1.5. Common names(s) Saigak, Saiga

2. Biological data 2.1. Distribution (current and historical) Currently there are three populations of the subspecies Saiga tatarica tatarica in Kazakhstan- the Ural, Ust’-Urt and Betpakdala, one of S. t. tatarica in Kalmykia, Russia. Up to early 1960 there was a population of Saiga tatarica also in China. In the Quaternary Period the saiga antelope occupied an area far more extensive than its present range. The animal’s bones have been found in Ice Age deposits scattered from the British Isles to Alaska and the Northwest Territories of Canada, all the way to the New Siberian Islands in the north and the Caucasus region in the south (Sokolov & Zhirnov, 1998). Up through the 17th and 18th centuries A.D., the animal still had a broad range in Europe, reaching as far as the Carpathian foothills in the west and the environs of Kiev in the north (Sokolov & Zhirnov, 1998). By the late 19th century, however, the blitzkrieg of agricultural development nearly wiped it from the face of the continent, leaving but a few sparse flocks on the plains along the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. In the middle of the 19th century, although already gone from the plains west of the Don, the species was still quite plentiful in the Kalmyk steppes. Figure 1. The current range of the saiga antelope, showing the approximate range area of each of the populations, together with country borders and latitude and longitude. 1. Kalmykia, 2. Ural, 3. Ustiurt, 4. Betpak-dala (all Saiga tatarica tatarica), 5- Mongolia (Saiga tatarica mongolica, 5a- Shargyn Gobi population, 5b- Mankhan population) (From Milner-Gulland et al., 2001