By the initiatives of Senior Class of the Department of Ecology, the departmental Sports Day was organized on November 19, 2011 in the gym of Ikh Shavi College.Students of all classes and faculty members participated in basketball (men’s and women’s) and volleyball tournaments, as well as in fun challenges organized by spectating classes. All full-time members of the department along with Michael Grundler and Natsuko Kimura who are working on their respective scholarships participated in the Sports Day activities.

Within the framework of memorandum of understanding signedin 2010 by the Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, USA and School of Biology and Biotechnology, NUM, Ms. Natsuko Kimura, a PhD student from Hitotsubashi University, Japan, arrived to study and work at the Department of Ecology for one year. During her stay in Mongolia, Ms. Kimura will study anthropological implications of generation, circulation, and acceptance of a value of rare animal, specifically snow leopards in Mongolia in collaboration with researchers of the Snow Leopard Conservation Fund of Mongolia and NUM.

Biology and agriculture session of the scientific conference organized annually by the Mongolian Association of Young Scientists was held at Hurel togoot observatory on October 14, 2011. A total of 18 young researchers representing various research organizations spoke at the eleventh annual conference. Our young researchers representing the School of Biology and Biotechnology participated in this conference with their interesting research results. Mr D. Lkhagvasuren of the Department of Ecology took the third place with his talk titled “A possibility to determine the age of Mongolian wild ass (Equus hemionus Pallas, 1775) by annual rings in tooth cementum” and won the award of the President of the Mongolian State University of Agriculture.

At the request and initiative of Department of Ecology of the School of Biology and Biotechnology, NUM, Dr. Kirk Olson (wildlife biologist from University of Massachusetts) and Ms. Ellen Cheng (Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of Biology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences) started running a training course on biostatistics for biologists and practitioners. The course started on September 24, 2011 and will end on October 29, 2011. The aim of this training course is to provide/refresh an understanding on how to use some statistical analyses by focusing on real life examples and develop abilities to solve statistical problems encountered during scientific studies.

Within the framework of trilateral memorandum of understanding signed last year by the Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, USA, Snow Leopard Conservation Fund, Mongolia and School of Biology and Biotechnology, NUM, Mr. Kulbhushan Suryawanshi, PhD student from India, arrived to work at the Department of Ecology for the next three months.

Department of Ecology introduces Mr. Michael Gründler, a Henry Luce Scholar, who will work with us for a year starting from July 2011. Mike comes to us with a BA degree from Cornell University (the same alma mater where the head of department earned his MSc degree), having graduated with the highest honors in 2010 majoring in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB). He has extensive field experience working and interning with some of the most internationally well-known research sites/projects in the field of EEB, including the Archbold Biological Station and Trinidadian guppy experiments.

B. Boldgiv, chair of Department of Ecology of the School of Biology and Biotechnology of the National University of Mongolia received the 2011 Research Grant in Basic Sciences offered by the Third World Academy of Sciences. This competitive research grant program is provided for young scientists working in 80 science and technology-lagging countries, based purely on scientific merit, to help develop research infrastructure by supporting purchase of scientific equipment.

On May 6, 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between “Fish Mongolia” Co. Ltd and School of Biology and Biotechnology of National University of Mongolia. MoU was signed by Mr. Andy Parkinson, the director of Fish Mongolia Co. Ltd and Dr. Nyam-Osor Batkhuu, the Dean of School of Biology and Biotechnology, NUM.

The Department of Ecology and Department of Zoology of the School of Biology and Biotechnology, American Museum of Natural History in New York and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) organized a workshop for environmental specialists, park rangers of protected areas and local people of the eastern region of Mongolia between April 23-24, 2011 at the Technical Technology College in Choibalsan, Dornod Aimag. Three modules, namely “Wildlife Trade and Managing Wildlife Harvest for Sustainable Use”, “Protecting Biodiversity, Field Skills and Law Enforcement” and “Review of Wildlife Monitoring for Conservation”, were taught by Dr. S. Shar, N. Batsaikhan and D. Lkhagvasuren, respectively.

A two-day workshop on ecology education for high school biology teachers was organized by Department of Ecology, Hatgal High School and Education Agency of Hovsgol Aimag on December 22-23, 2010 in Hatgal. B. Boldgiv (Department of Ecology) and N. Batsaikhan (Department of Zoology) were invited to run the two-day workshop.