Research overview: reviving Bankhar guardian dogs for Mongolian herder coexistence

This overview examines efforts to revive the traditional Mongolian Bankhar livestock-guarding dog as a tool for reducing depredation by snow leopards, wolves, and other predators on the steppe and in mountain pastures. It synthesises the historical role of these landrace guardian dogs, their decline, and breeding-and-placement initiatives that bond pups to herds to deter predators nonlethally. The literature discusses effectiveness, the interplay with herd mobility and pastoral practice, dog welfare, and potential impacts on wildlife. The survey frames the Bankhar revival as a culturally rooted, husbandry-based approach to coexistence, illustrating how restoring indigenous working-animal traditions can offer practical, locally appropriate alternatives to retaliatory killing in extensive pastoralist systems.