Saiga antelope  (Saiga tatarica)

All the saiga populations have suffered from habitat degradation, poaching and disturbance. Droughts or severe winters, diseases and predation pressure from wolves can also act as threats of saiga populations, although these are unlikely to be major causes of the decline (10).

Saiga within the former Soviet Union were the subject of concerted conservation programmes (2), so much so that the population reached almost one million individuals (1). Management of the species has now broken down however and illegal poaching is rife (1). Saiga horns are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine as cures for illnesses such as strokes (2). Only the males of the species bear horns and poaching thus produces a population where there are far more females than males. The average life span of saiga is only around three to four years and if females do not mate every year the species can rapidly decline (2).

Another main cause of the saiga's decline is the overgrazing of its pastures, general habitat degradation and construction of roads and canals. Before 1991 numbers of livestock, particularly sheep increased enormously. As a result the quality of the pastures for saiga has deteriorated (7).

International trade in saiga antelope, and derivatives such as horn, is banned by its listing on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (1). Hunting is banned throughout the saiga’s range (9). Further research into saiga reproductive behaviour is needed to assess the impact of hunting and this may be used to produce an effective conservation action plan (7).

In order to conserve this species, protected areas for lambing and rutting should be established where saiga populations are present. Given that poaching for domestic consumption is now a major threat, strengthening of anti-poaching law enforcement is crucial. It is considered to be more important to fund national conservation action than to improve the international trade control (7).