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Update by Natalia
Yakusheva, CMS Secretariat, published in Saiga News
Issue 20 on page 5.
More than seventy participants from governments, international
organizations, NGOs, and academia gathered together to agree on a
concrete set of measures to restore saiga populations in
Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Update by E.J.
Milner-Gulland, Saiga Conservation Alliance, published in Saiga News
Issue 20, on page 6.
The recent meeting of the signatories to the MOU on saiga
conservation (26th-29th October 2015) was the culmination of months
of work by the CMS secretariat and their technical advisors at the
SCA and IUCN Antelope Specialist Group, as well as our hosts in
Uzbekistan.
Update by Steffen Zuther,
ACBK, published in Saiga News
Issue 20, on page 8.
As mentioned in Saiga News 19, in
mid-May 2015 the beginning of a mass die-off was detected in the
biggest calving aggregation of the Betpak-Dala population, in the
south of Kostanay oblast, Kazakhstan. The die-off lasted for almost
a month and affected all the bigger calving aggregations throughout
the range of the population.
Update by Mariya Vorontsova, Office of
the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in Russia,
published in Saiga News
Issue 20, on page 10
We have repeatedly visited this amazing corner of the Astrakhan
region, communicated with the employees of the Sanctuary and
watched their work. We always marvelled at the idyllic views (the
boundless steppe, quietly grazing saigas, flocks of birds) that
opened out in front of us. All this is possible through the efforts
of a small group who protect the Stepnoi Sanctuary, within which
saigas find rest and care at different times of their lives.
Update by Eugenia
Samtanova, Yashkul' Multidisciplinary Gymnasium School in
Republic of Kalmykia in Russia, and Natalya Shivaldova,
"Ekomaktab" Ecological Resource Centre in Uzbekistan. Published in
Saiga News
Issue 20, on page 12.
In the beginning it only united conservation enthusiasts within
Russia. This year the movement has stepped up to the international
level, thereby proving that nature does not recognize borders.
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.