Remember the Name Toli Bulag
The area of the Strictly Protected Area Great Gobi A in southwestern Mongolia is comparable with Switzerland. It is a deserted, remote part of the world, but for years we have been participating here in protection of the wild camel. An uninformed layman would probably not be able to tell it apart from the domestic Bactrian camel, but today we know for certain that it is a completely different animal species. Today it occurs in three isolated areas of northwest China and in the Mongolian Gobi. It is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Photo: Kristýna Čechlovská, Prague Zoo
Our long-term cooperation in the protection of the wild camel consisted in providing help to the guards of the protected area, for whom we financed a communication network or purchased motorbikes, then in support of the research on this camel species and, particularly, in cooperation in its breeding in the Zakhyn Us breeding station. It is located in the buffer zone of Gobi A; the initiator of its creation was the British conservationist, and holder of the Order of the British Empire, John Hare (1934 – 2022), more than 20 years ago. It was he and his organization Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF), whom we were cooperating with the most, and in case of WCPF we still are.
The purpose of the breeding station Zakhyn Us is to create a backup population of wild camel in the area of its natural occurrence. Building and running such a breeding centre is extremely complicated in the Gobi Desert conditions and completely unexpected obstacles must be faced. However, Zakhyn Us operates very well, also thanks to our support. The time has come to begin work on a long-discussed plan to create a second breeding centre.
We also participated in selection of the proper locality. In the end, we jointly chose the locality Toli Bulag at the east edge of Gobi A. First of all, we committed to completely finance the construction of the second breeding centre. We allocated 100,000 USD from our collection We Help Them to Survive for building a 60 hectares enclosure (which is the same area as the entire Prague Zoo), shelters, watering holes and an operations building.
When I met the Director of Mongolian WCPF, the zoologist Adiya Yadamsuren, last summer, he told me how the construction of the breeding station Toli Bulag was progressing. He transported the building material by a huge truck from China. Unfortunately, he got stuck in the desert and it took a week to unload everything, to find a technique equipment which would pull the truck out, and then again load all the material. The main construction work took place during an extremely high temperature.
Photo: David Broda, Prague Zoo
My colleagues also participated at the transport of the wild camels from Zakhyn Us to Toli Bulag this September. Two camel males and five females were carried in two trucks. The journey itself over the 328-km long route took 20 hours and 15 minutes; including loading and unloading the camels the transport took 30 hours and 15 minutes. After all, during the transport there also was some work to rescue stuck vehicles. But we succeeded! And Adiya is sending us beautiful photos and videos from the Toli Bulag breeding centre.
One day we would like to breed wild camels in Prague Zoo.
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