Recent history and status of the Mongolian gazelle in Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

In 1994 and 1995 the authors studied Mongolian gazelle Procapra gutturosa populations in Inner Mongolia, China, conducting interviews and making field observations in eight counties along the national boundary between Mongolia and China. Mongolian gazelle distribution was estimated to cover approximately 73,152 sq km, which was only 25.2 per cent of that in 1950–70. The adult male:female sex ratio was 1:4, and the average herd size 923.3 individuals in November/December 1994 and 23.1 in March/April 1995. The gazelles regularly migrate from Mongolia into China from October onwards and return to Mongolia in late February. Hunting is a major threat to the survival of the species.

Spatial patterns in relative primary productivity and gazelle migration in the Eastern Steppes of Mongolia

“…Although there is no direct correlation between livestock grazing and ANPP (Milchunas and Lauenroth, 1993), there is little doubt that natural grazers influence grasslands differently from agricultural grazers (McNaughton, 1993). The loss of zeer in China is speculated to be as much a result of overgrazing as overhunting (Wang et al, 1997). High plant productivity areas are often the focus of both livestock (Oesterhold et al, 1998) and native ungulate (McNaughton, 1985) activity.…”

“…Aggregations of zeer also occur during the winter (Lhagvasuren and Milner-Gulland, 1997;Wang et al, 1997;Jiang et al, 1998). These aggregations appear to be driven by a search for snow-free areas.…”

“…These aggregations appear to be driven by a search for snow-free areas. The number of congregated animals appears to fluctuate with the severity of the winter (Lhagvasuren and Milner-Gulland, 1997;Wang et al, 1997).…”

From Fine-Scale Foraging to Home Ranges: A Semivariance Approach to Identifying Movement Modes across Spatiotemporal Scales

“…The data on which our analyses are based are deposited in the Dryad Digital Repository: http://dx.doi .org/10.5061/dryad.45157 (Fleming et al 2014). Mongolian gazelles are found in the steppe and desert steppe habitats of eastern Mongolia and the border areas with China and Russia (Lhagvasuren and Milner-Gulland 1997;Wang et al 1997). The study area is located on the Mongolian plateau, which consists of vast expanses of nearly flat grassland interspersed with low, rolling hills between 600 and 1,500 m in elevation.…”

Exposure of Mongolian gazelles (Procapra gutturosa) to foot and mouth disease virus

“…In 1950, Mongolian gazelles ranged across a 780,000 km 2 area bordered by Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, and China (Lhagvasuren and Milner-Gulland, 1997). However, the current range of the gazelle encompasses only about 25-30% of this area; disease outbreaks, legal and illegal hunting, habitat conversion, and severe winters are thought to have been responsible for this decline in abundance and range contraction (Lhagvasuren and Milner-Gulland, 1997;Wang et al, 1997;Schaller and Lhagvasuren, 1998). Mongolian gazelles can still be found in high numbers and may still number one million in Eastern Mongolia (Olson et al, 2005).…”