Ice Age antelopes surge back from the brink of extinction

The long-nosed saiga antelope, a rare species that roams the steppes of Kazakhstan, is having a moment. Boasting majestic ridged horns that are prized in Chinese medicine, it was once hunted to the brink of extinction. But conservation efforts have been so successful that saiga numbers have rocketed by 6,900% in just under two decades to reach 2.8m, compared with fewer than 40,000 in 2005. Some 95% of these prehistoric-looking beasts—which were contemporaries of long-extinct species like the woolly mammoth and the sabre-toothed tiger back in the Ice Age—are found in Kazakhstan.

This remarkable recovery achieved global recognition this month when Altyn Dala, a conservation alliance, received the Earthshot Prize, established by Prince William to reward endeavours to fix the planet. Altyn Dala is a collaboration between Kazakh conservationists, international groups (including Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and Kazakhstan’s government.

It was recognised for its efforts to preserve habitat and biodiversity across an area around the size of Turkey within Kazakhstan, the world’s ninth-largest country. This has led to the saiga’s recovery. Among the largest intact grasslands on the planet, Kazakhstan’s steppes are a giant carbon sink that act as a tool in the battle against climate change, offsetting harmful emissions by absorbing carbon and sequestering it underground.

The saiga is a “keystone species” in this habitat and vital to the ecosystem’s survival. With its distinctive bulbous nose that filters dust in the blazing summers and warms the frigid air it inhales in the sub-zero winters, the ungulate is perfectly adapted to survive on the Eurasian steppe. Still, life is precarious: saigas have perished in mass die-offs attributed to bacterial infections triggered by increased heat and humidity levels, and been felled by lightning strikes.

But it was poachers who nearly made the beast extinct, operating in criminal gangs to kill saigas for their horns, prized in China as a supposed treatment for ailments including fevers, colds and liver disease. Confronting the poachers is a dangerous job: saiga hunters have murdered two Kazakh rangers in recent years. Supported by Altyn Dala, the government has toughened penalties for poaching and stepped up enforcement by rangers.

Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which tracks endangered species, reclassified the saiga from “critically endangered” to “near threatened”. But while conservationists celebrate their success, Kazakh farmers are not so pleased. Some now complain that the creature is becoming a pest, prompting the government to allow selective culling of the saiga population.