Mongolia

In the remote and beautiful Gurvan Saikhan National Park in the Southern Gobi-Altai Mountains a truly remarkable assemblage of mammals awaits us. And amazingly they can be seen with relative ease and in relative comfort! For here researchers have discovered a healthy population of Snow Leopards (as dense as 1 Snow Leopard per ten square kilometres) in a limited range and at altitudes of between only 2000m and 3000m which means that from our carefully sited and comfortable Ger Camp we can reach them after short drives and only short walks! During the seven days we’ll spend in this true wilderness we’ll be unlikely to see humans except for our camp staff and the local researchers who will be helping us to observe mammals that include not just the iconic cat, which we’ll hope to see on more than one occasion, but also Argali, Siberian Ibex and Black-tailed Gazelle.

We have timed our trip to match the period when the young Snow Leopards are still together with their mother, but spend plenty of time outside of the den playing, practicing their hunting skills assisted by their mother who sometimes brings birds or smaller mammals to help this learning process. Our experienced drivers will take us as close as possible to the observation sites. At times walking will be limited to a few metres, other times we will have to take a short or medium length walk.

The Gurvan Saikhan National Park also protects the remarkable giant sand dunes of Khongoryn Els. Here the largest sand dunes in the Mongolian Gobi are found, surrounded by wildlife rich Saxaul-desert. Great Gerbils are common. We’ll search for the elusive and chronically shy Bactrian Camel, they visit a known water hole, so we’ll hide ourselves and wait! Night-time excursions into areas close to the camp will reveal Tolai Hare and hopefully Corsac Fox and we’ll enjoy the bouncing glowing eyes of Northern Three-toed and Gobi Jerboas. Here are such avian delights as Mongolian Ground-jay and Grey-necked Bunting, Saxaul Sparrow and Pallas’s Sandgrouse.

Early in the trip we’ll visit some completely different habitats where steppe, wetland, and Siberian taiga forest meet. Large herds of Argali are a feature of the steppes of Gun Galuut and granite tors are home to Daurian Pika and these too provide the optimum habitat for Pallas’s Cats. These gorgeous little felines are common in this area and its even possible we may observe them in daylight. At night we’ll seek Corsac Fox, Mongolian Jird and Siberian Jerboa.

The sublime Gorkhi-Terelj National Park protects a sublime landscape of Taiga forest-covered slopes, rivers and streams, and spectacular granite rock formations. Over fifty species of mammal inhabit Terelj including many species associated with the main forest zone further north such as Brown Bear, Red Squirrel and Elk. We’ll look for Asian Badger, Siberian Chipmunk and Eastern Roe Deer. This is the land of the Red-flanked Bluetail and Siberian Rubythroat, Pine Bunting and Daurian Redstart, beauties all.

Our visit to Mongolia will finish with a couple of days in the Hustain Nuruu National Park, home to the successfully reintroduced wild horse, the Thaki or Przewalski’s Horse. Short walks will bring us Long-tailed Souslik, but most probably we will spend quite some time admiring the beauty of the world’s only true wild horse species. We’ve a chance of finding Grey Wolf amongst the gently rolling hillsides, grasslands and shrubs as this relatively small area holds at least two packs of Wolves, and early evening is when they start hunting for marmots or some unwary Red Deer. Red Deer are staggeringly common here. We’ll see elegant Amur Falcon, Azure Tit and Daurian Partridge and lots of migrant buntings, as well as Long-eared Owls and harriers passing through. This is a great site for White-tailed or Mongolian Gazelle, a herd of two-hundred and fifty or so always frequents the lower parts of the park at this season.