Saiga antelope

The saiga is an antelope of the Eurasian steppe, famous for its large, swollen, drooping nose. The nose works like a filter against dust in summer and warms the icy air in winter. Only males have horns, which are translucent amber in colour. The saiga stands about 70 centimetres tall at the shoulder and weighs about 40 kilograms.

Today saigas live in Kalmykia and Astrakhan in Russia, in Kazakhstan, and in western Mongolia. Some of them migrate south in winter, as far as Uzbekistan. They are plant-eaters that travel in big herds across grassland and semi-desert. The saiga has disappeared from places such as Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and China, and the IUCN lists it as Near Threatened.

Ice Age survivor

Long ago the saiga lived over a huge area. During the Ice Age it roamed the mammoth steppe from the British Isles all the way to Beringia, the land that once joined Siberia and Alaska. Its oldest known fossils date to the late Pleistocene, about 100,000 years ago. Scientists now think it is related to the springbok and the gerenuk, which are antelopes from Africa, and not to the Tibetan antelope, which looks similar.

Two kinds

Two subspecies are recognised: the Russian saiga, which lives in Russia and Kazakhstan, and the Mongolian saiga, found only in Mongolia. The first scientific name, Capra tatarica, was given by Carl Linnaeus in 1766, and the animal was later moved to its own genus, Saiga, of which it is the only living member. Saiga have vanished from Romania, Ukraine, Moldova and China, and from south-western Mongolia, so protecting what is left of the steppe habitat matters a great deal.

On the globe

The globe places the saiga on the steppes of Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. Look for the swollen nose.