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From near-extinction to a nationwide problem: The story of saiga antelope in Kazakhstan [1]

['Nurbek Bekmurzaev']

Date: 2025-07-19

On July 3, the Kazakhstani authorities launched a campaign to regulate the population of the Saiga antelope, also known locally as saigak, whose number reached 3.9 million in 2025. The plan is to shoot around 20 percent of the country's saigak population, around 800,000, until the end of November 2025, and process their meat, horns, and fur. The Ministry of Ecology justified this decision by stating:

Fields are being destroyed [by saiga herds], livestock are losing pastures, and the dangerously growing saiga population could paralyze agricultural activity.

In the first week of the campaign, the authorities shot down more than 550 saigaks.

Here is a YouTube video about the start of the campaign.

Thus, what was unthinkable two decades ago, when saigaks almost went extinct due to poaching, became a reality. Kazakhstan’s preservation efforts allowed the saigaks to thrive in the steppe, beating the historic record of 1.2 million species recorded in 1974 three times over. After saving saigaks from near-extinction, the country is now grappling with the unexpected challenges of its most successful preservation effort, known as the “Kazakh miracle.”

“A symbol of the Kazakh steppe“

Saigaks are a true symbol of the Kazakh steppe, having inhabited this space for thousands of years. They have been roaming the territory of modern-day Kazakhstan and across the whole Eurasian continent since the Stone Age.

This means that saigaks survived the last Ice Age and did not perish like other animals, such as mammoths, woolly rhinos, and aurochs.

Over time, saigaks went extinct in most places, except for a handful of countries, including Kazakhstan, where 90 percent of the current saiga population is concentrated. Currently, there are three population types of saigaks in Kazakhstan: Ural, Ustyurt, and Bekpak-Dala.

More than half of all saigaks, or 2.3 million, inhabit the Western Kazakhstan province, where the authorities started their “population control” campaign, due to the intensifying conflict between local farmers and saigak populations.

Although Kazakh people have historically hunted saigaks, it was considered a sacred animal in the local culture. It was believed that whoever killed saigaks without a good reason would meet a cruel punishment, which would also extend to that person's family.

The respect for saigaks as the national symbol is still present in Kazakhstan, evidenced by its presence on the local currency bill and the designation as “the symbol of the Kazakh steppe” by President Kassym-Jomart Toqayev.

Poaching to the brink of extinction

It is difficult to mistake saigaks for another animal due to its unique appearance. They are mid-sized antelopes with thin legs that help them run as fast as 80 kilometers per hour.

Their most distinct feature is their unique nose in the form of a soft and movable proboscis, which makes them look like alien creatures at first sight. Their nose helps them filter dust in the steppe and warm up cold air in freezing winters.

Here is a YouTube video about saigas.

The males are adorned with the lyre-share translucent horns, the demand for which drove saigas near extinction and continues to pose the biggest threat.

The existing historical records suggest that saigaks almost went extinct on two occasions in Kazakhstan. At the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th centuries, the saiga were deliberately exterminated, especially when people began to have firearms en masse.

Their horns were traded with China, where they were used in traditional medicine. Epidemics compounded the crisis, and the saigak population dropped to about 20,000 by the early 20th century.

The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia saved saigaks from extinction. By the start of the Russian Civil War in 1917, Kazakhstan had long been part of the Russian Empire, having been annexed to it in the previous century.

In 1919, the leader of the revolution, Vladimir Lenin, signed a decree limiting hunting seasons, which helped the saigak population recover, since it was banned to hunt them. As a result, from 1919 to 1953, it grew past a million.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union and Kazakhstan’s independence in 1991, poaching exploded. Between 1991 and 2006, the saigak population decreased by 94–97 percent, with only 21,000 by 2003. The males were killed by poachers, who smuggled their horns to China, where it is believed to cure fever, convulsions, strokes, and liver and stomach diseases.

Kazakhstan threw all its efforts at restoring the saigak population by creating protected areas. In 2005, the government launched the Altyn Dala project and created natural reserves where saigaks were protected from poachers. Later, it banned the use of the saigak products, including all parts and derivatives, at the legislative level.

In 2019, following an incident when poachers killed a ranger, the authorities introduced harsher punishment for poaching: imprisonment up to 12 years and confiscation of property.

After 20 years of preservation efforts, in 2023, the saigak number grew from 21,000 to 1.9 million, drawing international praise.

Here is a YouTube video about Kazakhstan saving the saiga antelope.

Commenting on this success, Andrey Kim, a representative of the Ministry of Ecology of Kazakhstan, noted:

The whole world is watching us. Many international scientists call the rescue of the saiga in our steppes a ‘Kazakh miracle.’

In 2024, the Altyn Dala project received a prestigious Earthshot Prize and GBP 1 million to continue its preservation work.

Who took whose land?

In less than two years, Kazakhstan went from celebrating its unprecedented preservation success to shooting down saigaks en masse. The main reason why the government has launched the campaign to decrease the saigak population is the constant complaints by farmers.

Complaints against saigaks boil down to their competition with livestock for water and pastureland, and the damage to hayfields and crops of forage grasses caused by the seasonal migration and lambing. Those who demand that authorities take measures range from fierce haters who want all saigaks gone to mild critics who are willing to put up with the saiga as long as their damages are compensated.

Here is a YouTube video with farmers’ complaints against saigaks.

What they all fail to acknowledge is that it is humans who have taken over the land historically inhabited by saigaks. In the Western Kazakhstan region, where this conflict is the most acute, the total area of the land leased to herders grew exponentially over the last two decades, encroaching on the saiga habitat.

For example, in 2000, the land leased by farmers was 22,939 hectares. In 2023, the farm holdings were staggering 557,667 hectares.

Additionally, the farmers refuse to acknowledge that the shortage of water and pastures is caused by climate change and other anthropogenic factors, and not by the saiga, which may exacerbate the crisis, but are not its primary drivers.

Ultimately, in their state of rage and desperation, farmers and herders forget that saigaks prevent the steppe from turning into a desert by carefully loosening the soil with their hooves and facilitating the flow of moisture. They participate in the cross-pollination of steppe plants. Unlike goats, saigaks don’t uproot grass and eat only the upper part. As a bonus, they eat more than 60 species of plants that are inedible or even poisonous to livestock.

Kazakhstan can make millions of dollars from processing saigak meat and horns. Sustainable use of animal resources is a widespread practice worldwide, whereby a certain number of species are hunted every year, and the revenue from it goes to preservation and local communities.

If done right, in addition to the exemplary preservation effort, Kazakhstan can birth another success story in the field of sustainable management of wildlife and keep its national symbol alive and thriving for future generations.

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[1] Url: https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/19/from-near-extinction-to-a-nationwide-problem-the-story-of-saiga-antelope-in-kazakhstan/

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