Cold winter kills 26,300 head of livestock in Mongolia

ULAN BATOR, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Extremely cold winter known as dzud in Mongolia has killed more than 26,300 head of livestock in January in the western provinces of Uvs, Bayan-Ulgii and Zavkhan, as well as the central province of Uvurkhangai, the country's National Statistics Office (NSO) said on Thursday.

At least 11 of all the 21 Mongolian provinces have been experiencing dzud, the NSO said in a statement.

Dzud is a Mongolian term to describe a severely cold winter when a large number of livestock die because the ground is frozen or covered with snow.

Animal husbandry is one of the main pillars of the Mongolian economy, and almost 40 percent of the country's nomadic population depends on it.

However, due to the harsh, long winter, most of Mongolia's nomadic herders lose livestock each year.

According to the NSO, Mongolia had 58.1 million head of livestock at the end of 2025.■