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60,000 Antelopes Died in 4 Days—No One Knows Why

posted by LaminatorX on Thursday September 03 2015, @09:22PM   
from the terrifying-silence dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

When geoecologist Steffen Zuther and his colleagues arrived in central Kazakhstan to monitor the calving of one herd of saigas, a critically endangered, steppe-dwelling antelope, veterinarians in the area had already reported dead animals on the ground.

"But since there happened to be die-offs of limited extent during the last years, at first we were not really alarmed," Zuther, the international coordinator of the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, told Live Science.

But within four days, the entire herd — 60,000 saiga — had died. As veterinarians and conservationists tried to stem the die-off, they also got word of similar population crashes in other herds across Kazakhstan. By early June, the mass dying was over.

Are mass-die-offs like these indications of stress in the larger ecosystem?

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Original Submission

• Re:cyanogenic glycosides, most likely. Re:cyanogenic glycosides, most likely. (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @04:06AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @04:06AM (#232120)

  You could try reading the article, which has this to say:

  Tissue samples revealed that toxins, produced by Pasteurella and possibly Clostridia bacteria, caused extensive bleeding in most of the animals' organs.

  and

  A similar mass die-off of 400,000 saigas occurred in 1988, and veterinarians reported similar symptoms. But because that die-off occurred during Soviet times, researchers simply listed Pasteurellosis, the disease caused by Pasteurella, as the cause and performed no other investigation, Zuther added.

  Or, you could Google around and find other articles [eurasianet.org] that would tell you this:

  “The cause of death of the saigas is hemorrhagic septicemia,” Steffen Zuther, a German researcher and the international coordinator of the Astana-based Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, told the TV channel.

  Hemorrhagic septicemia — which scientists believe was rapidly spread across the steppe by ticks in May — is a form of pasteurellosis, a disease that killed nearly 12,000 saigas in a 2010 epidemic.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	0		points
  Moderation		+2
  Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Total Score:		2

• Re:cyanogenic glycosides, most likely. (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @03:33PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @03:33PM (#232288)

  “The cause of death of the saigas is hemorrhagic septicemia,” Steffen Zuther, a German researcher and the international coordinator of the Astana-based Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, told the TV channel.

          Hemorrhagic septicemia — which scientists believe was rapidly spread across the steppe by ticks in May — is a form of pasteurellosis, a disease that killed nearly 12,000 saigas in a 2010 epidemic.

  Mad Antelope Disease

  I told you those mothers against drunk antelopes would become a problem...

  Parent