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~

Hoo-Doo Part 3: The Conspiracy Sacrifice

Remember this: Sometimes it is best to determine that the decoy, is the decoy. Diversions are everywhere.

I have been keeping up with this Cecil, the Lion fallout. One of the most concerning developments is the asking of donations for Conservation after Cecil was found dead using the emotional state of the masses.

His body is not even cold in the ground, so to speak.

I began to turn this in a new way. It was ghastly what I saw, be it true or untrue.

Oh you have to love a conspiracy theory. Just for fun, here is mine.

Cecil, the Lion was 13 years old. What is the average age of a lion hunted for trophy? Males are hunted up to a minimum age to intervene due to infanticide. This is due to males killing the offspring of other males to replace their DNA in a pride. Cecil lived to be 13 years old. He was old for his age and made lots of cubs. He was also involved in a study that may have used hunters as variables to determine the effect trophy hunting and hunters had on given prides of lions or over a certain area in the study. The two went hand in hand, it would seem.

Hunting itself becomes a scientific variable to be considered. It is necessary to the given research that is directed at any animal. If the scientist makes it a part of the study. Hunting could be the facilitator of the research study in question.

A scientist can research the effects of trophy hunting on a given species to determine if trophy hunting indeed is beneficial or derogatory to Conservation.

Add to this, the other variable of watching a human population observing and becoming emotionally attached to a given specimen in a study. This specimen has been elevated over time to representative of that particular species. There are psychological ramifications.

Now, what if you have a known outfitter and hunter, with a reputation to do shady acts. These two are positioned in an area close to this old lion, and this lion is close enough to be lured over to a property. Luring the hunters the whole time, knowing they are going to do something bad. 

It is like a big piece of bait no man can resist. I say remove a bad hunter and outfitter, either way ethically and morally this was wrong. Not to mention a lack of the ability to make a sound decision during a hunt. If it were a set-up, it is like a mouse going after cheese on a mouse trap. Whack, goes the metal when it snaps.

Think about it.

How much damage, in chronological order, could the death of this lion incur? How can damage be swung to generate a benefit?

How easy would it be to spin a story to the media and drive it to an controlled outcome?

This is what I thought just for interest in conspiracy theories:

Retire a 13 year-old, aged lion from a research study using a bumbling hunter and his outfitter. This is one way to remove a bad outfitter and hunter from a landscape.

Subtract out the landowner, who can't control the hunter or the outfitter, once on the property. Eventually, this person will most likely not be prosecuted.

Scientists decide they need to remove Cecil, the Lion from the landscape because he has aged and done his due. Would he have eventually been sold as a trophy hunt like the black rhino? One wonders...

What now, if Cecil's death is a part of the study to observe the law of lion society? Will the scientists let the remaining cubs die? Will they take the cubs to another place?

Are the scientists using this as another variable of death by misadventure at the hands of a hunter? Because of this, are the scientists going to change their parameters for the research study itself?

Does life go on now? Will the general public get updates or will it all fade to black?

In this article, it is stated Cecil, the Lion was seen moving toward a hunting concession. Why did the scientists not warn the hunters in the perimeter to stay away from this lion?

http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/07/30/oxford-cecil-the-lion

If it were me, I would have been getting the word out on my research subjects.

Here you have again, an outpouring of funds from the United States. Where is the African monetary support?

Also in this article, is the admission by the statements about the discovery of people's thought on the death of one lion. I would say this is limited to the events around this one lions death; not the fact that there will be trouble in the lion pride due to the ring leader dying. Think of the ramifications. If this if fueled by emotion generated by the the act in which the lion die, people will not be thinking clearly. It is off-the-cuff reaction.

If someone watched Cecil, the Lion and knew what direction he was moving due to luring, how hard would it be just to 'let him go'?

I wouldn't be surprised later after the death of Cecil was leaked to the media, someone yelled, “Gold Mine.”

I hope something good comes of Cecil, the Lion losing his life. It would be a disgrace if he were sacrificed up in order to get more money.

Given the airlines embargoing trophy imports and exports, the death of Cecil, the Lion puts a dent in the narrative, which shifts from hunting being beneficial to detrimental upon Conservation efforts while undermining scientific research projects.

After Cecil, the Lion dies there is an outrage from the given public. This outrage generates interest in donation via the non-profits asking to help through monetary contributions to fund research and conservation efforts. Well meaning people are now being targeted by different conservation groups and non-profits banking on the windfall of funds brought about by the manipulation of the emotions of people infused to the end of trophy hunting, animal abuse, ethically and morally wrong acts by hunters, and so on. 

Cecil dies tragically, the bad guys go to the jail, the scientist make bank, and trophy hunting finally dies because it might not be of any more use in conservation efforts per studies done by scientists. Some would argue trophy hunting is of no benefit to Conservation.

Of course, none of this could be true. All of it is starting to look shady from my pine branch in the woods as I squirrel around for an acorn.

If you were going to make a tragic hero in a narrative beloved, what is the best way to do him in? Once put under the knife, so to speak, how would you elevate the tragic hero into the hearts of the reader?

Even I am getting tired of seeing dead lions everywhere, online.

Life seems to be one person or group acting just as bad as another.If Cecil, the Lion is loved so much. Why not removed his off-spring, raise them elsewhere, and re-introduce them back into the wild? Give them a fighting chance...just this once for the sake of all those people who paid out the nose to donate to the Conservation of African Lions.

I was aghast at the thought, “Was Asland sacrificed? Again?”

Crickets chime up in wee voices, “Grassy Knoll!”

Written by: WTF, Conspiracy Theorist

Take all you can and give nothing back. ~Cap'n Jack Sparrow~

I am not doing the work for you. Look up this kind of stuff to get what I mean:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v428/n6979/full/nature02395.html