By Noelle Foster from Weber State University
Hi! My name is Noelle Foster, and I attend Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. I am majoring in Zoology with a minor in Botany. I am also a part of the Great Cormorant survey while here in Mongolia. I am very interested in birds, so I am super excited to be helping with this project. One of my favorite parts from our time here has been seeing active Daurian Pika colonies as well as going to Naadam this past week.
Naadam is a traditional Mongolian celebration with three separate competitive events (wrestling, horse racing, and archery) occurring every year on June 10-11th. Our Round River group had the opportunity to celebrate the soum (town) of Ulaan-Uul’s Naadam this year. We were very excited to attend wearing our new Deels (traditional Mongolian robes)! Ulaan-Uul is just about 5 kilometers West of our base camp, a quick trip into town. We got into town around 10 am for the first day of Naadam, wondering what time the opening ceremonies would begin. As there is no word in Mongolian for “schedule” or “stress,” there was no rush to start. It was only when everyone was present and ready to begin that Naadam commenced. I thought it was great that there was no rush to begin, only when everyone was ready or until a certain elder arrived did the celebration begin. The opening ceremony involved raising the Mongolian flag and singing the national anthem.
Wrestling was the first event, which seemed to be the most popular event for spectators to watch. It was interesting to see the biggest and oldest wrestlers first ‘wrestle’ younger boys as a form of passing on the tradition of wrestling to the next generation. The most interesting part of wrestling was the celebration after a wrestler won their match. They first acknowledged their opponent and then did a dance, very similar to an eagle flying around the flagpole. After they danced, they would receive cheese from a large bowl near the judges, throw some up in the air, and give it to the spectators cheering the loudest. Our group was handed cheese from a wrestler after he won one of his matches!
The next event we watched was horse racing, the first race was specifically for 2-year-old horses, so they were relatively small. Small horses run the fastest with smaller riders, meaning most of the jockeys were just older than toddlers. On top of that, most of them rode bareback. It was so fun to watch them cross the finish line. Additionally, we had the opportunity to give out the awards to the winners of this event later that evening. Round River awarded the top five finishers as well as the last-place jockey, as is tradition, with cash prizes. The award ceremony consisted of singing, eating cheese, and drinking Airag to celebrate the competitors. Airag is fermented mare’s milk, which is drunk during special events. There were also vendors located outside of the Naadam stadium, selling treats like ice cream, bubble tea, and watermelon. We tried bubble tea and mango ice cream. The mango ice cream was delicious! It was an honor to be able to celebrate Naadam this year.
As for things around base camp, it has been nice to settle back into our ‘home’ for a little bit after being gone for over a week collecting pika and cormorant data. We have been able to work on some academics as well as finish up pika data entry. Two days after we returned from our trip, it down-poured rain for over 24 hours. We woke up with a new river by our camp! It has been fun to see the wildlife this flooding has attracted. We have even seen some birds that Round River has only previously seen in the fall; a Siberian Rubythroat and a Hawfinch! We have also seen quite a few new plant species pop up since being gone from camp, like Monkshood and Larkspur species, as well as many others. My favorite plant that we have seen thus far has been the lily Lilium martagon which we have nicknamed ‘Tiger Lily.’
Soon we will be leaving for our next project, surveying Vansemberuu. Vansemberuu is an important Mongolian plant, known for its medicinal properties, that is commonly poached in Mongolia. We will be backpacking for six days on this trip, conducting plant counts and measuring the number of leaves on each plant, leaf length, and the number of flowers on adult plants.
I have had so much fun and learned so much already from everyone while here in Mongolia. I am so excited to keep learning about traditional ecological knowledge, Mongolian natural history, and conservation biology. I am also looking forward to continuing research assistance. Thank you for reading my blog post! I hope I conveyed how awesome and enlightening this experience has been.