Overview
Earthwatch is a non-profit organization that sends volunteers from all walks of life across the world to assist scientists on environmental research expeditions. Many of these expeditions are tied to helping to conserve the planets most iconic and threatened mammal species. Wildlife of the Mongolian Steppe is an expedition co-funded by both Earthwatch and the Denver Zoo. As a friend of the Denver Zoo, we'd like to invite you to join us – in Mongolia – to explore the lives of unique grassland animals, from lesser kestrels to Siberian ibex, to help conserve their wilderness home.

Expedition Details
Enjoy an extraordinary perspective of the desert-steppe environment in central Asia, as well as visits with local herders for a unique cultural experience. You will work with a well-trained research staff, including those from the Denver Zoo, to observe the ecology and movements of a diversity of grassland animals. In addition to argali sheep, you will help explore the ecology of Siberian ibex, mountain goats with scimitar-shaped horns, and cinereous vultures, the largest raptors in Eurasia. You will also study the lives of globally threatened lesser kestrels, two species of hedgehogs, and prey species, from lizards to steppe rat snakes, to leaping jerboas.

Through this project, you will have the opportunity to explore this wilderness landscape in a way few people ever can, and you will also have the opportunity to experience Mongolian culture in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar and through interacting with the local Mongolian project staff. This project requires a reasonably good fitness level due to its active nature and the remoteness of the location, and familiarity with hiking and camping.

Research Summary
This magnificent region of semi-arid grasslands and rocky outcrops is one of the best hopes for wildlife in central Asia. Argali sheep, lesser kestrels, cinereous vultures, and other animals threatened throughout their range find a stronghold here. Herds of graceful Mongolian gazelles and goitered gazelles roam freely through the reserve. For the past several years, Earthwatch teams have worked to study and conserve the area's wildlife, including the "near-threatened" argali—the largest mountain sheep in the world with huge, curling horns. Their efforts have been so successful that results from the work have been used to develop improved conservation management policies in the reserve, and the research team has expanded their studies to include several other species. You can help the Denver Zoo's Dr. Rich Reading and an international team of scientists explore the lives of a broad range of wildlife in this semiarid refuge.

Earthwatch Expedition teams will be in the field during May, June, August and September, 2012. Each expedition will last 14 days.

For more details, or to sign up, please call Earthwatch at 800-776-0188 or visit http://www.earthwatch.org/exped/reading.html