In a rare and remarkable conservation success, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has reclassified the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) from critically endangered to near threatened on its Red List, signifying a substantial global recovery for the species.
Saiga, medium-sized hoofed mammal of the family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla) that lives in herds in treeless steppe country. It is found in southwestern Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia.
Populations of saiga (there are only 5) have crashed over the last decade, with more than 80 percent of the total saiga population lost due to overhunting for meat and poaching of males for their horns, used in Asian folk remedies.
Saiga Antelope: A Conservation Success Story - U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
The Saiga Antelope originally inhabited a vast region of the Eurasian steppe zone. Their range once went from the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains and Caucasus to Dzungaria and Mongolia.
Saigas are one of the most threatened species on the planet. The saiga antelope once roamed across Europe and North America alongside mammoths and sabre-toothed cats. Saigas live in some of the harshest lands in the world, often migrating long distances between summer and winter pastures.
The critically endangered saiga antelope once roamed the steppes of Central Asia in the millions, but the global population has suffered a series of dramatic declines.
The Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is a critically endangered antelope that during antiquity inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe. During the Pleistocene, they also occurred in Beringian North America and the British Isles. It is extirpated from China, Ukraine, and southwestern Mongolia.