Seeing that Bao was paying close attention, Uljii continued, “The key to protecting the grassland is limiting the number of wolves we kill. There are many destructive animals on the grassland, but ground squirrels, rabbits, marmots, and gazelles wreak the greatest damage. If there were no wolves, squirrels and rabbits alone would lay waste to the grassland within a few years. Wolves are their natural enemy; they keep them in check. Protecting the grazing land increases our ability to ward off natural disasters. Take blizzards, for example. We experience them more often than most other areas. When a blizzard hits the grazing lands at other communes, they can lose up to half their herds. Our losses are never that great. Why? Because our land flourishes. Every autumn we cut down enough grass for emergencies, and now that we have grass cutters, we can mow the entire pasture and store up all we need against the possibility of a natural disaster. And because the grass flourishes here, it grows so tall that most snowfalls aren’t heavy enough to cover it completely. With a healthy grassland, erosion is avoided and the wells don’t dry up, so even during a drought, the animals have water to drink. With good grass, the animals thrive. No diseases have spread through our herds in recent years. Our production is up, so we’ve been able to buy machinery that helps us dig wells and build pens, which increases our resistance to natural disasters.”
Bao nodded and said, “What you say makes sense. Protecting the grazing land is what makes raising livestock possible. I won’t forget that. I’ll take officials down to the brigades as often as possible and make sure the herdsmen move on when they’re supposed to, and I’ll see that the horse herders stay with their herds twenty-four hours a day to keep them on the move and not let them stay in one spot too long. I’ll inspect every team’s grazing land once a month, and if there’s overgrazing, I’ll deduct work points. I’ll reward those teams that take pains to protect the land, labeling them model units. As long as I employ military management methods, I’m confident the Olonbulag will continue to be well managed… But I still don’t see how you protect the grazing land by relying on wolves. Are they really that effective?”
Seeing that Bao was still listening, Uljii smiled and said, “You’ll be surprised to learn that a nest of ground squirrels will eat more grass in a year than a gazelle, and they store up food for the winter. I’ve dug up their nests and found bales of the stuff down there, and it’s all the finest grass and grass seeds. They have four or five litters a year, ten or more young each time, and by the end of the year, one nest has become ten. You can figure how much grass that many squirrels can eat in a year. Rabbits are the same, with several huge litters every year. And you’ve seen the marmots, how they dot the mountainsides with their burrows. Figuring roughly, all those creatures eat several times more grass in any given year than all hundred thousand head of livestock in our pasture, which is the size of one of your counties down south. But there are only about a thousand people living here, and if not for the students from Beijing, there wouldn’t even be that many. With those numbers, what do you think the chances are that we could eradicate all those pests?”
“I haven’t seen many rabbits over the past year or so,” Bao said. “I admit there are a lot of ground squirrels near headquarters, but I haven’t seen them anywhere else. I’ve seen plenty of marmots and their burrows. But it’s the number of gazelles I’ve really noticed. I’ve seen herds of ten thousand more than once. I’ve even shot a bunch of them. They’re a true scourge, the way they graze like locusts.”
“Our pastureland is good,” Uljii said, “with tall, dense grass that hides the squirrels and rabbits. You have to look carefully to see them, but they’re there. You’ll see them in the fall. All those piles of cut grass are laid out to dry by the squirrels before they take it into their nests. The gazelles are nowhere near as destructive, because while they eat the grass, they don’t burrow into the ground. Ground squirrels, rabbits, and marmots not only eat and dig burrows but also reproduce wildly. Without the wolves, those pests would eat all the grass on the Olonbulag and have holes everywhere in a few years. The desert wouldn’t be far behind. If you insist on annihilating the wolves, you won’t have a job three or four years from now.”
With a snicker, Bao said, “I know that cats and raptors and snakes catch rodents, but I never heard that wolves catch them too. Even a dog won’t waste the energy to go after a rodent. Are you saying that wolves do? They eat sheep, and they eat horses. There isn’t enough meat on those rodents to stick between their teeth. Sorry, I don’t believe that rodents are on their menu.”
Uljii sighed. “That’s a mistake all you farming people make. I grew up on the Olonbulag, so I understand wolves. They prefer to eat big animals, like cows, sheep, horses, and gazelles. But the first three are tended by humans, which makes them difficult prey, and the wolves have to eat to survive. Gazelles are so fleet-footed, they’re hard to catch. Ground squirrels, on the other hand, are there for the taking. In olden days, poor people survived the lean years by catching and eating the squirrels. I was a slave as a boy, and anytime I didn’t get enough to eat, I caught squirrels. They’re big, plump rodents, from a few ounces to a full pound, and three or four of them will tide you over. For the ones you don’t eat right away, you skin them and dry the meat, a tasty meal for the next time. If you don’t believe me, I’ll catch a few one day and roast them for you. You’ll find the meat quite tender. Even Genghis Khan ate squirrel.”
Zhang Jiyuan, caught up in the discussion, felt a need to add his views. “I’ve been tending horses for two years now, and I’ve watched wolves catch squirrels, sending dirt flying. They’re better at it than dogs. Ground squirrels are the favorites of female wolves and their cubs. Before the young ones are weaned, their mothers teach them how to hunt, beginning with ground squirrels. When a female’s litter is still young, they seldom join the other wolves in a hunt. Their cubs learn to fear humans when they’ve grown to about a foot in length and have just begun to run. When a hunter spots a female wolf and her cubs out in the open, if he shoots the adult, the cubs are all his. All he has to do is scoop them up as if they were baby lambs, which is why the female will take her young as far from human habitation as possible, where they’re safe. But since there’s no livestock in those places, what do they eat? Well, except for the occasional meat and bones the older wolves bring them after a successful hunt, they survive on ground squirrels and marmots.”