data on population abundance Supplementary material for this article can be found at for these ungulates in the region, which makes it difficult to http://dx.doi.org/./S. assess how they are responding to increasing anthropogenic pressure. Our aim was to obtain abundance estimates for khulan and goitered gazelles to inform their management Introduction and form the basis of a long-term monitoring programme. Each year during – we surveyed a total of line he rangelands of Central Asia provide habitat for a large transects spaced km apart, with a total of , km of sur- Tnumber of migratory ungulates (Mallon & Jiang, ). vey effort across , km . Distance sampling analysis pro- One of the most important regions for the conservation of vided annual estimates of density and abundance, which these ungulates is the Gobi–Steppe ecosystem of Mongolia, were cross-referenced with the results of an aerial survey which comprises the largest area of intact grassland in the conducted in . Overall, we observed groups world (Batsaikhan et al., ). Mongolia’s Southern Gobi (, individuals) of khulan and , groups (, indi- area, in particular, is an iconic ungulate stronghold that sup- viduals) of goitered gazelles during the four surveys. The ports substantial populations of the Asiatic wild ass (khulan abundance estimates for were , (%CI,– in Mongolian) Equus hemionus and the goitered (or black- ,) khulan and , (%CI,–,) goitered tailed) gazelle Gazella subgutturosa (Reading et al., ). gazelles. These estimates were congruent with the results An increasing human population, expanding exploit- from the aerial survey, which overlapped spatially and tem- ation of natural resources, and the development of infra- porally with our ground-based survey. Our findings confirm structure in the region are placing increasing pressure on that Mongolia’s Gobi Desert supports the largest population these species and their habitats (Kaczensky et al., b; Ito et al., ; Batsaikhan et al., ). As the footprint of human development continues to expand in the landscape, conservation management to ensure the survival of these B. BUUVEIBAATAR* (Corresponding author) and J. PAYNE Wildlife Conservation Society, Mongolia Programme, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia species requires long-term datasets that provide accurate in- E-mail [email protected] formation on changes in abundance and distribution both S. STRINDBERG Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Programme, spatially and temporally. New York, USA The khulan is categorized as Near Threatened on the P. KACZENSKY Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary IUCN Red List, and the species has lost as much as % Medicine, Vienna, Austria of its range (Kaczensky et al., b). Poaching has been B. CHIMEDDORJ Mongolia Programme Office, WWF, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia the primary driver of past population declines (Stubbe G. NARANBAATAR and T. MUNKHZUL Institute of Biology, Mongolian Academy of et al., ), although habitat loss and fragmentation across Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia the species’ range may also be contributory factors S. AMARSAIKHAN,B.DASHNYAM,T.PUREVSUREN and D.A. HOSACK Health, Safety, (Batsaikhan et al., ). The goitered gazelle is categorized and Environment Department, Biodiversity Team, Oyu Tolgoi LLC, Mongolia as Vulnerable (Mallon, ), with a decreasing population T.K. FULLER Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA trend attributed primarily to exploitation, habitat degrad- ation and human disturbance (Clark et al., ). Past *Also at: Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA population surveys of khulan and goitered gazelles in Received January . Revision requested March . Mongolia were based on limited survey efforts and non- Accepted April . First published online June . standardized survey protocols, and produced imprecise Oryx, 2017, 51(4), 639–647 © 2016 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605316000417 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Massachusetts Amherst, on 19 Oct 2017 at 15:41:29, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605316000417 640 B. Buuveibaatar et al. and potentially biased estimates (Lhagvasuren, ; are present in the mountainous areas, and larger mamma- B. Lhagvasuren & S. Strindberg, unpubl. data). lian predators include wolves Canis lupus, lynx Lynx lynx, The effectiveness of mitigation measures aimed at redu- red foxes Vulpes vulpes and corsac foxes Vulpes corsac. cing the impacts of mining-related activities and infrastruc- There are four protected areas, which comprise c. %of ture development cannot be evaluated without proper the study area (Fig. ). Human populations in the region are monitoring. Consequently, obtaining unbiased and precise concentrated in soums (villages/towns; Fig. ), with the rural estimates of density and abundance for the plains ungulates population consisting primarily of semi-nomadic livestock inhabiting this landscape is crucial. Despite population size herders. The Southern Gobi is the centre of the cashmere estimation being one of the most critical prerequisites for goat industry in Mongolia, the key source of income for conservation planning, long-term monitoring is often hin- local herders (Berger et al., ). Thus, domestic livestock dered by lack of funds and logistical constraints. For this consists primarily of goats and sheep, with small numbers reason robust monitoring programmes using contemporary of camels and horses. The study area is bordered to the scientific methods are still not widely employed in Central south and east by two impermeable linear infrastructures Asia (Singh & Milner-Gulland, ). constructed in the s, namely a fenced border with Distance sampling techniques for estimating the density China, and the Trans Mongolian Railroad corridor (fenced and abundance of wildlife are well established (Buckland on both sides). To the west there are two parallel paved et al., ), with associated survey design and analysis soft- roads that connect major mines with the Chinese border ware (Thomas et al., ). Distance sampling line transect crossing. surveys are increasingly used for population estimates of wild ungulates in Mongolia (e.g. Olson et al., ; Young et al., ; Wingard et al., ) and have been shown to Methods be an appropriate and cost-effective method for estimating the abundance of relatively large and conspicuous species at We conducted distance sampling line transect surveys using low population densities over vast open areas (Sutherland a systematic survey design, with a random start point and a et al., ). However, most surveys have been conducted spacing of km between transects (Strindberg et al., ). only once or twice, and have rarely if ever been compared A survey design with transects (mean = . km; range to simultaneous surveys employing alternative methods. .–. km) and a total survey effort of , km was Our overarching goal was to develop research techniques generated using Distance . (Thomas et al., ). and implement field surveys to provide baseline and long- Transects were oriented north–south to minimize potential term data. We present the results of extensive ground-based visibility problems caused by glare. Given the ruggedness of distance sampling surveys of khulan and goitered gazelles the topography (mountains and sand dunes), we truncated for consecutive years during – in the Southern % of the total transect length, resulting in shorter Gobi of Mongolia, and compare the results to those of an transects (mean = . km; range .–. km). This re- independent aerial survey conducted in across a larger sulted in a total survey effort of , km across , km , area. We also make recommendations for further improve- excluding those portions of the original , km area that ments to ground-based ungulate survey efforts to ensure a were inaccessible (Fig. ). The final design provided a suffi- robust long-term monitoring programme. cient number of replicate lines to ensure that variation in en- counter rate could be estimated with adequate precision, and ensured sufficient observations per ungulate species to Study area fit the detection function (Buckland et al., ). The ground-based surveys were conducted in the first The , km study area in Mongolia’s Southern Gobi half of October , and in late May and early June in (Fig. ) was defined based on existing information on the , and ; each survey lasted – days. We distribution of khulan, which have the larger range of the drove along transects at – km per hour during daylight two study species (Kaczensky et al., b). Elevations in hours, using a global positioning
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