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 a jagged brown line across the scrubby southern Gobi grasslands. Home to hungry wolves and snow leopards and brutal winters, it is rough country for herders such as 57-year-old Otgonbayar, a weather-beaten nomad who works his flock of 1,000-odd cashmere goats and two dozen sheep from the back of a 100-cc Chinese motorcycle.”