News from Arkhangai

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ The taimen of Tariat soum will be protected. Inhabitants of this soum of Arkhangai province established a cooperative "Mongolian taimen" and have started to protect the Mongolian taimen. They are protecting a nine kilometers' flow which stretches from Bayanbulag to Ravdan spring. As estimated, there are some 10 taimens in this area. The taimen (Hucho taimen), also known as Siberian taimen and Siberian salmon, is a species of fish in the salmon family (family Salmonidae) of order Salmoniformes. The taimen is distributed from the Volga and Pechora River basins east to the Yana River in the north and that of the Amur River in the south. On a larger scale, this includes parts of the Caspian and Arctic drainages in Eurasia and portions of the Pacific drainage in Mongolia and Russia (the Amur river). In Mongolia, the taimen is found in both the Arctic and Pacific drainages, specifically the Yenisei/Selenga, the Lena, and the Amur River Basins. The taimen lives in flowing water and is only occasionally found in lakes, usually near the mouth of a tributary. The taimen is not anadromous, but does show increased movement rates during the spawning season. The average home range size of taimen in the Eg-Uur River of Mongolia is 23 km, but some tagged individuals show home ranges up to 93 km. Some authors consider the taimen to be a subspecies of the Huchen, i.e. Hucho hucho taimen.