--- title: Endangered Species: Scientists Can't Explain Saiga Antelope Deaths description: More than 120,000 of the endangered saiga antelope have died of a mystery illness in recent weeks in Kazakhstan. canonical: https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-31T18:16:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:11.828Z article:section: Science og:title: Half of an Endangered Antelope Population Has Died Within Weeks og:description: More than 120,000 of the saiga antelope have died in Kazakhstan og:url: https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad0cbdf3e950ade9/6988525ae20a87400da8b9c4/saiga.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5467 og:image:height: 3075 og:image:alt: Saiga og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Half of an Endangered Antelope Population Has Died Within Weeks twitter:description: More than 120,000 of the saiga antelope have died in Kazakhstan twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad0cbdf3e950ade9/6988525ae20a87400da8b9c4/saiga.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Half of an Endangered Antelope Population Has Died Within Weeks > Sponsored content. 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But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to "DE-extinction is forever."_  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 31, 2015 6:16 PM UTC  HANDOUT - Eine liegende Saiga-Antilope ist auf einem undatierten Handout zu sehen. Eine Viruserkrankung hat in wenigen Tagen rund 20 000 der vom Aussterben bedrohten Antilopen in Kasachstan getötet. Photo by: Rotislav Stach/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images HANDOUT - Eine liegende Saiga-Antilope ist auf einem undatierten Handout zu sehen. Eine Viruserkrankung hat in wenigen Tagen rund 20 000 der vom Aussterben bedrohten Antilopen in Kasachstan getötet. Photo by: Rotislav Stach/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images Rotislav Stach—picture-alliance/AP  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent May 31, 2015 6:16 PM UTC More than 120,000 of the endangered saiga antelope have died in recent weeks due to illness, conservation and wildlife officials say, a [mystifying loss](http://www.cms.int/en/news/catastrophic-collapse-saiga-antelopes-central-asia) that represents more than a third of its global population. “This loss is a huge blow for saiga conservation in Kazakhstan and in the world,” Kazakhstan’s vice agriculture minister Erlan Nysynbaev said in a statement released by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, a treaty under the U.N. Environment Programme. “It is very painful to witness this mass mortality.” Scientists have identified a number of biological and environmental factors that have likely contributed to the deaths but the exact cause remains unclear. Two bacteria pathogens, Pasteurella and Clostridia, have been found in the carcasses but neither were considered the lethal cause unless the immune system was already weak. Adding to scientists’s confusion and frustration, the mystery ailment leaves no survivors when it hits a herd. “The scale is absolutely unprecedented,” Dr. Aline Kuehl-Stenzel, a coordinator of the Convention, [told](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/science/saiga-antelope-mystery-disease-die-off.html?ref=science) the New York _Times_. More than 90% of the world’s saiga population lives in Kazakhstan, where officials have worked to support the species’ population growth and anti-poaching measures. Researchers estimated that 250,000 of the species, which has experienced mass die-offs in the past, lived worldwide earlier this year and was spread out over five Asian nations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/"},"headline":"Half of an Endangered Antelope Population Has Died Within Weeks","datePublished":"2015-05-31T18:16:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:11.828Z","description":"More than 120,000 of the saiga antelope have died in Kazakhstan","url":"https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/","keywords":["animals","Kazakhstan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad0cbdf3e950ade9/6988525ae20a87400da8b9c4/saiga.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad0cbdf3e950ade9/6988525ae20a87400da8b9c4/saiga.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Saiga","caption":"Saiga","creditText":"Rotislav Stach—picture-alliance/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/","name":"Half of an Endangered Antelope Population Has Died Within Weeks"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Waking the Dead: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life","description":"Conservationists and scientists have a saying, \"extinction is forever.\" But soon biologists will clone long-gone animals in the hope to redefine that axiom to \"DE-extinction is forever.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/7mURxfr4/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-12T14:27:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/7mURxfr4.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/","duration":"PT4M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3902643/saiga-antelope-dying-science/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```