Mother Nature Network reports on the decline in the number of Saiga (a species of antelope unique to central Asia) in the last 15 years:
The population of Saiga has fallen by 95% in the last 15 years.
Image credit: Seilov on Wikimedia Commons.
This strange antelope looks like something out of the ice age. That’s because it is. The saiga is a small species of antelope found in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It once ranged across Europe and Asia, grazing among mammoths and dodging sabre-toothed tigers.
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The Wildlife Conservation Network states, “The saiga population crashed by 95% in fifteen years, the fastest decline ever recorded for a mammal species … The fate of the saiga was closely tied to the economic downfall of the USSR in 1991, which resulted in the collapse of rural economies and in turn led to widespread unemployment and poverty. Saiga poaching provided a source of food and income. Saiga grazing is also threatened by increasing livestock numbers.”
The horns are sold to Chinese markets where it is believed to have medicinal effects, however there is no scientific founding for any health benefits.
“Only saiga males bear the precious horn and as a result poachers aim to kill males,” says the Saiga Conservation Trust. “Unfortunately, because of this selective hunting for males, the number of adult males dropped dramatically. During the rut there were not enough males to mate with all the females, which led to a reproductive collapse. The direct poaching offtake coupled with the reproductive collapse meant that saiga populations declined at unprecedented rates.”
Saigas declined from well over a million individuals to a low of 20,000 individuals. Today, the population hovers somewhere around 50,000 saiga across the entire range.
To read more about the changing world and what you can do to prepare, visit: www.greatwavesofchange.org
