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In 1987, a reintroduction project was initiated in Wuwei Endangered Wildlife Breeding Center of Gansu, in order to recover the population of this species in China. From 1993, the saigas were released into an enclosure of 27ha area. The various vegetation types and topography was similar to the habitat in the wild. It provided the animals with a semi-natural condition. Scientific study of animals in such a condition may be a kind of transition from captive to wild. It can play important role in the conservation of target species.
As the rural economy has disintegrated, the saiga has suffered a dramatic increase in poaching (Bekenov et al., 1998). Thus the investigation reported in this thesis includes ecological, epidemiological and socio-economic aspects, all of which were necessary in order to gain a full picture of the dynamics of the infectious diseases of saigas and livestock in Kazakhstan.
We evaluated the repeatability, practical feasibility and
comparability of three techniques for age estimation of saiga
antelopes; the tooth sectioning technique (TS), the tooth eruption
and wear technique (TEW), and a visual ageing technique routinely
used in field studies. We found that TS and TEW gave repeatable
results, and agreed well. The visual method underestimated the age
of males compared to laboratory methods. It assigned animals
consistently to the age class of at least one year old, but less
consistently to the age class less than one year old.
In fact, the grave environmental and health effects of nuclear weapons testing at Semipalatinsk are now clear. Less well known are the consequences of biological weapons testing on the territory of Kazakhstan. From 1936 to 1992 , Vozrozhdeniye Island, an island in the western part of the Aral Sea whose territory is divided between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was the major proving ground in the Soviet Union for the open-air testing of biological warfare (BW) agents.
We analysed spatio-temporal locations of saiga calving aggregations in Kazakhstan over the last four decades obtained from aerial and ground surveys, to identify the factors determining the selection of calving sites within the species' range as well as any changes in these locations over time. Generalized mixed models were employed in a use - availability framework to assess the factors distinguishing calving from random sites and predict suitable areas for calving.
The Saiga Antelope Saiga tatarica inhabits the semi-arid deserts of Central Asia; it is found in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the Russian Federation and in parts of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The species has been hunted for its horns, meat and hides for several centuries and there are records of historic exports of Saiga horns to China in the 18th century... Saiga horns are also known as ling yang (羚羊) and used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
The Kazakhstan government has provided substantial funding for anti-poaching patrols and aerial surveys, has passed legislation strengthening rangers' powers of arrest, and is considering establishing two protected areas for saigas.
In the Republic of Kalmykia (Russian Federation), the Government and the Department of Natural Resources have been active in strengthening saiga conservation, and the President has issued a decree on emergency measures for saiga conservation.
Two international meetings on the conservation of steppe ungulates were held from 25 - 30 October 2004 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The first was devoted to the conservation and management of the Mongolian gazelle, Procapra gutturosa, and was organized by the World Conservation Society (WCS), in collaboration with the US Agency for International Development, the UNDP/ GEF Project on Biodiversity Conservation and Sustain- able Livelihood Options in the Grasslands of Eastern Mongolia, the WWF Mongolian Program Office and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences.