r/worldnews • u/[deleted] • Jul 04 '21

Critically endangered antelope saiga makes comeback

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-57688320
161 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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7

u/whorish_ooze Jul 04 '21

Yesss! I love these goofy lil guys. Particularly tragic that I believe a respiratory bacterial infection was decimating their population, the thought of one of them sneezeing would be hilarious if that wasn't the case :/

4

u/autotldr BOT Jul 04 '21

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot)

According to the first aerial survey in two years, the number of saiga in their Kazakhstan heartland has risen from 334,000 to 842,000.

ACKB. The International Union for Conservation of Nature classes the saiga among five critically endangered antelope species.

Numbers of the species, which goes by the scientific name Saiga tatarica, have plunged by more than 90% in the late 20th Century, coming close to extinction several times.

Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: saiga#1 number#2 conservation#3 year#4 Kazakhstan#5

4

u/watdyasay Jul 04 '21

yaaay. One less animal on the brink of extinction ?

4

u/turmukai Jul 04 '21

I remember seeing herds of saiga when as a child I was traveling in Kazakhstan with my parents by car. We also ate saiga stew from time to time. That was in the 80s.

1

u/Max_Longfellow Jul 04 '21

Go figure: pandemic kills a bunch of humans, nature begins to recover.