Khurkh Research Station

Khurkh Research Station (KRS) is located on the Khulst Tolgoi at Khurkh Valley in northern Khentii province, Mongolia. It is located 360 km northeast of Ulaanbaatar and 110km north of Chinggis Khaan City (formerly Undurkhaan) of Khentii province. Khurkh and northern Khentii has a rich fauna and many different plants belonging to southern Siberian taiga and forest steppe zones, and Daurian steppe ecoregion. 

The main objective of the Khurkh Research Station is to generate knowledge and data to support biodiversity conservation and management decisions for the preservation and maintenance of healthy wetland, forest, and grassland habitats in northeast Mongolia. The core mission of KRS is to develop and disseminate scientific information needed for understanding the ecology and values of key habitat features as wildlife habitat and basis of community livelihood.

The area was selected as field research site for WSCC when the white-naped crane project started in 2013. At the beginning, the work of ornithologists were limited to the monitoring of breeding pairs, nesting success, and banding crane chicks. Now researchers from several universities and institutes carry out field studies related to changes in biodiversity, wetland, forest, and grassland ecosystem, plants, permafrost, and climate change.

Also visitors can experience the wetland, grassland, and forest ecosystems and participate in our field investigations to learn about biodiversity and conservation.

KRS is run as partnership between WSCC of Mongolia, National University of Mongolia, Mongolian National University of Education, Institute of Geography and Geo-ecology, Institute of Botany, and Institute of General and Experimental Biology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. Core funding support is coming from the Internaitonal Crane Foundation, US Forest Service, and the Care for Ecosystem Fund.

A sister station the Khurkh Bird Ringing Station is located 8 km to the east from KRS. The aim of the KBRS is to carry out a long-term bird migration study through bird ringing. For more information about this field station click here.