Cairns radiographer on mission to save world’s rarest bear in Mongolia

Oyundelger 2017-09-05 01:09

Society

CAIRNS radiographer Barry Jiggins is about to make his 10th trip to Mongolia since 2003 — delivering blankets and saving Gobi bears.

Cairns radiographer on mission to save world’s rarest bear in Mongolia. CAIRNS radiographer Barry Jiggins is about to make his 10th trip to Mongolia since 2003 — delivering blankets and saving Gobi bears. “There are perhaps no more than 40 Gobi bears left in Mongolia. They are the rarest bear in the world and have receded into the most far flung corner of the Gobi Desert,” Barry says. The founder of MongoliAid will spend the next two weeks travelling through protected areas of the Gobi Desert, delivering supplemental food into feeding bins for the bears with a Mongolian rescue organization. It will be our biggest delivery yet.” He says the feeding program has been hamstrung by unreliable funding from the Mongolian government. “MongoliAid is stepping into the breach and from next year will fund the entire feeding program, so the Mongolian government can direct its resources to the Great Gobi Strictly Protected Area Park administration (GGSPA).” Barry will meet the Australian Ambassador to Mongolia during his visit to discuss the feeding program, before overseeing the delivery of 500 blankets to children in need. “This year’s blanket distribution will also be a milestone in that MongoliAid and I will reach a cumulative tally of 35,000 blankets since I started collecting and sending from late 2003. “We have placed blankets across most of southern and western Mongolia, but also directed thousands of blankets to the citizens of the Mongolian capital by working with the Mongolian Red Cross Society.” Made from traditional camel wool and yak down, the blankets are sourced from within Mongolia to support nomadic families. “By the time I reach the most remote village in the Gobi Desert in mid-September, we will have MongoliAid blankets in all the communities surrounding the GGSPA. I want to future proof the health and wellbeing of tomorrow’s Gobi bear guardians,” said Barry.