Saiga Antelope: Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Conjectures and contradictions quickly emerge respecting saiga antelopes. The even-numbered-toed ungulates currently fit into:

• two species, Saiga borealis (northern antelope) and Saiga tataricus (Tatarian antelope); or
• two subspecies, Saiga tataricus mongolica and Saiga tataricus tataricus.

They get through 10- to 12-year life cycles and natural histories thanks to realizing respectively juvenile and mature speeds of 24.85 and 49.71 miles per hour (40 and 80 kilometers per hour) despite:

• sagging face;
• spindly legs;
• stocky bodies;
• sturdy 7.99- to 10.04-inch (20.3- to 25.5-centimeter) horns.

They amiably herd into:

• breeding-season harems of 5 to 15;
• spring migrants of 10 to 2,000;               
• summer subgroups of 30 to 40.

Yet mating season inspires 90+% of all males to fight to the death. 

Mammalogists judge saiga antelopes as intermediate between antelopes and sheep. They know of:

• breeding November to January;
• delivering after 139- to 152-day gestations 7.72-pound (3.5-kilogram) singles or twins in April/May;
• feeding other than upon milk at four months;
• having 23.62- to 31.49-inch (60- to 80-centimeter) head-body lengths, 39.37- to 55.12-inch (100- to 140-centimeter) shoulder heights, 2.36- to 4.72-inch (6- to 12-centimeter) tail lengths, and 63.93- to 115.12-pound (29- to 69-kilogram) weights for 20+-month-old females and 24+-month-old males;
• juggling sexual maturity of 12+-month-old females and 19+-month-old males;
• letting cooling/moistening/warming breaths in, siphoning dust out.

They label them keystone obligates for hydrating twice daily and ingesting such diverse plants as:

• alfalfas, clovers, sainfoins, saltworts;
• forbs;
• grasses;
• lichens;
• mosses;
• shrubs. 

Descendants of Ice Age contemporaries of saber-toothed tigers (Smilodon populator) and woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) mature into:

• camouflaged bearers of cinnamon summer and white winter coats;
• susceptible hosts of Clostridia perfringens and Pasteurella multocida;
• vulnerable prey of agricultural developers, hide/hoof/horn poachers, livestock ranchers, meat hunters, and road builders.

They therefore need anti-poaching enforcement, captive breeding, and habitat protection throughout:

• native bio-geographies in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia;
• winter ranges in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

They operate within contexts of:

• populations plummeting from 2,000,000+ in 1958 to 250,000 in 2015;
• ranges reduced from Asia, Europe, and northwest North America to Central Asia.

Nothing provokes urgency more than May/June’s 160,000+ casualties from 2014/2015’s mega-winter toxifying bacteria into internally rupturing saiga antelopes. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Monument honors saiga antelopes in Republic of Kalmykia (Республика Калмыкия), which shares today's saiga homelands with eastern neighbor, Astrakhan Oblast.
Republic of Kalmykia, Southern Federal District, southwestern Russia; Thursday, July 17, 2014, 16:17: BazIv, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:РК.jpg

fighting male saiga antelopes
photo by American conservation biologist Richard P. Reading; Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 11:48: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/6383860215/; CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saiga_Fight_3_(6383860215).jpg

articulated skeleton of Saiga tatarica: mounted specimen (catalog # USNM A 22978) in Osteology Hall's Hall of Bones, 2nd Floor, West Wing
Collector and locality listed as unknown but specimen lot notes suggests "Perhaps associated with skin 16223 (fm H.A. Ward)" [naturalist and geologist Henry Augustus Ward (March 9, 1834–July 4, 1906)]
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, Vertebrate Zoology Department/Mammals Division, Washington D.C.: Cliff (cliff1066™), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nostri-imago/3591172758/

a herd of saiga antelopes (Saiga tatarica) in Cherniye Zemli (Black Earth) Nature Reserve, which was created June 11, 1990, in Russian Republic of Kalmykia to protect Tatarian antelopes
On December 3, 1993, Cherniye Zemli was designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve.
Republic of Kalmykia, Southern Federal District, southwestern Russia; Sunday, April 28, 2013, 13:48: Игорь Шпиленок (Igor Shpilenok), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saiga_tatarica_in_Chyornye_zemli_nature_reserve.jpg

a pair of saiga antelopes (Saiga tatarica) brought to Zoological Society of London's Gardens in November 1866 and subsequently purchased by ZSL
1867 illustration by Joseph Wolf (January 21, 1820 – April 20, 1899); lithograph by Joseph Smit (July 18, 1836 – November 4, 1929)
P.L. Sclater and Oldfield Thomas, The Book of Antelopes, Vol. III (1897-1898), Pl. XLIX, opp. p. 31: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42167663

mother saiga and calf in the steppe in Cherniye Zemli (Black Earth) Nature Reserve, Republic of Kalmykia, Southern Federal District, southwestern Russia
photo by Igor Shpilenok; Saturday, May 16, 2009, 16:23:19: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters (USFWS Headquarters), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/6383856545/

“Critically endangered Saiga Antelope Vital for Preservation of World’s Largest Grasslands.” Large Herbivore Network > News. Retrieved September 25, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.lhnet.org/critically-endangered-saiga-antelope-vital-for-preservation-of-world-s-largest-grasslands/

Ghose, Tia. 2 September 2015. “Photos: A Mass Die-off of the Endangered Saiga Antelope.” Live Science > Animals. Retrieved September 25, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.livescience.com/52053-photos-saiga-die-off.html

Gray, J.E. (John Edward). 1867. "Recent Additions to the Society's Menagerie." Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London (February 28, 1867): 240.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/29533680
• Plate of Saiga tatarica by Joseph Wolf available at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/29534573

Gray, Richard. 4 September 2015. “Mystery of What Killed 200,000 Antelope in One Month Solved? Normally Harmless Bacteria Appear to Have Turned on the Endangered Animals.” Daily Mail > Science. Retrieved September 25, 2015.

• Available @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3222177/Mystery-killed-60-000-antelope-four-DAYS-solved-Normally-harmless-bacteria-appear-turned-endangered-animals.html

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• Available @ http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/Saiga_tatarica.html

Mallon, D.P. 2008. Saiga tatarica. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T19832A9021682. Retrieved September 25, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T19832A9021682.en . 

• Available @ http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/19832/0

Nicholls, Henry. 12 June 2015. "134,000 Saiga Antelope Dead in Two Weeks. What is the Probable Cause?" The Guardian > Science > Animal Magic. Retrieved September 25, 2015. 

• Available @ http://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2015/jun/12/134000-saiga-antelope-dead-in-two-weeks-what-is-the-probable-cause

Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. Walker’s Mammals of the World. Volume II. Sixth Edition. Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.; and London, England, U.K.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

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• Available @ http://www.edgeofexistence.org/mammals/species_info.php?id=62

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• Available @ http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/saiga_tatarica/

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• Available @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Saiga_Antelope

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• Available @ http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/saiga.htm

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• Available @ http://www.fws.gov/international/animals/saiga-antelope.html

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• Available @ http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/saiga_antelope/

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• Available @ http://wildnet.org/wildlife-programs/saiga-antelope

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• Available @ http://www.arkive.org/saiga-antelope/saiga-tatarica/

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• Available @ http://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/