Many species worldwide are classified as endangered, for many various reasons, many of which are environmental. This is why scientists worldwide are trying their best to conserve what is left of these species, but sometimes environmental problems happen and cause things to go out of control. This is what happened back in May with this endangered species.This unbelievable incident happened back in May of 2014 when geoecologist Steffen Zuther, who was working with a species of antelopes known as saigas, in Kazakhstan.
What happened left scientists speechless. Upon his arrival, Zuther was told that there have been a number of unexplained deaths between the antelopes, but over the next 4 days, no one was prepared for what happened. In just 4 days, more than 60,000 of the antelopes simply dropped dead. In addition to those, there were several other reported incidents across the country. More than half the country’s herd had died, and today, there is still no definite clue as to how this happened.
This event is catastrophic to the endangered species because there are only a few herds in Kazakhstan, a small herd in Russia and another herd in Mongolia. However, scientists are still working hard to define what caused this sudden disaster. What made it worse was that the incident occurred during calving season. This is what led scientists to believe that the bacteria which caused this was transferred through mothers’ milk. After studying several tissue samples, it appeared that the toxins were produced by Pasteurella and possibly Clostridia bacteria. This caused internal organ bleeding for the antelopes.
There’s still no obvious answer to where this bacteria came from, but the weather conditions helped it spread on a wider scale. Scientists are still working in order to save the animals that are in danger, and we hope they succeed on this noble mission. Share this interesting story with your family and friends!
