Chasing Giants by Zeb Hogan & Stefan Lovgren

Author:Zeb Hogan & Stefan Lovgren [Hogan, Zeb & Lovgren, Stefan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SCI080000 SCIENCE / Essays, NAT012000 NATURE / Animals / Fish, NAT011000 NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

7

Under Father Sky

The first time I traveled to Mongolia was in the fall of 2003. It was the year before I finished my PhD, and I was part of a group of scientists who were going to assess the impact of gold mining on Mongolian rivers. The project was led by Sudeep Chandra, a whip-smart and tireless limnologist who had been my housemate at UC Davis and was now a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin. Sudeep had visited Mongolia the year before and become fascinated with the country, its unique culture and natural beauty. Though “beautiful” is not the word I’d use from my initial impression of Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, as we flew in from Beijing.

More than a decade had passed since Mongolia had emancipated itself from the Soviet repression that had shackled the country for much of the twentieth century. But the city, sprawled across a river valley, still resembled a Soviet outpost. Huge smokestacks pierced the skyline above endless rows of concrete apartment buildings. Giant pipes crisscrossed the grounds of shantytowns filled with hundreds of identical yurts, or gers as they’re called in Mongolia.

Ulaanbaatar had the feel of a Wild East, with foreign mining companies scrambling to get into Mongolia to exploit its earthly riches, including coal, copper, gold, silver, iron ore, zinc, and uranium, valued at up to $3 trillion. A lot of new money attracted a lot of Mongolians to the city, which now housed more than half of the country’s three million people. With the Soviets departed but Russia still a power to the north and China encroaching from the south, Mongolians were eager to assert their independence. And while the nation was still finding its democratic feet, the enthusiasm and pride the Mongolians we encountered showed in their newfound political freedoms and future made a strong impression on me.

Apart from Sudeep and me, several other people in our group had UC Davis connections, including Brant Allen, a fish biologist and good friend of mine; Andy Stubblefield, a jovial grad student; Jim Thorne, who was an expert on maps; and Mimi Kessler, whose doctoral thesis focused on the great bustards of Mongolia. Also with us was a Wisconsin student named David Gilroy, who had spent a lot of time in the country and spoke the language fluently.

David was friends with a Mongolian fish biologist who joined our team, Erdenebat Manchin, whom we ended up calling Fish Erdenebat, since Erdenebat was a common name in Mongolia. Trained in the Soviet era, Fish Erdenebat was a knowledgeable and lovable character who was always very happy, especially when we were drinking and talking about fish, which happened almost every night.

After spending a few days in Ulaanbaatar, or UB as people called it, it was time to get moving. With the group split into two Russian-made vehicles—one a jeep and the other a van, both dubiously described as “executive” models—we set off to the east toward the Khentii Mountains. These mountains, I was told, were the birthplace

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