Ice-age antelopes have surged back from extinction in Kazakhstan. That sounds a little like a “Jurassic Park” story, but it is real and has resulted from a concerted conservation program.
The Long-nosed Saiga antelope was a contemporary of long-extinct species like the Wooly Mammoth and the Sabre-toothed Tiger during the Ice Age. Boasting majestic, ridged, horns (see picture above), it was hunted almost to the brink of extinction, but conservation efforts have been so successful that Saiga numbers have rocketed by 6,900% in just under two decades: In 2005, there were 40,000 Saigas in existence, 95% of which were located in Kazakhstan, today there are 2.8 million.
The conservation program, a global alliance called Altyn Dala, received worldwide recognition in November this year when it was awarded the Earthshot Prize, established by Sir David Attenborough and Prince William to reward endeavours to fix the planet – each recipient receives $1 million.
Altyn Dala was recognized for its efforts to preserve habitat and biodiversity across an area around the size of Turkey within Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth largest country. This has led to the Saiga’s recovery. In addition, the Kazakhstan Steppes are among the largest intact grasslands on the planet, which act as a giant carbon sink in the battle against climate change, offsetting harmful missions by absorbing carbon and sequestering it underground.
The Saiga is a “keystone species” in its habitat and vital to the ecosystem’s survival. It has evolved with a distinctive bulbous nose which filters dust in the blazing hot summers of the Steppe and allows warming of the frigid air it inhales during the sub-zero winters. However, it is vulnerable in many ways; it has perished in large numbers due to bacterial infections triggered by increased heat and humidity levels and has also suffered significant deaths due to lightning strikes on a steppe where they are the highest point for miles of flat, unbroken, grassland. However, poachers are the main enemy. They supply a huge medicinal market in China for the supposed health benefits of their ground-up horns; it is claimed that it is a treatment for fevers, colds and liver disease, among other ailments.
Poaching, and its prevention, is a dangerous business in Kazakhstan as it is in most places. Poachers have killed two Kazak rangers in recent years, and the enormity of the area poses a huge manpower problem. Supported by Altyn Dala, the government has toughened penalties for poaching and stepped-up enforcement by rangers but, if the numbers continue to grow unchecked, it will inevitably bring about increasing conflict between man and animal.
Inevitably, success also comes at a price, locally. Even though the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which tracks endangered species, has now reclassified the Saiga from “critically endangered” to “near threatened”, the increase in their numbers have annoyed farmers who now regard them as a pest. That has prompted the government to allow selective culling in order to ward off farmers taking the situation into their own hands and slaughtering large numbers.
It is good to report a major success story in conservation, particularly of a species with such a long history of survival. It is also a warning that human activity and conservation are not always easily compatible, and a misstep can easily reverse hard-gotten gains. Continuous, calculated, vigilance and monitoring are essential to maintaining a balance between human needs and those of the environment at all levels. It’s in everyone’s, and everything’s, interest to get it right!
There are certainly many other similar stories that needs as much publicity as possible but this one caught my fancy mainly because it involves an animal that has, apparently, survived unchanged for millenia.
