Saiga antelopes face catastrophic welfare threats from mass mortality disease events and illegal hunting for their horns, threatening both individual wellbeing and species survival.
Saiga antelopes have experienced among the most catastrophic population collapses and welfare crises of any large mammal in recent decades. Mass die-off events cause acute suffering on an enormous scale — hundreds of thousands of animals dying from hemorrhagic disease within days. Poaching for male horns is sex-selective, skewing sex ratios and impairing breeding success. Climate change is implicated in the conditions that trigger disease outbreaks. Conservation responses that combine anti-poaching enforcement, range protection, and climate-informed disease surveillance address both welfare and survival.