Small and shy by nature and with trunk-like noses, saiga antelopes seem like unlikely survivors of the Pleistocene. Yet they’ve endured long after the mammoths and their other ancient megafaunal contemporaries went extinct. Today, the last stronghold for the species is the vast steppe ecosystem of Kazakhstan, which holds about 99% of the global saiga population.
Saiga and humans have lived alongside each other for thousands of years. Historically, the antelopes have been an important source of food and skins for steppe communities, with no more animals being taken than the population could sustain. But after the breakdown of the Soviet Union in the 1990ies, poachers hunted male saiga for their horns to supply the Traditional Chinese Medicine market. The scale of the relentless hunting, alongside other pressures such as disease and habitat fragmentation from development, drove the saiga close to extinction. The threat of the saiga’s extinction was the reason for the FZS to support its conservation, finally integrated into the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative with partners to aim for the conservation and restoration of Kazakhstan’s grasslands as a whole and thereby saving the species before it was too late.
Within only 10 years, saiga numbers plummeted by more than 95% to 21,000 in 2003; the fastest decline ever recorded for a large mammal species. Equally historic was their recovery when conservation stepped in – today, Kazakhstan is home to more than 3 million of the peculiar antelopes, and their conservation status was lifted from „critically endangered“ to „near threatened“.
Saiga horns, found only on males, are highly valued in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Organised gangs of commercial poachers can take thousands of male saiga every year, potentially resulting in a skewed ratio of remaining male and female saiga and a subsequent decreased reproduction.
Saiga are a holy animal and have traditionally been carefully used as a source of meat for nomadic herders and local communities. During Soviet time, industrial, strictly controlled use was in place. But illegal, uncontrolled hunting can lead to the species’ extinction as observed in the 1990ies.
New roads, railways, border fences and other artificial barriers cut through the migration routes in some parts of the saiga’s habitats, making it harder for them to find the food they need throughout the year.
In unusual climatic conditions of 2015, the outbreak of a bacterial disease caused a mass die-off in the saiga population. Over 200,000 saiga, 60% of the global population, died in one month, tragically illustrating their vulnerability to diseases.
A question of management:
The story of the saiga antelope exemplifies the challenges of global species conservation: uncontrolled poaching, international illegal trade, and an initially fragile recovery. More than twenty years after we began our efforts, the saiga population now numbers over three million animals, more than ever before. With these high numbers some people living in and around the areas where saigas roam have complained that there are now too many saigas, which are destroying the livelihoods of local farmers through conflict with domestic cattle over water points and crop trampling, for example. This raises the question of how the success of species conservation can be ensured in the long term through the peaceful coexistence of saigas and humans. And what could a sustainable use and management of the population look like, since there are currently not high enough numbers of natural predators such as wolves that could control the population naturally?
In the summer of 2025 the Kazakh government decided to allow regulated hunting of saiga antelope in order to minimize these human-wildlife conflicts. Shortly after this, in December 2025, the 20th Conference of the Parties to the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) passed a resolution relevant to Kazakhstan: Previously, Saiga antelopes had been excluded from international trade. In view of the sharp increase in the population, the parties decided to re-legalize the export of saiga antelope horns from Kazakhstan under strict conditions. These include, among other things, that the origin of the horns is completely transparent, traceable, and tightly controlled. In addition, it was decreed that the impact of this decision on the saiga population must be monitored and the use of the revenue generated must be disclosed. The Kazakh government wants to invest this revenue into saiga conservation and projects to develop the regions that share their landscapes with the saigas.
FZS will support the government in strictly implementing the required regulations in order to ensure the sustainability of species conservation success for the future.
Saiga antelopes are a migratory species that easily moves up to 1.000 km annually. For this, they require connected landscapes to move safely between summering and wintering grounds. Understanding their spatial preferences in vast landscapes are is key to supporting saiga recovery effectively. Here is how we did it:
Safeguarding connected landscapes is especially crucial for the survival of migratory species, like the saiga. Based on extensive research on their movement, roughly 24,000 square kilometers of new protected areas and ecological corridors have already been created. Data from aerial surveys and GPS-tagged individuals feeds into the “Central Asian Mammal Migration and Infrastructure Atlas” and the atlas of the “Global Initiative on Ungulate Migration“. These are valuable open-access tools to support advocacy for migrating species across transboundary landscapes.
Through the help of the composer Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner, the saiga antelope has even migrated its way into the concert halls of the world.
Nosiness welcome!
Contact us:
Stephanie Ward
Project leader
ward@zgf.de
Steffen Zuther
Project manager and Research fellow
steffen.zuther@fzs.org