60,000 antelopes died: Scientists Scramble To Find Answers
It started in May – a rapid, massive loss of life of one of the planet’s most endangered species of antelope.
When geoecologist Steffen Zuther and his colleagues arrived in central Kazakhstan to monitor the calving of one herd of saigas, a critically endangered, steppe-dwelling antelope, veterinarians in the area had already reported dead animals on the ground.
“But since there happened to be die-offs of limited extent during the last years, at first we were not really alarmed,” Zuther, the international coordinator of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, told Live Science.
But within four days, the entire herd — 60,000 saiga — had died. As veterinarians and conservationists tried to stem the die-off, they also got word of similar population crashes in other herds across Kazakhstan. By early June, the mass dying was over. [See Images of the Saiga Mass Die-Off]
60,000 Antelopes Died in 4 Days — And No One Knows Why http://t.co/XxM0l4gUia pic.twitter.com/lYZAIafJ46
— Live Science (@LiveScience) September 2, 2015
But clues to what wiped out half of Kazakhstan’s saiga antelope in just a couple of weeks are now starting to emerge.
Scientists believe the deaths may have been caused by bacteria that normally live harmlessly in the animals’ bodies turning on them.
Professor Richard Kock, a wildlife veterinarian from the Royal Veterinary College in London, was part of the team that went to Kazakhstan to investigate the deaths.
He told Nature: ‘I have worked in veterinary diseases all my career and I have never seen 100 per cent mortality.
‘We had a herd of 60,000 aggregated and they all died. That is extraordinary.’
‘Epidemiologically, you cannot get a directly transmitted disease to kill a whole population in seven days… I’d say it’s a polymicrobial disease.’
For now, there are still thousands of healthy saigas in the world, but they are still an endangered species — thankfully, scientists will continue to investigate the specific cause of saiga deaths. Hopefully, they’ll find the answer soon.
Saiga die-offs have occurred in previous years like in 2014 when 12,000 of the animals perished (pictured) but the scale of the this years mortality has left conservation groups worried about the creatures’ future
This is similar to what occurred back in 1930’s with cows dying up in the Northern part of the U.S. and Canada. When one Dr. examined the dead cows he found they had excessive bleeding thru out their bodies. It was determined that rotten sweet clover was killing off the cows. As a result of this, the first heart drug was made called “Warfarin” by Dr. Link. I would venture a guess that this is similar to what is happening to the antelope.
Sour gas. High concentrations of hydrogen sulfide. Kazakhstan has a lot of natural gas with this contaminant. A lot of pollution if they flare it off (burn it). Too expensive to remove the sulfur. So they separate as much of the hydrogen sulfide and then compress the remaining concentrated contaminated natural gas. This gas is then compressed to about 10,000 psi or more and pumped to abandoned deep gas wells far out on the steppe. There it is injected far underground. Who knows where this sour gas will exit the ground? Source: I worked on the site where the gas was compressed. Side note: Sour gas containing any water at high pressures will erode steel in minutes causing a leak. Location was Aksai, KZ.
Having said this you should not go wandering the steppe without safety equipment or you may be sleeping with the antelope. This sour gas could be one explanation for the antelope die off.
Wow. Thats a lot of dead antelope. Its hard to imagine a mass die off of that scale occuring naturally in conditions resulting from recent weather fluctuations. Bacteria can surely spread fast among herds, but there has to be something else going on here. Based on the locations these animals habitats, they don’t seem to live near large populations of people, so the mystery deepens. This doesn’t happen in healthy ecosystems, but the earth is always in various speeds of change.
Oh no. This is how the Walking Dead came into being.
A natural culling event would not be so swift or dramatic. Populations go through boom and bust cycles, sure, but they usually are predictable and observable over long time scales (50-60 years). also, there is no obvious cause of the die offs like lack of food or outbreak of disease (unless the disease is a new one where the symptoms are very hard to detect). source: Ecology PhD student.