Three males of the Red Data Book saigas raised in the nursery were released into their natural habitat in the specially protected natural area of the Stepnoy State Wildlife Refuge in the Limansky region of the area.
Until 2014, the number of saigas in the world has been steadily decreasing: the population in the North-Western Caspian region has decreased 50 times over 20 years - from 250 thousand to 4.5 thousand individuals. The main factor that led to the catastrophic decline in saiga numbers was selective poaching of males.
“The released animals are 3 years old. The rut (mating period) takes place in saigas in December, earlier we released them by this time. However, according to our observations, released in winter, they often died, since the rutting period for them is a very difficult time, they tire themselves out, eat little and they have no chance of escaping from predators. For the first time in the Astrakhan Region, this event happened in the summer,” said Vyacheslav Rozhnov, Chief Researcher at the AN Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at the saiga release event.
State nature reserve "Stepnoy" with an area of 109.4 thousand hectares is a specially protected natural area of regional significance. Every year since 2014, the release of male saigas, raised in semi-free conditions in the Saigak nursery, has been taking place regularly.
Saigak is one of the few mammalian representatives of the so-called mammoth fauna that have survived to this day (along with musk ox and reindeer).
Currently, there are more than 7 thousand individuals, more than half of them living in the Astrakhan region.
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