60,000 Antelopes Died in 4 Days — And No One Knows Why
~!!~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//
~!!~Now, the researchers have found clues as to how more than half of the country*s herd, counted at 257,000 as of 2014, died so rapidly// Bacteria clearly played a role in the saigas* demise// But exactly how these normally harmless microbes could take such a toll is still a mystery, Zuther said//
~!!~**The extent of this die~off, and the speed it had, by spreading throughout the whole calving herd and killing all the animals, this has not been observed for any other species,** Zuther said// **It*s really unheard of//**