The mystery caused 85,000 Saiga antelope deaths

Experts are still searching for answers as to why the Saiga antelope died so much.

85,000 individuals of Saiga antelope die mass

Living in the vast but harsh plains of Russia and Kazakhstan, the Saiga antelope is known to be one of the largest, fairly gentle mammals with over 100,000 surviving individuals.

However, in the past few weeks, an estimated 85,000 Saiga antelopes have died and, worst of all, no one knows why Saiga died so much.

Experts said the report of Saiga's deaths appeared about half a month ago. But the strange thing is that since then, the number of lost wildebeest has increased - dramatically increasing - from hundreds to thousands, to tens of thousands.

Preliminary judgment, scientists say, may be Saiga antelope infected with a bacterium called blood paste . This bacterium usually spreads mainly through the gastrointestinal tract, through food, water or respiratory. In addition, bacteria can easily penetrate if the mucosa has wounds.

The Kazakstahn Department of Agriculture said that the number of Saiga antelope lost due to the disease has been recorded but history has never happened in such a short period of time as many individual antelopes die.

Experts still continue to look for the reason why the number of Saiga antelopes has suddenly decreased.

EJ Milner-Gulland - head of the Saiga Conservation Alliance shared with The Guardian: "It seems to be a disaster. I was very scared when I received the news of the number of dead Saiga antelopes. I hope, this number will not increase in the coming days ".

It is known that the number of Saiga individuals has increased again after falling to a low of 21,000 individuals during the peak poaching in 2003. However, the Saiga antelope may have acquired a new disease.

The harsh weather in winter falls below the negative level, and the summer is extremely dry and desolate that can cause the health of this animal to be affected, difficult to avoid the invasion of pulse bacteria. around.