Paper short abstract

The presentation explores the cause of the recent extreme mortality event impacting the saga antelope of Central Kazakhstan.

Paper long abstract

Since the 1970s a series of extreme mortality events have been reported for saiga antelope, an ancient species of the grasslands of Asia. The most recent caused the death of 88% of the core population in Central Kazakhstan in May of 2015. The proximate disease was haemorrhagic septicaemia but the real question is what underlies or triggers this catastrophic infection and climate comes high-up on the possible co-factors. The talk will discuss the efforts to prove the proposed drivers of these events.