Saiga antelope populations devastated by post-Soviet poaching and 2015 mass mortality are showing early recovery signs, offering lessons in wildlife welfare and conservation.
Saiga welfare encompasses both the catastrophic acute welfare harm of the 2015 mass mortality event and chronic stressors from poaching, migration barriers, and habitat loss. Mass mortality events involving respiratory hemorrhage and rapid systemic failure represent severe acute suffering for hundreds of thousands of individuals. Recovery requires addressing both the direct threats of poaching and the environmental conditions that may have precipitated and will likely worsen future disease events under climate change. The partial recovery since 2015 demonstrates the resilience possible when protection is effective.