Saiga horn is prized in traditional medicine, driving poaching that nearly eliminated the species in the 1990s. Combined enforcement, demand reduction, and monitoring have enabled partial recovery.
Poaching causes direct welfare harm through the suffering of individual animals during capture and killing, and indirect harm through the reproductive disruption caused by skewed sex ratios that prevent population recovery. Male saigas with horns — killed for the traditional medicine market — are essential for reproduction; their disproportionate removal has caused functional reproductive failure in some subpopulations. Anti-poaching operations protect individual animals while preserving population viability. Demand reduction campaigns targeting the drivers of saiga horn consumption represent the sustainable long-term solution. Community engagement with herder communities in saiga range states creates human incentives for protection. The devastating mass mortality events of 2015 and subsequent years demonstrate the vulnerability of saiga populations to stochastic events when populations are small and fragmented.