By Stephanie Ward and Zanne Labuschagne (CCSG Members)

In September and October of 2021, satellite collars were fitted on 24 saiga antelope from Kazakhstan’s three known populations in the west, centre and north of the country: the Ustyurt, Betpak Dala, and the Ural. The collaring operation was led by the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK), in partnership with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), using a capture method developed in Kazakhstan. The team also collared saigas from an unidentified population in the west of the country and collected genetic samples from these animals.

The historical range of the Kazakh saiga antelope is twice the size of Germany – a massive 700,000 km2. To protect the critically endangered antelope and its vast Steppe habitat, conservationists need reliable information at their fingertips – for this, tracking data is a crucial tool. Since 2009, 180 saiga antelope have been successfully fitted with satellite transmitters. The tracking data collected has enabled a detailed understanding of the home ranges of the three saiga populations in Kazakhstan and a better understanding of their migration routes and patterns. The saiga location data also helps protected area staff to closely monitor the herds and combat poaching, and to pinpoint possible threats to their seasonal movements.

Bolstered anti-poaching efforts by the Government of Kazakhstan, together with various conservation measures, have allowed saiga antelope numbers to bounce back from the critical low seen after a 2015 die-off. The results of the most recent official aerial survey released this summer, have shown a boom in the population – with an estimated 842,000 saiga now present in Kazakhstan, up from 334,400 in 2019. “Given the right conditions and protection saiga numbers can increase rapidly due to the high prevalence of twins being born year-on-year,” explains Albert Salemgareyev of the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK).

We anticipate that the larger herds will need to move further to find forage and water. Roughly 2.4 million hectares of new protected areas and ecological corridors have already been created, justified by telemetry data from collared saiga. Ongoing data collection will allow us to piece together how saiga move in herds of larger numbers. This in turn will help to better protect these animals and advocate for more land to be managed for their conservation in order to accommodate this new movement.

The team works to fit a satellite collar to an antelope. The capture, sample collection and collar fitting must be completed in under four minutes to limit stress on the animals. © ACBK

The technique used to capture the saiga antelope was developed on the Kazakh Steppe. Once the herds are located, the experienced capture team will divide up, with some getting ahead of the animals and concealing themselves in the grass with the capture net spread between them. They then lie in wait while a professional motorcycle rider herds a single animal forward into the net. The operation is fast-paced and requires careful planning and precision.

Blood samples are gathered from the antelopes while the collars are being fitted. This is part of ongoing work to monitor saiga health in order to further unpack the mystery of the 2015 mass die-off and help predict future outbreaks of the bacterial infection that caused it. The capture, sample collection and collar fitting must be completed in under four minutes to limit stress on the animals. Autumn is the best time for the collaring in order to avoid additional stressors from the temperature extremes of summer and winter.

Over the next few seasons, we hope the data from these tags will help us to get a sense of any new kinds of protection these unique creatures will need.

Saiga satellite tagging was conducted by ACBK together with “Okhotzooprom” State Enterprise and the Committee for Forestry and Wildlife of the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The saiga research activities are part of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative supported by the Frankfurt Zoological Society, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Fauna & Flora International.

 

About the Authors:

Stephanie Ward is the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative International Coordinator at Frankfurt Zoological Society. A linguist and sociologist by training and an environmentalist at heart, Stephanie started her professional life in Siberia working on environmental campaigns for an NGO based in Irkutsk. Since then, she has spent much of her career dedicated to increasing the impact of nature conservation NGOs, particularly in CIS countries. For the last two years she has been coordinating the ambitious multi-partner Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative in Kazakhstan.

Zanne Labuschagne is the Communications Coordinator for the Frankfurt Zoological Society’s Europe projects. She is a trained ecologist and conservationist with a love for the world’s remaining wild places and a passion for their protection. More recently her work has shifted to communications, producing creative content to raise awareness of environmental issues and tell conservation stories.

Questions about this story?

Contact the author: ward@zgf.de

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