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The film tells the story of how people lived in harmony with the
saiga antelope for hundreds of years until recently, when
unsustainable use of natural resources and industrial development
on the Ustyurt plateau began to destroy its unique wildlife.
The main focus of the documentary is the establishment of the
Saigachy Reserve, the largest protected area in Uzbekistan, which
helps mitigate the destructive impact of the extractive
industries.
Afterwards the audience took part in a fascinating discussion
around their ideas for possible ways to protect nature, and the
role of saiga as part of Karakalpak cultural heritage.
Update from the international team investigating the saiga mass die off - April 2016
Recently, histopathology has confirmed this diagnosis. Attempts to identify other infectious agents such as viruses, using latest diagnostic methods, including at International Reference Laboratories (Pirbright, UK, and Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Germany), have failed to find anything significant and confirmed consistent Pasteurella infection in all cases examined. Hence it seems unlikely that an underlying infection predisposed the population to catastrophic haemorraghic septicaemia.
Call for Applications
The Saiga Conservation Alliance (SCA) recognises that it is
imperative to support the next generation of conservationists, and
so with their Young Conservation Leaders award they will be able to
support five aspiring conservationists (individuals or groups) with
grants of $1000 each, (given in two payments of $500, with the
second one conditional on good progress).
The awards will support a 12 month project which links to the
ongoing work of the SCA in the winner's country and they are
requesting applications from conservationists between the ages of
12 and 30 who live in China, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia or
Uzbekistan.
First blog from the field!
Hello, I'm on the train… converging on Heathrow today you might
see handful of people lugging microscopes, test tubes and camping
paraphernalia - on their way to join an ACBK-led expedition to last
year's saiga die-off sites.
There, we hope to learn more about what caused the dramatic
events of May 2015. Above all, we hope to see surviving saigas, we
hope to see calves being born, and we hope not to see unusual
levels of sickness or death. Beyond that, the data and samples we
aim to gather will give a more complete picture of the local
vegetation and other features at the sites during calving, which
was impossible to survey fully last year, as well as the…
Here is a lovely short clip of another
AMAZING mural by Rory
McCann.
This time Rory went to Kalmykia and inspired the next
generation of young conservationists there!
Thanks go to Wildlife
Conservation Network, WWF Russia and the Saiga Conservation Alliance
for making this possible.