Saiga antelope experience catastrophic mass mortality events and face welfare threats from the largest single-event wildlife die-off ever recorded, driven by emerging infectious disease and climate interactions.
The 2015 saiga mass die-off represents one of the most extraordinary wildlife welfare events ever documented: 200,000 large mammals dying within three weeks from a disease event that appeared without warning. Individual animals experienced rapid deterioration — the die-off was described by observers as simultaneous across large areas, with healthy-appearing animals collapsing and dying within hours. The welfare implications of a species-level catastrophe at this scale are staggering. Surviving saigas in a landscape of massive simultaneous mortality may be affected behaviorally, though evidence for this is limited. The underlying vulnerability — a population reduced by poaching to levels where climate-triggered pathogen events can eliminate the majority of individuals — was created by human hunting pressure. Conservation that restores population size and genetic diversity reduces vulnerability to future catastrophic events, simultaneously protecting individual welfare and population resilience.