In the land of the wild horses (Khustai National Park, Tuesday July 13, 2004)
We are preparing a camp, the dinner is being cooked. "Have you noticed those slots?" Lubos is asking us after looking about the surrounding. "The wolves pass through here." We are in Khustai National Park, in a wavy or rather mountainous landscape, under a hill that has a stone hat on its top and is named Golden mountain. Right on its descent, there is a stork nest at the cliff - or better at pile of stones.
Khustai National Park is very influential neither thanks to wolves (who are watched here by means of transmitters), nor even thanks to the storks, but thanks to Przewalski horses. They were definitely exterminated at the break of 60's and 70's of the last century and Khustai is one of the places where they were naturalized again in 90's. They count about 150 individuals today.
"I would never believe that the stork could be right here," stated Premek after we arrived here. The hills are covered by low grass, house leeks, wormwoods and little bushes here and there; tarbagans (prairie marmots) peep out of the couches and the vultures circle in the sky; no tree far and near. Grass-hoppers' squeaks and clapping is heard from all sides and Gombo picks even big crickets (often six centimetres long) in the camp who could byte through the tents, rucksacks and clothes. The stork nest is under the top of approximately fifteen meters high rock or better cumulation of stones. The truth is that Tuul river is flowing not far from here which is certainly the reason that the storks are here.
Unfortunately, the stork at the Golden mountain is empty. No chicks occupy it. A pair of storks stays here, but it does not look like trapping... We lay our hopes on the nest at the border of the national park. Well, we'll see.