Gumuda is in the heart of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, a city whose thriving commerce contrasts with the silence of the steppe, a place where business people in suits stride along among deel-clad nomads.

With its rolling hills, vast open plains and arid deserts, Mongolia’s Eastern Steppe is one of Asia’s last grassland wildernesses. Great migratory herds of Mongolian gazelle roam here along with 5,000 ...