Saiga
CR

Saiga

Saiga tatarica

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Photo: Photo: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Overview

The saiga antelope or saiga is a species of antelope which during antiquity inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe, spanning the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in the northwest and Caucasus in the southwest into Mongolia in the northeast and Dzungaria in the southeast. During the Pleistocene, it ranged across the mammoth steppe from the British Isles to Beringia. Today, the dominant subspecies only occurs in Kalmykia and Astrakhan Oblast of Russia and in the Ural Mountains, Ustyurt Plateau and Betpak-Dala regions of Kazakhstan.

A portion of the Ustyurt population migrates south to Uzbekistan and occasionally to Turkmenistan in winter. It is regionally extinct in Romania, Ukraine, Moldova, China and southwestern Mongolia. The Mongolian subspecies occurs only in western Mongolia.

The Saiga faces severe threats from illegal hunting for its horns, which are highly valued in traditional medicine, leading to dramatic population declines. Habitat loss from agricultural expansion and infrastructure development, combined with climate change impacts on grassland ecosystems, further threaten remaining populations. Disease outbreaks have also caused catastrophic mortality events in recent years.

Threat summary

Habitat

Semi-arid grasslands, steppes, and semi-deserts of Central Asia, including open plains and rolling hills with sparse vegetation. The species migrates seasonally between summer and winter ranges across these vast grassland ecosystems.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Saiga classified as Critically Endangered?
Saiga is classified as Critically Endangered — facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild — because population sizes are very small, declining sharply, or restricted to a tiny range. The Saiga faces severe threats from illegal hunting for its horns, which are highly valued in traditional medicine, leading to dramatic population declines. Habitat loss from agricultural expansion and infrastructure development, combined with climate change impacts on grassland ecosystems, further threaten remaining populations. Disease outbreaks have also caused catastrophic mortality events in recent years.
Where does Saiga live?
Saiga occurs in across multiple regions. Country-level distribution data is sourced from the IUCN Red List and cross-referenced with GBIF occurrences.
What are the main threats to Saiga?
The main threats to Saiga are ai-1, ai-2, ai-3, and ai-4. The full IUCN-classified threat record for this species is detailed on the species page.

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