How Mongols Protect Their Livestock From Wolves Without Guns Or Fences

Life on the Mongolian steppe is defined by the cold and the constant presence of predators watching the herd. In this landscape, the distance between safety and loss is measured by a single dog and an elder's watch. We look at how a settlement manages the harsh reality of the season, from the placement of the gers to the guarding of the animals. This is a look at the essential practices of nomadic life. You will see how livestock protection becomes the primary work of the day when the snow falls and the wolves draw close. It is a quiet, necessary vigilance that ensures winter survival in a place where nothing is given for free. I count down the ten things that turned the wolf back, from ten to one. Number one is not the dog. It is a rule about the first sheep the wolf takes, and most men who hear it think we have lost our minds. CHAPTERS 00:00 Three in the morning 01:02 Who is speaking 01:22 Ten things, counted down 01:56 10 — We do not say its name 02:53 9 — The wolf keeps a calendar 04:13 8 — The camp is the first wall 05:31 7 — The black dog with four eyes 06:58 6 — A dog is asked for, not bought 08:09 5 — The horses guard themselves 09:22 4 — The first sheep belongs to the wolf 10:38 3 — When you do go out 11:44 2 — What a man keeps from it 12:40 1 — Why we do not want it gone 13:56 What none of this can do 14:47 Spring, and the dog asleep in the sun I am Batbayar. I was born in a ger at the foot of the Khangai, and I have spent sixty-seven winters on the same ground. I do not read about this life. I have lived it. A NOTE ON THE DOG The dog in this video is the bankhar, the old guardian dog of the Mongolian steppe: black, heavy-coated, with two tan spots above the eyes that herders call its second pair of eyes. Much of what you hear — how a puppy is asked for like a bride, how it is named, where it sleeps, why it is never struck — is drawn from documented herding custom. Batbayar is a fictional character. He does not represent a real person, family or clan. The knowledge in this video is drawn from documented steppe herding practice and from the accounts of herders who live with wolves today. Nothing here is advice. Wolves are protected in many countries, and living next to them is a matter for the people who actually do.