This animal species has been classified as critically endangered by the NGO World Wildlife Funf (WWF). About 350 saiga antelopes, threatened with disappearance and emblematic of Kazakhstan, were found dead in the steppe, the authorities of this central Asian country announced on Friday (May 14th). The tragedy occurred in the middle of the saiga calving season.
According to the Kazakh Ministry of Ecology, lightning is probably at the origin of the drama “because there are traces of lightning strikes on their carcasses”. Recognizable by their twisted horns and their long rounded muzzle, like a small trunk, the saigas have come close to extinction several times. Their origin dates back to the last ice age.
During the Soviet era, these bovids benefited from reinforced protection with a total ban on their hunting, then very strict hunting quotas from the 1950s. Their population then reached more than two million individuals. Kazakhstan’s independence in 1991 was followed byan explosion of poaching Saiga antelopes, threatening them once again with extinction.
Today, approximately 50,000 antelopes are registered, of which nearly 90% live in Kazakhstan. However, the traditional medicine of China, a neighbor of this country, uses the horns of male saigas, feeding a juicy and devastating traffic.
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