From 40,000 to more than four million: the saiga antelope's astonishing return to Kazakhstan's steppe

The saiga — a big-nosed antelope built for the Eurasian steppe — was once counted in millions, then crashed under poaching and disease to critically endangered. Kazakhstan's Altyn Dala conservation initiative has spent two decades reversing that, and the latest count puts saigas at more than four million, up from around 40,000 — one of the great mammal recoveries of this century. The initiative, which brings together Kazakhstan's government, the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan and international partners, tracks herds to protect breeding and feeding grounds across the vast steppe. It won the 2024 Earthshot Prize in the Protect and Restore Nature category, receiving £1 million (about $1.4 million) to extend the work. This week the recovery got an unlikely amplifier: Prince William, discussing conservation on a BBC Earthshot special, singled the saiga out, saying Kazakhstan's government had recognised the animal's importance and 'threw their full weight behind it.' Four million antelope suggest he is right.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program