Humanities greed and destruction has made many creatures extinct, or at serious risk for extinction. While research companies such as Colossal are trying to bring back those that are extinct, some conservation experts are simply trying to save what exists today. Which brings us to the strange, but beautiful looking creature.
This amazing animal once walked with the ice age giants like the wooly mammoths. Their image is painted on cave walls by early man. But sadly, like the mammoths, they too were hunted to near extinction for their hides and horns.
These creatures somehow survived us, and it’s worth telling their story.
The Saiga antelope’s story stretches back over 100,000 years,
when it roamed alongside mammoths, woolly rhinos, and cave lions. Fossil evidence suggests that it was once widespread across Europe and Asia, even reaching Britain and Alaska during glacial periods. Its uniquely structured snout helps filter out dust and regulate air temperature, something that helped it survive in frigid landscapes.
Despite surviving the Pleistocene mass extinctions, the Saiga began to retreat eastward due to climatic shifts and human expansion. Today, it remains in isolated pockets across Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, and Uzbekistan.
Showing its long history beside man, it appears in our Mythology and Folklore record. It has had cultural and spiritual significance across Eurasia, where nomadic peoples revered it as a “messenger between worlds”.
In Turkic and Mongol tribes, the Saiga was considered a “divine messenger of Tengri”, (the sky god). Its horns were believed to carry mystical energy, and were used in rituals and offerings to bring prosperity and good fortune to their people.
In Siberian folklore it was said to be capable of summoning rain during times of drought. Some legends even spoke of Saiga antelope “communicating with spirits”, guiding shamans through the invisible realms.
In Kazakh folklore the Saiga represents rebirth and endurance. Some ancient stories tell of wounded warriors seeing visions of Saiga leading them back home.
The Saiga antelope appeared in prehistoric cave art, suggesting it was a part of early human life. In the Cosquer Cave a near France, it was depicted alongside bison, deer, and horses. This artwork confirms it’s part in the Ice Age ecosystem, and its connection with early hunters.
To save this beautiful creature from going out like the mammoth, it is in protected status. They are cracking down on poachers in the area, the horns are wanted for Chinese medicine, creating an underground trade for the animal. In 2015 a devastating disease wiped out 200,000 of them. It’s at risk from both climate change and habitat destruction. So far, global conservation efforts have gotten the population up to over a million. And currently migration corridors have been safeguarded to ensure the species can roam freely…
As relieved as I am to see that this species is rebounding and protected, all animals are in constant dire threat from us. It’s something that keeps me up at night. We need to change, we need to stop tearing down woodlands and just live within what we have already constructed, if we don’t it’s the beginning of the end for all of us…
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiga_antelope
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