Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Friday, January 29, 2010
It seems that there are winters in Mongolia and then there are winters. This winter appears to be one of the latter, and livestock have started dying across Mongolia in huge numbers. Estimates are that over one million sheep, goats, cows, horses and yaks have died over the last 4-6 weeks. These animal die-offs occur when the snow gets too deep for the animals to graze. This year's situation is worsened by this year's severe temperatures, and the drought that Mongolia experienced last summer. This phenomenon is called a dzud (or disaster) and usually occurs in spring when fodder is already growing scarce.
Mongolia has about 2.7 million people and almost 20 million goats and about 3 million horses. No idea about the number of cows, sheep and yaks...
For a fascinating read on Mongolia's grazing situation, try this NY Times article entitled "The End of Pastoralism."
