Saiga's are a relic of the last ice age, and roamed Central Asia alongside mammoths and sabre tooth tigers. Now, these antelopes are critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a 95% decline in its population size since 1995, caused by uncontrolled poaching in the aftermath of the break-up of the Soviet Union. It has only five populations, which are found in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia
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In June 2010. Nearly 12,000 Critically Endangered Saiga antelopes have been found dead in the Ural population in western Kazakhstan, Exactly one year later, people found 450 new dead bodies followed by another 1000 deaths .Although the deaths are currently being ascribed to the bacteria pasteurellosis, the underlying trigger remains to be identified. Pasteurellosis is caused by a bacterium that lives naturally in healthy individuals, but can cause acute illness and rapid death if the animal's immune system is compromised, either by another infection, poisoning, stress or malnutrition. Some ecologist points the cause of the death may be due to the chemicals from launches at the Baikonur space-launch site in central Kazakhstan