Saiga antelopes have experienced catastrophic population events including die-offs killing hundreds of thousands in weeks. Understanding the welfare dimensions of these conservation crises matters.
The 2015 saiga die-off represents one of the most acute wildlife welfare events in recent history: the deaths of 200,000 animals over three weeks, dying from a rapidly progressing hemorrhagic disease, represents a scale of acute suffering almost without parallel in wild animal welfare. Individual saiga die from a pathogen that causes fever, hemorrhage, and respiratory collapse — a painful process lasting hours to days. The population-level implications compound the individual welfare horror: the loss of such a large proportion of a critically endangered species within days represents both a welfare crisis and a conservation catastrophe. Climate change projections suggest that the temperature and humidity conditions that triggered the bacterial bloom will become more frequent, meaning similar events are likely without intervention in the environmental conditions.