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Introducing our New Public Relations Coordinator!
MBDP is very pleased to announce our newest team member- Bec Stubley! Drawing on her previous experience in marketing and PR, Bec will be a valued part of the project, helping us to communicate our work and mission. We sat down with her earlier this week to learn more about her move to Mongolia. Where […]
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Empathy is a Two-Way Street
March 14 2018 – by Founder and Director, Bruce Elfstrom One thing I feel we cant forget is that as much as some of us love these apex predators, from the herders’ perspective the wolf or snow leopard is the enemy for good reason. The loss of even one sheep is a major blow.Can a […]
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Wolves in Hustai
by Soyolbold Sergelen Nov 3rd, 2017 – While I was doing my sunrise surveillance from a ridge top at Hustai National Park and expecting nothing but whole bunch of red deer as usual, I suddenly caught a glimpse of few wolves move past below me, just below the tree line. Soon it turns out to […]
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Livestock Guardian Behavior with Sheep
1-11-18 Much is said of LGD and their interactions with livestock. The next two videos show Baavgai trying to dominate the sheep. This first video shows him, if you look close, taking hay from a sheep’s mouth and eating it. Dogs don’t normally eat hay. Really he is asserting dominance over the sheep in a […]
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Could Dogs Help Save the Mongolian Steppe? – Scientific American
Read Jason Overdorf’s story about Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project and how livestock guardian dogs can be a part of sustainable herding. Photos by Soyolbold Sergelen. Could Dogs Help Save the Mongolian Steppe? “Two days’ drive from the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, 100 miles from the country’s border with China, the foothills of the Altai Mountains slash […]
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Become a Part of the MBDP Team!
Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project is launching our 2018 Crowdfunding Campaign to raise funds for the expansion of our program. This year MBDP is placing Bankhar dogs into new regions and sizing up our breeding program. Expanding our the project means expanding our budget, so our goal is to raise $75,000 in 30 days, […]
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The Passing of a Beloved Dog
MBDP suffered a great loss this passed Fall. One of our Bankhar in Mongolia was shot by a group of hunters culling stray dogs near Hustai National Park. His name was Baavgai – the father and name-sake of young Baavgai who now lives in the U.S. This is an unfortunate but common occurrence in Mongolia; […]
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Ford Diesel Runaway in Minus 47 Degree Temperatures
1-3-18 Unfortunately the saga of deep cold has raised its head again. Not only has our Webasto heater failed (we are still looking to get a new one), but our Ford Ranger suffered a “Diesel Runaway” where oil from the turbo is sucked into the engine and causes the engine to run very fast and out […]
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Notes From the Field – The Trials of Field Work
1-26-18 Withstanding the elements is a huge part of life in Mongolia. Due to severe drought this Summer and high snowfall this Winter, The International Federation of Red Cross estimates 40 percent of the country is experiencing extreme risk of dzud and about 20 percent of the country with high risk of dzud. While dzud […]
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Bankhar and the Clarification of Landraces vs. Breeds Part I: Cold Adaptive Features
Bruce Elfström – As I sit here in my office overlooking our Bankhar, Baavgia, tending sheep in -10F conditions while buffeted by 30mph winds blowing heavy snow, I’m reminded of how well Baagvia is prepared for these conditions. As I watch him, I see our other dogs, an Akbash and an Estrella Mountain dog, also out […]
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Born to Be Wild GMA
Popular wildlife TV show in the Philippines, Born To Be Wild, featured Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project this Summer. They met one of our herders and his Bankhar, interviewed Zoë Lieb, our project manager, and hung out with many of our program dogs at our facility.
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Bankhar In the U.S. Progress – Notes From the Field (Connecticut Edition) 1-13-17
The snow washed in sheets from the roof of the small barn. There was nearly a foot of snow already, covering the dry grass and piles of sheep droppings, casting a clean white wash over the field. When we walked up to the barn, squinting through the near whiteout conditions, the sheep had all squeezed […]
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Guardian dogs conserve ecology of Mongolian steppes
Guardian dogs conserve ecology of Mongolian steppes – Nikkei Asian Review By Timothy Ferry Livestock protection eases human pressure on predators and reduces overgrazing. Read more here. A special thank you to Tim Ferry for his interest and investment in learning more about our work, and for his active exploration of the current issues Mongolia […]
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Notes From the Field – Testing Bankhar in the U.S. – 1/4/18
As many of you may have heard, MBDP recently brought a young male Bankhar to the U.S. His name is Baavgai (‘Bear’ in Mongolian), named after his father. We were pleased to receive so many questions and lots of interest from our followers, so this blog post is to summarize why we’ve brought a Bankhar […]
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Visiting MBDP – A Guest Post by Keeley Rideout
October 4 2017 This is a post by a friend of MBDP after her visit to the facility in September. Many thanks to Keeley for her visit and writing this guest post. Please contact us through Facebook to arrange a tour. Every dog lover ought to make the journey out to the Mongolian Bankhar […]
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Bringing Back the Balance
Bringing Back the Balance: A Short Introduction to the Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project is a short film by Oliver Hartman made in 2016 with our team.
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Picture Day – Notes From the Field 8-11-17
Greetings from Mongolia! Zoë here – Andrew is getting a break from blog-writing as he wraps up his final weeks of his summer internship with us. And I am back in Mongolia after three months in the U.S.! I am happy to find that Mongolia has warmed up considerably since I’ve been away. However, while […]
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Thank you from Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project!
All of us on the Mongolian Bankhar Project team would like to thank our followers, especially our supporting donors who generously contributed to our Indiegogo last year. You’ve seen a bit of what we have done with your donations, but there’s so much more behind the scenes that we are able to do because of […]
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Bruce Elfström Interviewed on The Current
The Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project founder and director Bruce Elfström was features this week on Canadian public radio show The Current. Check it out here! The full show covered a number of different stories, but the segment on dogs begins around 50 minutes in. Bruce is interviewed beginning at 53:20.
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Notes From the Field 3-24-17 Trip to Nomgon Part II
Too much happened to fit in one blog post! In our last NFtF you read about our trip with WCS Mongolia, a bit about how cooperatives work in Mongolia, and how two of our Bankhars are doing. The rest of the week we spent based out of Nomgon visiting herders and their families. There are […]
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Notes From the Field – 3-23-17 A Trip to Nomgon Part I
Hey friends! Batbaatar and I just returned from an action-packed trip to Nomgon in South Gobi. We are fortunate enough to be partnered with WCS Mongolia and teamed up with them for this trip; while we conducted interviews of families to receive Bankhar puppies, they collected cashmere samples from herders involved in their cooperative program. […]
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Two Months Old! And the dogs receive a gift
The youngest of our pups turn two months this week! A lot goes in to becoming a livestock guardian dog, and they’re already on their way. As you can see in some of previous posts, all of the pups are kept in the same enclosure with sheep and goats from birth so that they are […]
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Future Livestock Guardians
One of the best parts of working on MBDP is getting to see the whole process of Bankhar being born, growing up, developing their personalities, bonding with livestock, and transforming from small, delicate pups into strong, healthy, intelligent adults. Certainly humans have had an age-old bond with dogs, and I have even had a dog […]
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The Team Goes to the Gobi!
Last week the MBDP team hit the road for the Gobi to visit some of our dogs placed over this passed year. This was my first time seeing livestock guardian dogs in action, not to mention I can cross another desert off my bucket list. it was a real joy for all of us to […]
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Notes from the Field – Trip to Ikh Nart
Dec. 7th 2016 We returned a few days ago from Ikh Nart, my first trip to interview herders to potentially receive puppies this year. The nature reserve’s diverse landscape gave me the opportunity see some more interesting wildlife (Mongolian gazelles and longhorn sheep, no ibex this time), and my first time seeing camels! Ikh Nart […]
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Notes From the Field – The Food
Content in this blog post contains material that may be disturbing to some readers, including pictures and comments about killing livestock. Last week I had my first experience with real Mongolian food. In the countryside, meat is the most readily available food and a staple in the Mongolian diet. And […]
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Note From the Field – Meeting the Dogs
Mongolia is stranger and more beautiful than my wildest dreams. It is stretching my definition of myself as a traveler and as a human. Yeah, I know, we’re really jumping right in here. I’m on my first trip into the countryside! Baaggi and I left UB early in the morning so as we moved farther […]
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Notes From the Field – First Days in UB!
It’s my second full day in Mongolia. I am already working on being a regular at the cafe closest to my apartment in Ulaanbaatar. Before now I would have called myself a pretty competent traveler. I have spent all of my summers during college and the last three and a half years since then on the […]
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Notes From the Field – Getting Ready
After learning about MBDP over a year ago, I am finally preparing to join the team on the ground! A week and a half ago I left my home in Utah and drove across the country to my state of origin – New Jersey – for a few days of seeing […]
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