What animals can you find in Mongolia?

[question from Sam, Julia, Annabel, Victoria, Patrick and Aaron]

Mongolia is a place that is of great interest to animal-lovers. If one looks hard enough you can find some of the rarest animals in the world:

The snow leopard lives in some of the mountains in the west of Mongolia. It’s a beautiful animal, but is sadly being hunted to make medicines. As a result, the snow leopard is an endangered species – whilst Mongolia has the second largest number of snow leopards in the world, only 500-1000 are thought to live there.

The Gobi bear is another animal that is close to extinction. It has been many years since someone has spotted one, so people are worried that they may already have died out.

On a more positive note, a success story is the Przewalski horse. Fifty years ago it was close to extinction, but now the numbers are growing. The Przewalski horse is very unique – it is the only wild horse in the whole world. All other horses have been bred by men, but the Przewalski horse remains the same as it did hundreds of years ago.

Some explorers recently found a new species of mouse in the Mongolian desert, the "long-eared jerboa". Have a look at the following video clip for more information:

People in the countryside often have a few horses or camels to help them with their work and to transport them from place-to-place. They also have a dog to guard their house. Farmers will sheep, yaks and cows, and will take them to market when they are ready to be sold.

Marmots are everywhere in the countryside, you can spot there holes all over the place. Mongolians love to eat marmot meat, so in the summertime they will catch the marmots and roast them.

Cats are found in cities, but they are generally not liked by Mongolians. They are thought to bring bad luck, so are quickly chased away!

How cold can it get?

[question from Anna, Henry and Theo]

As it is now the coldest period of the year in Mongolia, I guess it’s a good time to answer this question. It gets very cold! Have a look at the weather forecast for this week (the middle of January):


At the moment, everyday is at least -20C. It never gets that cold in the UK! In fact, Mongolia’s capital is the coldest capital city in the world. The average yearly temperature is -1.3C, so on average it is freezing! If you leave your clothes outside to dry in the winter, they will soon become completely frozen. As it is so cold, snow and ice doesn’t really melt – snow can fall one day, and it will still be there a month later. This situation means that all of Mongolia’s pavements are very slippery. I’ve fallen over many times!

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Mongolia was -46C. These extreme temperatures mean that many animals die. This is a real problem for Mongolian farmers, as within a month all their animals could die. They then wouldn’t have anything to eat or to sell at the market. The farmers will try to protect their animals by building temporary shelters for them, but sometimes this still isn’t enough.

What sports do Mongolians play?

[question from Miles]

Mongolians play most of the same sports that we do in the UK. Football is often played (even in the snow!), but perhaps the most popular sport is basketball. Both boys and girls are out on the streets playing basketball.

One sport that Mongolians find difficult to do is swimming. Mongolia doesn’t have access to the sea, and only a couple of the big cities have swimming pools (which are expensive to use). This means that most Mongolians can’t swim!

The three traditional “manly sports” are:

Wrestling

Archery

Horseracing

These are still the main Mongolian sports, and men in the countryside practice them regularly. Women do not play these sports, so keep themselves fit through other sports.

Mongolians expect to do well in the wrestling and shooting events in this year’s Olympics. As Mongolian horses are quite different to the horses that are used in Olympic events, they don’t expect any medals in the horse-related events. Mongolian horses are small and certainly don’t jump!

Do they have any famous sports stars?

Mongolians have been doing very well at Sumo wrestling. Three of the top 5 Sumo wrestlers are Mongolian. This achievement has been quite controversial in Japan – Sumo is a very traditional Japanese sport, so some Japanese people do not like the fact that Mongolians are dominating the sport. However, the Mongolians are very proud of their Sumo wrestlers. There is a big poster of the best Mongolian Sumo wrestler, Hakuhu, on the main square in Ulaanbaatar.

How long does it take to get to Mongolia?

[Question from Patrick]

As the crow flies, it’s 4329 miles from London to Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar.

By plane - if you are lucky, the journey from London Heathrow airport to Ulaanbaatar’s Chingis Haan airport takes 11 hours. Most people fly to Moscow, the capital of Russia, and then get on a different plane going to Ulaanbaatar. The journey would be something like this:
*London Heathrow – Moscow Sheremetyevo: 3 and a half hours.
*Wait whilst changing plane: this wait can be a long wait or a short wait. Most of the time the wait is about 3 hours (there are no seats in Moscow Sheremetyevo airport, so this wait can seem like a very long time!)
*Moscow Sheremetyevo – Ulaanbaatar Chingis Haan: 4 and a half hours.

By car – going by road the distance to Ulaanbaatar is about 8000 miles (the route is very windy). It takes experienced drivers about three or four weeks. However, you would need a very strong car to get to Ulaanbaatar, as the roads are very bumpy and quite dangerous. Often there are no proper roads at all, just tracks in the dirt. Most people would use a jeep or a rally car to get to Mongolia, as an ordinary car would just break down.

On foot - it would take ages! Before cars were invented there were not many links between Europeans and Mongolians (the journey was too tough for most, and would take many months, sometimes over a year). The two different cultures did not mix much. I’m very lucky that planes exist now, otherwise I don't think I would have come!