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The following media reports were published in Saiga News Issue 20, on page 14.
An ancient saiga skull is found in Yakutia:
In July 2015, the skull of an ancient saiga was found on the banks of the Adycha river, Ulakhan Sullar area, near Batagov, Russia. The skull was Late Pleistocene in origin, indicating that the landscape of Yakutia at that time harboured both steppe animals like antelopes and tundra species like muskoxen and arctic foxes.
Announcement published in Saiga News
Issue 20 on page 28.
Searches can now be made in the Literature, Pictures and Video sections. Visitors can
search literature by author, subject and year and can search
pictures by photographer and subject.
Having once numbered hundreds of
thousands of animals, the pre-Caspian saiga antelope population has
dropped rapidly due to heavy poaching. In 2012 it was at 12,000
individuals, but since then poaching has intensified across the
region. The population is now down to perhaps only 3,000
animals.
A recent study by the SCA (in 2014) estimated
that 34% of households in this region had eaten saiga meat in the
previous 12 months; a rate which is clearly unsustainable. The only
effective protection offered for this population is the Stepnoi
Sanctuary.
The film tells the story of how people lived in harmony with the
saiga antelope for hundreds of years until recently, when
unsustainable use of natural resources and industrial development
on the Ustyurt plateau began to destroy its unique wildlife.
The main focus of the documentary is the establishment of the
Saigachy Reserve, the largest protected area in Uzbekistan, which
helps mitigate the destructive impact of the extractive
industries.
Afterwards the audience took part in a fascinating discussion
around their ideas for possible ways to protect nature, and the
role of saiga as part of Karakalpak cultural heritage.
Update from the international team investigating the saiga mass die off - April 2016
Recently, histopathology has confirmed this diagnosis. Attempts to identify other infectious agents such as viruses, using latest diagnostic methods, including at International Reference Laboratories (Pirbright, UK, and Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany), have failed to find anything significant and confirmed consistent Pasteurella infection in all cases examined. Hence it seems unlikely that an underlying infection predisposed the population to catastrophic haemorraghic septicaemia.