Nomadic Guardians Foundation

Mongolia Bankhar Dog Project aims to restore the Bankhar dog to its former status as the mediator between nomadic people and large wild predators, and in so doing to provide a key non-lethal approach to managing livestock predation in Mongolia.

The Bankhar dog is an ancient tool that has aided the nomadic people of Mongolia as long as they have lived on the steppe. Traditionally, nomads and herders kept these specially bred large working dogs to protect livestock from predators. Published, peer-review research has shown that 1) properly employed livestock protection dogs have a demonstrably positive effect on conservation of wild predators, and 2) that curtailing retaliatory killing of large predators and repopulating their natural prey are the most significant contributions conservation programs can make toward protecting these endangered species. MBDP is building its programs according to the best scientific research available, and plans to contribute back invaluable research into this method of conservation to the scientific community.

The current Bankhar dog population is a fraction of what it was in the past, because of the general loss of knowledge about how to breed, train and employ these working dogs, and mis-education about dogs’ potential to spread disease to livestock.