Scientists are mystified by the sudden death of more than 120,000 endangered saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan, as officials announced on May 27, Wednesday. Experts conducting investigations are worried because the species that has been around since the Ice Age may go extinct.
By area, Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world. It is home to around 90 percent of the world's population of the endangered saiga antelope's population. Among the characteristic features of the antelopes are their bulbous nose and lyre-shaped horns.
According to animal experts, the sudden death of around 40 percent of the endangered saiga antelope's population in the Central Asian nation may be caused by a respiratory disease or an infectious disease caused by several bacteria.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, an association of governments and environmental organizations around the world, described the saiga antelope as a "critically endangered" species.
"The death of the saiga antelope is a huge tragedy. Should this happen again next year, they may simply disappear," zoology scientist Bibigul Sarsenova stated, as Reuters quoted him saying.
The United Nations Environment Programme also said the mysterious sudden death of over 120,000 rare saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan is "catastrophic" while United Nation experts said "a combination of biological and environmental factors" caused the mass deaths.
The first dead saiga antelope discovered was found on May 11, when around 300,000 saiga antelopes roamed across the Kazakh steppes. Around 121,000 carcasses had been found by May 27 in three huge areas of the usual habitat of the endangered species, ABC has learned.
International experts have joined the working group set up by Kazakhstan's prime minister Karim Massimov to investigate the mass deaths of the saiga antelopes and supervise disinfection of lands in the regions where the endangered species died.