Bid to save rhino risks antelope's extinction
Date: 14-Feb-03
Country: UK
In the early 1990s environmentalists, fearing the hunting of rhino for their horns would lead to their extinction, encouraged the use of Saiga antelope horn as a substitute.
The plan was so successful that the Saiga population had plummeted to 30,000 last year from over a million in Russia and Kazakhstan in 1993, New Scientist magazine said this week.
To make matters worse, most remaining Saiga are females.
"So many males have been shot for their horns, which are exported to China to be used in traditional fever cures, that the antelope may not be able to recover unaided," the weekly magazine said.
Saiga horn is now widely used as a substitute for rhino horn in Chinese medicines, with Saiga horn traded in China for up to $100 per kilo (2.2 pounds).
Conservationists only put Saiga to the list of critically endangered species last October.
"The trouble is, most people have never heard of the animal, so it is hard to raise funds," zoologist Abigail Entwistle told New Scientist.
She added the Saiga was only about two years away from extinction or an existence merely in zoos.
