its’ harsh environment challenges people for access. It is harder for us than Harry Potter finding
the secret platform 9 ¾ accessed through the brick wall barrier between platforms 9 and 10 at
King’s Cross Train Station, the starting point of the Hogwarts Express to the Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry.
2. The appearance
Gobi bear looks like the Himalayan Brown Bear where you can easily find it in northern
Eurasia and North America. Even though the brown bear’s range has shrunk and it has faced local
extinctions, it remains listed as a least concern species by the IUCN with a total population of
approximately 200,000. So, people are sometimes confused and don’t pay attention on the forlorn
Gobi bear. But, don’t be fooled by their appearance even though they look similar to Brown Bear.
3. Study and knowledge of the species
Gobi bear is understudied and people don’t have a lot of knowledge on this species. You will
agree with me if you try to browse the internet or library for Gobi bear’s information, you will
find that it will be easier to find information on Giant panda than Gobi bear. The golden rule
states “less information you can find means less people care about it”.
4. Natural Resources VS Endangered Animals
Large copper and gold deposits located at Oyuu Tolgoi, about 80 kilometers from the Chinese
border into Mongolia, are being investigated for development as mining operations. In the
developing country, like China or Mongolia, the value of mining is way more important than
protecting the endangered animal. Like Van Loon said in his book – The Story of Mankind : “The
history of man is the record of a hungry creature in search of food” . We, the wisest animal in the
earth, keep on destroying our nature just to optimize our benefits.
After listing out those factors about Gobi bear, you may ask – What can we do to save them ?
There is no straight answer to this question, because it is hard to locate Gobi bear from the Gobi
desert. Try to imagine, how hard it will be to find a needle from the deep blue ocean? There is
only 22 Gobi bears in an arc of land 1,295,000 km² (500,000 sq mi). But, is it the end of discussion
to this topic or just hope a miracle will come and save them?
With respect to Gobi Bear, I would say there’s hope — if we care. Learning from what we have
done on Pandas in China, we can do something similar. We can build reserves across Gobi Desert
and start necessary measures to save endangered Gobi bears.
First, and the most ideal, is to protect their habitats. Second is to work with zoos and research
centers to increase the captive Gobi bear population through breeding programs. Last but not least
is the combination of the first two measures, namely to release captive-bred Gobi bear back to the
wild to enhance wild Gobi bear population while protecting their natural habitats.
If you want to know how soon we can take the Gobi bear from “almost extinct” to “least
endanger”, here below is the math game which we can try out and it will give you the answer.
1. Think about a number from 1 to 9.
2. Double the number.
3. Add 26 to the result.
4. Divide the result by 2.
5. Subtract the original number.
