680 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Kirghiz Steppe as far as Bokhara, where it is frequently tamed by 

 the Bokharans and kept in the courtyards of the rich. The Kirghiz 

 capture the animals on the steppe by driving them between con- 

 verging lines of turf against some sharpened reeds, on which they 

 are impaled. 



"I never met with this species, except in winter, when it is tolerably 

 common throughout Turkestan, with the exception of the Zarevshan 

 districts and the Kisil-kum steppes, extending as far as the sea of 

 Aral. For the summer it leaves this country for the north." (Severt- 

 zoff, 1876, p. 171.) 



"Not longer ago than the end of last century the saigak was very 

 numerous in West Siberia; and Pallas mentions having seen herds 

 of this antelope on the Irtish below Semipalatinsk, where it is now 

 never met with and has been completely forgotten. It is even rare 

 at the present day in the environs of Lake Balkash, where not long 

 since it was as numerous as the kulan." (Poliakof, 1881, p. 22.) 



In western Siberia the Saiga is said to occur in the basin of the 

 Chulyshman, where it is found along the Kyga River, on Togolok 

 Mountain. It is also reported from Ubagan in the Altai. According 

 to Jablonskij, it is pretty common south of the Altai, in Kazakstan. 

 (Salesski, 1934, p. 375.) Morden (1930, pp. 539-544) says: 



Today . . . they are found only in limited areas in Kazakstan .... The 

 decimation of the once numerous herds is due largely to the fact that the 

 amber-colored horns of the bucks, when ground into powder, constitute a 

 much-prized ingredient in Chinese medicine. A pair of these horns will sell 

 for from $100 to $150 (gold) in the bazaars, so saiga hunting has long been a 

 lucrative business in parts of Middle and Central Asia. . . . 



In Tashkent we were told that saiga had been seen the previous year on 

 the desert steppes of central Kazakstan .... Our starting point was to be 

 Kizil Orda .... 



When we arrived there [north of Kizil Orda] we found that we were on 

 the very edge of their range, and it was with the greatest difficulty that we 

 finally located a band of the animals. 



Goodwin (1935, pp. 14-15) records six specimens from 250 miles 

 north of Kizil Orda, and adds: "They are seldom seen, in the 

 region visited, in herds that number over five or six." Goodwin also 

 writes (in litt., May 18, 1937) : "These animals are rather rigorously 

 protected by the Soviet Government, though there are still a number 

 of so-called Saiga hunters. These men make a livelihood by getting 

 Saiga horns and selling them 'to China at around $250 a pair. The 

 government has done all it can to stop it in a general way. They 

 have made it illegal to ship Saiga horns by mail." 



Nazaroff (1932, pp. 196-197, 208) gives the following account: 



In these reed-beds of the Chu [below Pishpek, Russian Turkestan] . . . the 



saiga . . . seeks refuge . . . from the blinding blizzards of the steppes. . . . 



Now the saiga is on the verge of extinction, as it is mercilessly persecuted 



