East Changai, Orchon Valley, Mongolia Photograph by © WWF-Canon/Hartmut JUNGIUS   Palaearctic Temperate Grasslands, Savannas, and Shrublands   342,600 square miles (887,300 square kilometers) -- about thrice the size of Arizona Critical/Endangered

· A Sea of Grass
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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A Sea of Grass

Extensive grasslands spread inland from northeastern China’s coastal hills toward the boreal forests of southern Siberia. Warm and productive during the summer, cold and windblown during the winter, this ecoregion supports a diverse grassland community with small populations of wild ungulates such as the Mongolian gazelle.

Special Features

The local people say, "When the wind blows, the grasses bow down, and groups of cows and sheep can be seen." This large ecoregion includes more than 380,000 square miles (a million square kilometers) of temperate grasslands on the inland side of Manchuria’s coastal mountain ranges and river basins. Eastward are the desert regions of southern Mongolia and north-central China.

	Mongolian gazelles are speedy, galloping up to 39 miles per hour (65 km per hour) and sustaining this speed for 7 to 9 miles (12-15 km). They can also leap almost 7 feet (2 m) into the air and swim across large rivers.

Wild Side

Marshes and reed beds in this ecoregion provide good bird breeding habitat for Oriental white storks, demoiselle cranes, relict gulls, and globally threatened great crested grebes. Rare great bustards and Oriental plovers breed on adjoining plains. Small herds of Mongolian gazelles graze in a reserve in the eastern part of the ecoregion, and some Asiatic wild asses may still survive in the mountains. Human activity has forced the bactrian camel and Przewalski’s horse out of this ecoregion.

Cause for Concern

Livestock grazing is a concern here because the number of goats raised on the grasslands has increased due to the high prices for cashmere wool. Goats eat a wide range of plant species and often consume the entire plant, and this has degraded the grasslands over a broad area. In Mongolia, many people have returned to rural lifestyles, and the number of herdsmen is reported to have tripled in the last ten years and the number of livestock to have increased by 30 percent. Wetland habitats are threatened by reed cutting, hunting, egg collection, and overfishing.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.