CAPTURING ARGALI WAS AS UNPREDICTABLE as the weather. After Tuesday’s beginners luck we were skunked on Wednesday so we packed up the nets and moved to a different location as the first raindrops pocked the Gobi dust. We collected and released two more on Thursday and five on Friday morning which should have rounded out our goal of ten collared animals. But argali rams have thick necks in order to carry their massive horns — too thick for the GPS collars we have. As it turns out they hadn’t been programed in time to put on the first ewes and didn’t fit our three rams today. So we still have one GPS collar left.
So many argali, so little time
We took the afternoon off for the traditional Mongolian barbeque, goat and veggies pressure cooked in a steel milk can over a fire of horse poop. It was surprisingly tender and tasty. Afterwards the Mongolians entertained us with traditional songs accompanied by Zorigoo on his horse head fiddle and another guy on guitar. They have very fine voices, love to entertain and they all know the words.
Watch out Yoyo Ma, Zorigoo is coming
Connie and I opted out of the trip to the disco, using the old age card — “You youngsters go and have fun.” Besides, it was cold, windy and had started snowing. The light snow continued into Saturday with strong winds and below freezing temperatures — 25°F or -3° for you Celsius fans — so we hunkered down until after lunch. The horsemen agreed to give it one more try. We caught two more huge rams just before dark but they, too, were too large for the collars. Something in a 16 and a half perhaps?
Neither rain, nor snow . . .
It was cold work in the morning but the horsemen were able to cut a ewe from the flock and drive her to the net. After a full week of pursuit we netted four rams, six ewes, one ibex and two juvenile argali, one of which carried an ear tag placed when she was a lamb. And we applied all ten of our tracking collars. We gathered up the nets, and congratulated ourselves on a mission accomplished as the horsemen galloped off for home.
Mission accomplished! It's Miller Time
