Global News - March 2008
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'Migration bottleneck' threatening central Asian antelope
Tue 25 March 2008 13:45 UK — Asia,Other
An endangered antelope found in central Asia is being put at further risk because of a "migration bottleneck", leading conservationists have warned.
A report published in The Open Conservation Biology Journal suggested that this migration bottleneck in Mongolia was putting the future survival of the remaining population of saiga in jeopardy.
Dr Joel Berger, a professor at the University of Montana, explained that a three-mile-wide corridor which the saiga travel through during their migration is being threatened by herders with livestock, as well as increased traffic from trucks and motorcycles.
"Like other species of the steppes and deserts, saiga have avoided extinction by being able to migrate long distances as their habitat changed over time," Dr Berger explained.
"Given the uncertainty of how global climate change might affect specific regions, and how and where species might persist, prudent conservation strategies must take into account the movements of highly mobile species like saiga."
Experts also warned that poaching and competition with livestock meant that saiga numbers have dropped around 95 per cent in the last 20 years.
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