Here's why 60 percent of the worlds saiga antelopes were wiped out in 2015

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Here’s why 60 percent of the world’s saiga antelopes were wiped out in 2015

By Alessandra Potenza @ale_potenza Jan 17, 2018, 2:00pm EST

In May 2015, researchers in central Kazakhstan witnessed something really strange: thousands of saiga antelopes began acting a bit weird, becoming unbalanced, and then just plopping on the ground within a few hours — dead. Over the course of just three weeks, more than 200,000 saigas died, or about 60 percent of the global population.

“I had never seen anything like it,” says Richard Kock, a wildlife veterinarian and professor at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK. “It was very concerning because it was so unnatural, outside of the realm of my experience.”

The saiga antelopes were later found to be infected with a bacterium that causes blood poisoning and internal bleeding, or hemorrhagic septicemia. Now, a new study shows that unusually wet and hot weather played a key role in causing the outbreak. How exactly that happened, though, remains a bit of a mystery.

Researchers analyzed historical data related to other mass die-offs of saigas from the 1980s, and found that when the outbreaks occurred, it was warmer and more humid than normal, according to a new study published today in Science Advances. That doesn’t bode well for the future of this critically endangered species. A warmer world could make such outbreaks more likely, and if that happens, the saiga antelopes could go extinct.
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A saiga calf. Photo: courtesy of the Joint saiga health monitoring team in Kazakhstan (Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity, Kazakhstan, Biosafety Institute, Gvardeskiy RK, Royal Veterinary College, London, UK)

[shenmue]

1. Terrible

[Ferrets are Cool]

2. Absolutely terrible. nt

[progressoid]

3. "it was warmer and more humid than normal"

The future is now.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. From 2015:

THE SAIGA ANTELOPE: CRITICALLY ENDANGERED TO THE BRINK OF EXTINCTION IN A YEAR

Danny StantonDanny StantonNov 07, 2015

In early May 2015, news outlets reported about a large and mysterious die-off of the Saiga Antelope. Scientists have now discovered that the impact of the die-off was much worse than reported. Originally new outlets reported that an estimated 50,000-60,000 antelope died. This was a huge under estimation because now it is estimated that the population was reduced by over 90% after 211,000 animals perished. The cause of the die-off was a mystery for many months, but scientists now have a hypothesis to explain.
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In May of 2015, more than three quarters of the population was decimated world wide by the outbreak of a mysterious disease. The final estimation was much larger than previously calculated. 211,000 Saiga died during the month of May including 80% of the Betpak-dala population. It is astonishing to note that not every calf was counted so even this number is an underestimation. This has reduced the population to fewer than 50,000 individuals, reversing all of the hard work and effort that conservationists have put in over the past 20 years. Now the Saiga antelope are once more on the brink of extinction, if there are any mass mortality events that occur in the near future.

Scientists have come up with a hypothesis that can explain the mass mortality event. When scientist examined dead animals, they found evidence of internal bleeding. Blood test revealed that the animals had a severe Pasteurella multocida and Clostridium perfringens infections. These bacteria live in the gut of the Saiga and are normally harmless. Scientists believe that the erratic shifts in temperature weakened the animal’s immune system. During the event, the temperature difference between day and night was approximately 25 degrees. The unusually stormy spring weather and the drop in regional temperatures allowed the bacteria to thrive and produce endotoxins.