Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – As highlighted by both national and international media, a severe winter weather disaster—the phenomenon known as a ‘dzud’—during the 2023-2024 winter has presented unprecedented challenges for the people of Mongolia. Wildlife is also experiencing dzud, however much less information is available on impact and trends. Recent reports by Mongolia’s Emergency Management Agency indicate the loss of over 5.2 million livestock animals by March...

Samarkand, Uzbekistan, February 12, 2024 – WCS is championing at the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CoP14) the listing of guanaco (Lama guanicoe) onto CMS Appendix II, which would facilitate transboundary collaboration and cooperation around guanaco and its habitat conservation. During CMS CoP14, governments are meeting to agree on strategies for the conservation of migratory species and their habitats. This listing for guanaco would strengthen c...

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released a photo today of a single Asiatic wild ass or khulan (Equus hemionus hemionus) crossing a previously impenetrable barrier along the Trans Mongolian Railroad – the first known crossing by this near-threatened species into the eastern steppe in 65 years.

Khulan (Equus hemionus), a species of wild ass living in the Gobi Desert, travel extremely long distances to meet their water needs – a strategy that will require urgent conservation interventions as local human impacts increase, says a team of scientists.

The fate of the saiga, a prehistoric antelope species, found on the windswept steppes of Central Asia, will be decided as CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) gathers for its 18th Conference of the Parties (CoP18) August 17-28 in Geneva. The saiga is on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered and is vital to the ecosystem of Mongolia’s steppe.

A team of conservationists from the Royal Veterinary College, WCS, Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna published a letter in this week’s edition of the journal Science on the threat of the virus peste des petits ruminants (PPR) to conservation.

May 4, 2017 – Experts have for the first time mapped the distribution and movement corridors of migratory mammals in combination with threats from linear infrastructure, such as railways, roads, pipelines, and border fences, across the entire Central Asian region. 

Gobi-Altai and Khovd Provinces, Mongolia, Feb. 7, 2017 -- Saiga antelope have been dying over the last two months in alarming numbers in the Great Lakes Depression of western Mongolia bordered by the Altai Mountains and China.

July 7, 2016 – A new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) says that breeding populations of white-naped cranes have decreased by 60 percent in Ulz River basin – an important stronghold for the species  in Eastern Mongolia.

 August 21, 2015 - WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) congratulates WCS scientists Joel Berger, P. Dee Boersma, and Tim Davenport for being nominated for the 2016 Indianapolis Prize— the world's leading award for animal conservation.