Sid
Privet!
Welcome to my blog. My name is 'Saiga (i) of a diminishing number' or otherwise known as Sid. I'm really excited about sharing my journey with you! But first let me tell you a little bit about myself. I have lived with Prof. E.J. Milner-Gulland and her family and of course Stan for the last couple of years. E.J. has been so kind and shared with me a wealth of knowledge about my fellow saiga back in the motherland. I was horrified to find out about the 'critically endangered' status of my species and feel it is my duty to return home and help repopulate the herds.
E.J. has told me that hundreds of thousands of us used to roam throughout the Eurasian Steppe and now we have only 5 isolated populations remaining. Three of these populations live in Kazakhstan; the Ural population (c.14,000), the Betpak-dala (c.100,000) and the Uisturt which also migrate into Uzbekistan. The other two populations are living in Kalmykia, Russia and Mongolia. Since the 1980's and the collapse of the Soviet Union(1994) we have suffered a dramatic 95% reduction of our numbers (Milner-Gulland et al 2001).
We face many challenges in these hard times none greater than the poachers who like us for our meat and particularly us males for our valuable horns. With so many males being hunted there just aren't enough of us to go round! As a result there has been a sharp decline in the number of calves born. To make matters worse our habitat is changing beyond all recognition! We used to be able to roam freely, migrating hundreds of miles, but now cities, fences, oil pipe lines and roads stand in our way.
I've come to Kazakhstan to help the Ural population as last year there was a tragic loss of 12,000 saiga lives, mainly mothers and their new born calves. The local human population in Ural were very worried by this and so the ACBK (Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan) and SCA(Saiga Conservation Alliance) joined forces to explain our plight to the local people and to engage their help in monitoring our situation.
Stan suggested I hook up with Hen and Carlyn who were already in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, to guide them on their journey! I hope you'll stay with me on my journey and enjoy all the excitement to come.
I wish to thank the sponsors of this project, 'Save Or Species' and 'The People's Trust for Endangered Species' for making this adventure possible.
