Takhi: The last surviving wild horses

Nomad with his horse rearing cattle ...a quintessential Mongolian scene

The journey south to the Gobi was good and just seeing the Khongoryn Els sand dunes was well worth it but it took up six days with more than half of it was spent on traveling alone. I had already lost precious time due to flight delays and visa issues coming to Mongolia so for the rest of the time in the country I wanted to avoid long road trip. 

Bucolic life of the Mongolian nomads

Przewalski's horse or Takhi...The last wild horses

Mongolia is a vast country and I knew that I could not see it all in 18 days. For the next leg, there were several options I could choose from. I could go east to see the big herds of Mongolian Gazelles and the last untouched steppes on earth or go to the central region where lay Karakorum, the ancient capital of the Mongol Khaans and the Erdene Zuu monastery. A couple more exciting options where going to the rugged west and hiking among the snow capped mountains and remote lakes of the Bayan-Ulgii and Uvs aimag. The west was also were I could visit the Kazakh people of Mongolia who hunt with their iconic golden eagles. Up north was the Khövsgöl Lake and Amarbayasgalant monastery. Then finally there was the option to visit a national park 100 odd kilometers from Ulaanbaatar to see the last non-feral wild horse in the world.

Entrance to the Khustain Nuruu national park

The east though remote and off the beaten path just did not seem to have as much allure as the others except for the Gazelles and sighting of large herds was not a guarantee either. Plus, I had seen a few on the way back from Gobi so it was eliminated as an option. Karakorum, I learnt was a collection of unimpressive ruins and going there just for the Erdene Zuu monastery as notable as it looked in the pictures, seemed not the best use of my time.

Not sure what rodent this is...probably a Pika

The west seemed the most adventurous but ideally deserved more than 7-8 days since it had so much to see and do so I left it for another day when perhaps I could come back to Mongolia and as for the Kazakh hunters…well, I hope to see them from the other side if someday I visit Kazakhstan (ok, wishful thinking here).

Altai Marmots

With the process of elimination I was left with North and the appeal of hiking/horse riding among pine and larch forests, mountains and lakes seemed too good after the dry hinterlands of the Gobi. There was also the outside possibility of visiting the reindeer people but more on it later.

One of the best places to see the Takhi or the Przewalski's horse was the Khustain Nuruu National Park and due to its close proximity to Ulaanbaatar it was a buffer for a day trip if I had a free day in UB. Visiting Khustain Nuruu right after the Gobi also seemed perfect since I could use the other half of the day to wash my clothes and make necessary travel plan to go north. Helen and Eric were also interested so we hired a van and arrived at the park late afternoon.

Demoiselle Crane (migrate all the way to India during winter)

After checking into the park we waited for a while as one of the park rangers suggested the best time to see them would be the cooler evenings. However, the rain clouds suddenly started threatening so the ranger suggested we enter the park early since the horses might descent from the mountains earlier than usual and if we wait longer the rain might mess the whole plan.

Not amused!

A group that has returned around the same time we set out reported having seen the horses but at a distance of a kilometer. I was hoping we had better luck than that as we entered the park.

Natural History Museum

Our first sighting of them was at a fair distance where I could barely see them so we moved along deeper into the park. About 15 minutes later, just as we neared a stream we could see six horses right beside the road. I could not believe how close they were. The park suggested a minimum of 100 meters of distance but we were lucky to be within 10-15 meters from them. We spend a good bit of 15-20 minutes with them until the weather turned really bad.

Dino exhibits

Though we did not go further into the park due to the weather, I wasn’t very disappointed. Sure, we had not see other wild animals that also call this park home and did not get good picture of the horses due to the bad wind and light condition but having had such a close sighting more than made up for it.


Chinggis Khaan airport...boarding the plane to Moron



Fried dumplings with Kimchi


Seeing these wild horses also felt a little better as I was not able to see the wild Bactrian camels in the Gobi which on hindsight was a tall order anyway since they are protected in a strict national park inaccessible to tourists. The Takhi although very mundane in its looks is unique because it was never domesticated unlike some of today’s wild horses around the world which are feral which descended from domestic herds.

Aerial view of the Steppes 

These horses once roamed in large herds through Central Asia but declined due to a combination of factors until the last ones died out in late 1960’s; Fortunately, in early1900’s, explorers had captured and sent some of these horses to European zoos as novelty items where they were bred in captivity.

Log houses of Moron

I like the hair style :)

 
The horses that we saw at Khustain Nuruu are descendants of horses that were released back into the wild from a captive population from these zoos in the 1990’s. Even more fascinating is the fact that all the Takhi that are in existence today are descendant from just 12 individual horses that were left in the world’s zoos in 1950’s. It’s always good to hear a good conservation success story.


Northern Mongolia  has more log houses compared to the
Ger due to availability of wood and colder temperatures



The next morning Eric and I went to the Natural History Museum where there was an extensive display of Dinosaurs fossil discovered in the Gobi desert. There was also significant space dedicated to the Takhi and its history from where I picked up some titbits for my blog.

By afternoon we were flying aboard the Mongolian Airlines flight to Moron which is the provincial capital of Khövsgöl aimag.