ASTANA – Wildlife experts explained how satellite telemetry tracking equipment maps the lives of saiga antelopes in Kazakhstan and how monitoring the movements of these endangered species helps identify the best ways to protect them during an online event organized by Global Rewilding Alliance on May 23.
Alister Scott, executive director of the Global Rewilding Alliance, moderated the event, joined by the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative team: Albert Salemgareev, Alyona Krivosheyeva, and Steffen Zuther, ACBK’s geographic information system and research advisor. Screenshot from online webinar.
The team from the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative took part in the interactive discussion and short-film viewing on the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan’s (ACBK) efforts in restoring the saiga population.
The saiga antelope, distinguished by its large, bulbous nose, is now found in large numbers in the steppes of central and western Kazakhstan. According to the latest data, Kazakhstan’s saiga antelope population has reached a record 4.1 million.
“ACBK was founded in 2004, and during all of this time, it has grown into the largest national biodiversity conservation NGO in Kazakhstan. Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative is one of the biggest initiatives within ACBK with wider national and international partnership,” said Alyona Krivosheyeva, ACBK’s conservation director.
Last year, Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, led by ACBK executive director Vera Voronova, earned the 2024 Earthshot Prize in the Protect and Restore Nature category for unprecedented success in protecting the critically endangered saiga antelope.
“Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, saiga populations dramatically decreased in Kazakhstan and around the world as a result of unregulated poaching and illegal trade of saiga horns, which were valued in several Asian countries for traditional medicine. Within this context, in 2005, the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative was formed to help recover the saiga population,” said Krivosheyeva.
To be able to protect a species, one must first know how that species utilises its environment, so the first steps were gathering data through saiga tagging.
“Our work really started with the data, because this is the baseline for all of the different projects and initiatives around the world. We started to develop this methodology of saiga capturing and telemetry to use this data to influence our next steps and to make a plan of what to do and how to do,” said Krivosheyeva.
Capture method
Albert Salemgareev, ACBK’s leading saiga antelope specialist, is among a handful of researchers who have been attempting to learn more about the species for nearly 20 years. Since 2019 at ACBK, he has been part of a team involved in tagging animals to monitor movement and study ways to conserve the population.
“It was really crucial for us, especially when the saiga population was really low and we needed real data to make some conservation measures to restore the species. The collars we fitted in previous years helped us learn about migration patterns and better protect them. So far, we have attached over 250 transmitters to the saiga, and this process is still ongoing. And since 2019, we have improved our capture methods,” said Salemgareev.
The method of capture used by ACBK does not involve any sedation or anesthesia because antelopes are extremely sensitive, and in Kazakhstan, it is hard to access or legalize suitable drugs. Instead, they adopted a method used in Mongolia.
The method involves chasing an antelope by motorbike for up to four minutes, capturing it with a net, and fitting the collar within another four minutes—all carefully timed to minimize the animal’s stress.
“We have a strict time limit to reduce stress, and if we don’t manage to catch saiga in this four-minute time period, then we just let the saiga go, and they live on very happily, but without a collar. But if we manage to catch them in four minutes, then we have another four minutes with their eyes covered to handle the animal, and then we need to release it. All this time, we also watch the body condition, especially body temperature, and as soon as we see that the animal is too stressed, we let it go even without a collar,” Salemgareev explained.
Data-driven decisions
Salemgareev said that tagging the saiga has helped them make a case for protecting the animal, which was at risk of extinction.
“Cyber telemetry data gave us scientific evidence to support the establishment and expansion of the protected areas in Kazakhstan. For example, in 2014, we established new protected areas, and the cyber telemetry data was one of the crucial data to create this area, which is half a million [hectares]. Later on, we extended existing protected areas to another half million,” he said.
Another key benefit of cyber telemetry data was that it helped identify barriers to saiga migration in the landscape and supported efforts to modify or remove them.
“One of the fresh examples, those telemetry data contributed to the Global Atlas migration corridors, which you can also learn and see on the CMS – Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species website,” said Salemgareev.
Community and saiga coexistence
The rapid growth has raised concerns, particularly among farmers, who have complained about damage to landscapes and crops.
“This is a new issue for us, and we are working, we are establishing different projects to understand the real cause of this issue,” said Krivosheyeva.
Telemetry data can help uncover the true causes and the interplay of factors behind the issue, according to her.
“Using saiga telemetry is very important for us to understand where saigas are and how they move, and whether there are some farmlands, rangelands, haylands or croplands. They’re trying to assess how Saiga can influence each landscape – it can be very different, and the cause of the issue is very different,” said Krivosheyeva.
Naturally functioning ecosystems have robust, healthy animals within them, and everybody would want that, according to her.
“We see this as a coexistence, because we want to have saiga, and everyone in Kazakhstan really wants to have saiga in their lands. This is our legacy, and we feel that it is our commitment to our children and all the generations to save the species. Of course, local people and farmers also matter, and for us as conservationists, we are working to help the government establish the methodology for how to assess the damage caused by saiga,” said Krivosheyeva.
The ACBK will continue observing the population to ensure it remains healthy.
