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~

The Responsibility of Knowledge and Being a Proactive Person Who Hunts.

Remember this: Think safety first. No wild game animal is worth death. Besides,  who is going to take care of your family?

When hunting participants go afield, they are resolute on the job at hand to procure meat and being happy at the prospect of getting out in nature, bonding with others, or finding private time for thoughts and actions.

Taking care of the necessary safety precautions that go along with an outdoor sport, especially one that involves a tool such as a gun, there are unforeseen and imminent dangers that can’t really be planned for. These imminent dangers could be in the minuteness of mucus or body wastes excreted from wildlife upon handling. This will be the focus of the following conversation.  As a thoughtful and discerning huntress, I thought to give an inspection of facts or thoughts on how contamination of disease through wild game contact could affect the hunting participants, personally and the sport itself. I do not want to carry a Hazmat suite around with me where ever I go.

Disease transference should always be figured into the safety precautions of the hunting participant. Disease contamination by wild game can take a period of germination before symptoms are immediate. Death is not reversible and disease can disable you the rest of your life.

A main opportunity for harm to befall a hunting participant is the moment when the hunting participant comes in contact with the environment and the wild animals that occupy that space.

When hiking the terrain to find the honey spot, where would-be game browse, there is always the opportunity to look around while noting potential sources of disease, such as dead animal carcasses that seem otherwise not out the ordinary.  At no point, should you handle a dead carcass. These findings can be reported to the local Department of Natural Resources if you reside in the United States. These agencies should have special training for handing potential biological hazards.  With respect for foreign countries, look for local agencies that are available.

Ecosystems persist through a form of self-regulation but the activities of modern man, such as agriculture, urbanization, and product resource extraction with limited replacement, have a varying degree of impact depending on location and excess. Unstable ecosystems in flux may at times generate a pathogen in mass, given the conditions are right, that can break out in a wild game population or jump from one infected animal to a completely different species based on mutation and opportunity.

What does a hunting participant do when they are presented with a potential life threatening hazard that could be translated to a public domain?

The discerning huntress/hunter should always keep this in mind in the event of possible exposure:

·         Do not touch dead animals, approach aggressive animals, or near death animals.

·         Keep current on scientific data based around the specific game you hunt but always know a little about all kinds of wild game.

·         Know the early signs of wildlife zoonotic infections that are dangers to the huntress/hunter.

·         Learn practical advice by contacting your State Wildlife Agencies for current literature or speak to a wildlife biologist that is employed for this specific purpose.

·         Learn different techniques in handling wounded, dead or compromised wild game to reduce exposure. Wear goggles, gloves, or mask. You never know what it might be because that is the stealth of disease. Disease can be almost invisible it is so small or unassuming.

·         Know which domesticated animals can cross contaminate wild game or vice versa.

·         Do not be afraid to reach out to Wildlife biologists. Veterinarians are great but limit their knowledge over time with the practice they participate in unless you specifically utilize a Wildlife Veterinarian.

·         Compare notes with other hunting participants.

The causes of these compromising positions of hunting participant contact with potentially infected through wild game are:

·         Climate Change

·         Human population explosions

·         Global Human Travel

·         Wildlife Trade (legal and illegal)

·         Changes in land-use patterns

·         Deforestation where previous isolated wild game are now exposed.

·         Hunting Tourism

What should you do if you or our fellow hunting participants should be potentially exposed:

·         Always keep the body or find the animal before it wanders off. Having the reservoir of disease is the best evidence against pin pointing what disease is actually present.

·         Wash your hands; cover your mouth, nose, wounds and eyes, which are potential portals of infection. Change your clothes and wash them or trash bag them. The clothes might need to be burned if no longer useful to you or a doctor.

·         Immediately go to a hospital or present yourself to a health care provider if physical damage has been done to your person or if symptoms suddenly appear. Even if you feel like you are bothering someone----do yourself a favor and irritate them until you are seen. It might save your life or someone else’s. Be safe not dead and stupid. Always keep in mind that not everyone sees the gravity of a situation until several more people are infected or exposed.

·         Get proper treatment and follow that treatment. If there is a side effect of prescribed treatment refer back to your attending physician.

Potential diseases hunting participants contact, on terrain when either field dressing or interacting in close quarters with wild game or animals, should be explored:

•  Rabies: Any animal that acts sick, at times aggressive but can look listless and ‘dumb’.
• Tularemia: Cottontail rabbits, black-tailed rabbits, snowshoe hares, beaver, and muskrat.
• Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome-dead animal bodies, deer mice, rodents.
• Psittacosis: Waterfowl, herons, and pigeons which are the most affected but not limited to other species of avian. Can also be upland game birds, shorebirds, gulls, terns, and songbirds.
• Good Ole Plague: fleas from rodents
• Baylisascaris: Raccoon parasite; Potential source is sitting at the base of a tree while turkey hunting where the raccoon would pass his feces.
• Encephalitits; deer, birds, rodents and variety of mosquitos.
• Alveolar Echinococcosis caused by tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis. Hosts: Red Fox, Arctic Fox, coyotes.
• West Nile for anyone going into a mosquito ridden country as a tourist hunter. If you are a huntress/hunter/ trapper should wear gloves when handling or cleaning animals. Cook meat thoroughly.
• Tick-borne disease;  Rickettsia ricketsii, Babesia, Lyme disease, Erhlichia chaffeensis (white tail deer), Borrelia burgdorferi, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
• Pseudomonas; any animal where mucus secretions exist.
• Salmonella-waterfowl
• Escherichia coli
• enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli-ruinants
• Trichinella

After reviewing these points in brief, we soon discover there is more to be conscious of when going afield. Once again as a public servant, the hunting participant acts as a potential first contact to a landscape, and observations that could potentially waylay an outbreak of disease to animals or humans. While afield, one must keep their wits about them. Do not take what is perceived as harmless death via Mother Nature and move it  to one of potential threat to wildlife and human populations. As humans, we get too comfortable in our own mortality. Neither do we want to live in fear. Being a proactive sportsman, a public servant, and being responsible by self-educating ourselves as adults that hunt with current literature, seminars, and contacting agencies, will help avoid unassuming moments of relative ease that can turn into nights in a hospital bed fighting for your life. 

*cough, you know who you are*

As a huntress that loves to prudently hunt, I feel being a public servant to remind other hunting participants of potential threats, is one of the best day’s business I could do for free.

Written by:  W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~