Saiga population on the rise
The World Wide Fund for Nature Office in Mongolia and Saiga Conservation Alliance conducted a survey on the saiga population in January and registered 5,074 Saiga tatarica (Mongolian Saiga), an increase of over 1,000 compared with the same period of last year...
The World Wide Fund for Nature Office in Mongolia and Saiga Conservation Alliance conducted a survey on the saiga population in January and registered 5,074 Saiga tatarica (Mongolian Saiga), an increase of over 1,000 compared with the same period of last year.
The population survey was carried out in the internationally recognized line transect method in the saiga’s habitats, Sharga and Khuisiin Gobi, Durgun Steppe, Makhan soum of Khovd Province, Zavkhan soum of Uvs Province, and Durvuljin soum of Zavkhan Province.
Specialist of the World Wide Fund for Nature Office in Mongolia B.Gantulga highlighted that those concerned should not lose their focus as every summer may not be as pleasant as last year’s.
The population of saige has increased this year, but there are still numerous threats facing the endangered animal such as poaching, food shortage, drought, dzud, and contagious diseases. Mongolia registered over 15,000 saigas in 2014, but the most of them died as a result of dzud and contagious diseases in 2017.
Researchers said that it is feasible to reduce the risk of drought, dzud, and contagious diseases by reintroducing the animal in its preferred habitats. Also, the critically endangered species can be saved from extinction through special protection of its breeding and calving areas and reduction of poaching.
The saiga is a critically endangered antelope that originally inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone from the foothills of some areas in the world, including Mongolia.
Saiga is now confined to numbers 5074 in Mongolia, 6,000 in Russia, 500 in Uzbekistan, a few in Turkmenistan, and 334,000 in Kazakhstan. With more than two million in number as recently as in 1970s, the species experienced drastic decline, reaching an all-time low of about 50,000 animals in the early 2000s in range states.