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Wild Bactrian camel and Gobi bear in the Gobi Desert

The Great Gobi A Strictly Protected Area (about 46,000 sq km) in south-western Mongolia is the only Mongolian habitat of the wild Bactrian camel and the only home of the Gobi bear (mazaalai). Wild camels also live in three isolated areas of north-western China: around Lop Nur, in the Taklamakan Desert and in the Altun Mountains.

According to ZSL fewer than 1,000 wild camels survive, about 600 in China and about 450 in Mongolia; they are threatened by poaching, habitat loss, competition with livestock, mining and hybridisation with domestic camels. The first wild camel breeding centre has operated at Zakhyn Us since 2003, with a second one at Toli Bulag, where the first calf of the year was born in March 2026. Gobi bears number a few dozen (a 2021 genetic study indicated about 31); in dry years they depend on supplementary feeding at waterholes, and drought and climate change are the main threats.

Species

Needs

• habitat
• anti-poaching

Who is helping

Organisations that, according to their own publications, work on this event (2). Donations go directly to each organisation's own website - GLOBURNS does not handle payments.

• Great Gobi Strictly Protected Area Administration
  The Mongolian administration of the Great Gobi A and B Strictly Protected Areas, which cover habitats of the wild camel, the Gobi bear and Przewalski's horse. Among…
• Wild Camel Protection Foundation (WCPF)
  A UK charity protecting the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel. It supports breeding at Zakhyn Us and Toli Bulag in Mongolia, releases into Great Gobi A and…

Sources

• zsl.org zsl.org/what-we-do/projects/conservation-of-mongolias-wild-camels
• edgeofexistence.org edgeofexistence.org/species/wild-camel
• wildcamels.com wildcamels.com/2026/03/
• en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobi_bear
• atlantis-press.com atlantis-press.com/proceedings/ibcm-25/126016405
• en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gobi_A_Strictly_Protected_Area
• eurasianet.org eurasianet.org/mongolia-endangered-bear-struggles-against-climate-change

Seed record, before editorial verification. Every number links to its source; report errors on the Corrections page. Methodology · Corrections

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