Saiga: The Spectre of Absence

Remember this: We ask the same question, over and over, to the same end.

I’ve been keeping my eye on this Saiga mass die-off. By reports, since mid-May, Saiga have been dying off. The current geography dot on our Map of Mysterious Deaths is Kazakhstan.

I was reading an article in Nature Magazine entitled, “Mysterious die-off sparks race to save Saiga antelope”, by Henry Nicholls. I have thoughts on the subject. The article reported a quote per Richard Kock, veterinarian, “of 100% mortality.” These dying herds were 300 kilometers apart. There have been Saiga die-off noted in the past. On one hand, people could dismiss this as another event, or should there be more concern?

By the article, it is suggested the causative agent is not a directly transmitted disease, but possibly a polymicrobial disease.

When you think of the ways an animal can get sick, the likely suspects are there.

Suspect #1 Ingestion

Suspect #2 Inhalation

Suspect #3 Surface or Sexual Contact

Suspect #4 We shall call it “?”

The list goes on….

Polymicrobial diseases are marked, clinically and pathologically of, the presence of more than one species of microorganism. 

Here you might have a condition of the Saiga, either becoming the petri dish of its own death or coming in contact with the murderous suspect.

The questions are, when did the Saiga run afoul of the causative agent that facilitated mass deaths in a population? Why did no one collect data from previous die-offs to compare variables?

Suspect #1: Polymicrobial disease

Suspect #2: Environmental factors

Suspect #3: ALIENS!

Suspect #4: the Government!

Suspect #5 the Cigarette Smoking Man

In the no-so-far-away past, the suspects were rural poverty facilitating hunting and poaching, Chinese markets demand for meat and horns, and war-mongering endeavors.

I began to think the Saiga could become a ghost species. A ghost species is an animal that is believed to have a large population number. In reality the number falls, and every route used to save the species from extirpation is a failure. No matter what, it is going to become extinct. 

Considering the large population number of the Saiga, in a short period of time, that massive number can be rendered down to zero, in record time. If it is an environmental factor, and a selected group of animals are not moved to another location to thrive, one day, all of them could be gone, in one fatal swoop. It makes you wonder when the conditions are going to be right for the mass death of human beings, excluding biological warfare.

I have seen hunters online, flaunting the great number of species that can be hunted, yet given the right condition, something as small an unassuming as a bacteria or virus, can become one of the biggest killers without even loading a gun. I reflect on scientists chirping, “Humans as Super Predator”. Somewhere out there, a germ is laughing in its pants at how ridiculous this idea is. On the back of its little germ car, there are stickers that reads, “Ebola on board”, “Black Plague, We Are Still Here” and “The Grateful Dead”.

The more important perspective or lesson here is realizing large herds of animals can be decimated down to endangered numbers or zero members fairly quickly given the facilitator of destruction.

We take for granted that Saiga will always be there. We take for granted that a lot of things will be there tomorrow, wherever they are. A massive die-off illustrates you are not promised anything. Saiga die-off illustrates the need for a more prudent inspection and monitoring of life on Earth and how human behavior is affecting human and non-human life.

If you have ever studied immunology or microbiology, you come to realize that there are certain conditions that only have to vary a little or a lot, before you can have a mass growth of some bacteria, virus, or germ. This could be in a petri dish. All it takes is the right conditions. 

The worrisome part is the reality of a vast landscape with no boundaries, other than a migrating beast, where something can be incubating inside the body or outside in the ecosystem, and move from place to place, infecting or not infecting as it goes. There are cases of germs, viruses, and bacteria zombifying organisms to do their bidding for survival.

The things you find.

This is probably unrelated but I found one literature source that reported former Soviet biological weapons facilities in Kazakhstan. I wondered if something is perpetuating from these facilities. This information was noted from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Moneterey Institute of International Studies, 1999. It seemed there was mass death of fish and animals in those areas. They were moving people out of these areas. It is what it is. You never know but rule that variable out.

As far as the final reports on the causative agent of Saiga death during this massive die-off, I will wait to see what the scientists uncover.

This illustrates the connectedness of humans to animals. What if you purchased your Elk hunting license, then the first week of hunting, was faced with reports of a massive Elk die-off. Would that freak you out? What if during a Great Migration, animals fell in their tracks along a wildlife corridor, with everyone snapping photographs? Would this make a hunting participant learn not to take a hunted animal for granted, or would you just move on to the next?

Another perspective would be the idea that life is moving forward in time, on a branched timeline. As we watch more animals become extinct, eventually humans will go the same route. How can one not feel their mortality, when we watch species disappear, one after another?

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

~Courtesy of the AOFH~