WCS Tracks Asia’s Odd-Ball Antelope

Saiga antelope fitted with GPS collar ©WCS/J.Berger

Scientists determined to save Mongolia’s gravely threatened saiga antelope have fitted eight of the unusual ungulates with high-tech GPS (Global Positioning System) collars. The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) led the tracking efforts in the windswept Gobi Desert, in partnership with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences and with support from the National Geographic Society.

The little antelope with the giant nose—a proboscis similar to a tapir’s snout—stands just under two feet at the shoulder and weighs about 50 pounds. The function of its unusual nose is not clear, but it may warm or filter air during Mongolia’s frigid winters and notorious dust storms.
 
Today saiga numbers have plummeted by 95 percent from an estimated one million animals just 15 years ago. The main causes for their extermination have been poaching for Chinese medicines and competition with livestock. WCS hopes to glean a better understanding of saiga needs from the collaring study, in order to safeguard remaining populations.
 
“The GPS collars will provide information on movements of saigas across this dazzling but arid landscape so that a more comprehensive conservation strategy can be developed,” says WCS research scientist Kim Berger, a co-director of the study.
 
Saigas still inhabit pockets of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kalmykia, and Kazakhstan, but the subspecies found in Mongolia is unique and fewer than 2,000 of them remain. Ten thousand years ago, the saigas’ range was immense—they roamed from the northern Yukon and Alaska to England. As climate and vegetation shifted, however, the species disappeared from North America and Britain. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire, unregulated hunting resulted in the recent startling decline in saiga numbers.
 
“Although Mongolia faces stiff conservation challenges as it transitions to a free-market economy, the saiga can easily emerge as a success story with a little scientific input and support for local communities,” offers Joel Berger, project co-director and senior scientist with WCS.
 
Lhagva Lkhagvasuren, of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences, urges that immediate action be taken to protect habitat and stop poaching for saiga horns. It is equally important to improve conditions for the park rangers dedicated to conserving this unique species. “Otherwise,” says Lkhagyasuren, “we will have only an empty steppe and deserts with no saiga. Future generations will never forgive us for our carelessness.”

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