Part 10

Cemas colus, =Oken=, Lehrb. Nat. p. 736 (1816).

Antilope colus, =H. Sm.= Griff. An. K. iv. p. 226, v. p. 335 (1827); =Less.= N. Tabl. R. A., Mamm. p. 176 (1812).

Saiga colus, =Gray=, Ann. Mag. N. H. (1) xviii. p. 231 (1846).

Gazella colus, =Turner=, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 168.

VERNACULAR NAMES:--Saigàk in Russian; Suhak or Baran polnii in Polish; Ak-kirk of the Tartars; Sogak of the Caucasians; Gorossuun, the male Ohna, the female Scharcholdsi, of the Calmucks; Jaban-choin of the Turks; Beschen-Chusch of Circassians; Linjodsha of Chinese.--PALLAS.

Height at withers about 30 inches. General colour in summer dull yellowish, with a whitish throat and indistinct facial markings; in winter nearly uniform whitish all over, without markings anywhere. Ears very short, thickly haired. Tail short, uniform in colour with the body.

Skull and horns of male as above described (p. 29). The dimensions of an old male skull are:--Basal length 9·5 inches, greatest breadth 5·1, muzzle to orbit 6·3.

The horns attain a length of about 13 or 14 inches, and are of a peculiar waxy or pale amber-colour.

Female similar, but without horns.

Hab. Steppes of Southern Russia, and South-eastern Siberia.

The Saiga, although closely allied to the Gazelles in structure, is, as will be seen from our figure, very different in external appearance, especially as regards the bloated form of the nose in the adult male, which gives it a most ungainly look and renders it easily distinguishable from all its allies of this group.

The Saiga was known to many of the ancient writers, and is described and figured by Gesner, in his ‘History of Quadrupeds,’ as an inhabitant of Scythia and Sarmatia, under the name “Colus,” which is said to have been formed by transposition from the native name “Sulac.” The earliest good account of it, however, is that of the well-known naturalist J. G. Gmelin, who met with it during his travels in Siberia between 1733 and 1743, and described it at full length, in an article on new quadrupeds published at St. Petersburg in 1760, under the name of “Ibex imberbis.” Upon Gmelin’s Ibex imberbis Linnæus, in his ‘Systema Naturæ,’ based his Capra tatarica. Of the two generic names proposed for this Antelope, Saiga by Gray in 1843, and Colus by Wagner in the following year, we naturally prefer the oldest, and adopt as the proper name of this Antelope, which is the sole representative of its genus, Saiga tatarica.

Buffon, in his ‘Histoire Naturelle,’ also employed Saiga as the name of this animal and based his account of it mainly upon Gmelin’s description, stating, however, that there were specimens of its horns in the Royal Cabinet at Paris. Following the prior authorities, he describes the Saiga as a kind of wild goat found at that epoch in Hungary, Poland, Tartary, and Southern Siberia in herds on the plains, very fleet and active, and difficult of capture. We shall see, however, that the range of this animal in Europe has become very much more restricted in recent times.

The best modern account of the Saiga is that given in 1865, in the Bulletin of the Imperial Society of Naturalists of Moscow, by Herr Constantin Glitsch, of Sarepta on the Lower Volga, who was employed for two years by the Imperial Russian Society of Acclimatisation to obtain living examples of this Antelope for the Zoological Garden of Moscow.

In the days of Pallas, Herr Glitsch tells us, the Saiga had a wide distribution in Europe, extending from the borders of Poland, all across the Dnieper and the great flat southern portion of Russia to the Caucasus and the Caspian. The European herds of this animal were also often reinforced by large accessions from the steppes of Western Asia, which, driven by stress of famine from their native haunts, crossed the Ural and the Volga by the ice in winter. A hundred years later we find a great change in the range of the Saiga, caused by the increase of cultivation and population in the European portion of its range, which has driven this animal back into the East. On the Dnieper, Herr Glitsch tells us, the Saiga has altogether disappeared, in the Ukraine it is no longer to be found, and even on the Don, where it was formerly so plentiful, it is quite a scarce animal. Nowadays, in fact, in Europe the Saiga is confined to the Kalmuk Steppes between the Don and the Volga, and is found only within the triangle lying between these two rivers, of which Tzaritzyn on the Volga forms the northern point.

On the flat and treeless plains which lie within these limits the Saiga still exists in tolerable abundance, though diminishing in numbers yearly as population increases. In the summer months it is distributed over the whole of this area; in winter, beginning from November, it is driven by the snow and cold from its northern resorts towards the south, where it finds shelter in the rich grassy valleys of the Sal and the Manitsch. Here the Saiga passes the winter on ground generally free from snow. Here it breeds in the spring, and as soon as the snow is melted in the more northern plains it begins its migration to the North. At this season the Saigas go northwards in considerable herds, the bucks first, followed by the does, and by the end of May they have all reached the most northern boundaries of their range. But there are many circumstances which interfere with the regularity of this migration, and at Sarepta, near the north end of their area, there are remarkable variations in their numbers. In some summers only a few scattered individuals are to be met with, in other years large herds are to be found in this district throughout the summer. But in very severe winters, when even the most southern districts inhabited by this Antelope are invaded by excessive cold and deep snow, the hungry beasts are driven all over the country in search of food, and stray even as far north as the vicinity of Sarepta. On these occasions whole herds are often entombed in the snow-drifts and fall an easy prey to the natives, who follow them on horseback and slaughter them by hundreds. Under these circumstances it can easily be understood that the Saiga is a gradually vanishing animal in Europe. One thing, however, is in their favour, that the males, whose presence is betrayed by their horns, fall more easy victims to the hunter than the hornless females, which are more readily concealed in the herbage and thus escape notice.

Group of Saigas (1/12 nat. size).

(From the ‘Royal Natural History,’ vol. ii. p. 298.)]

Herr Glitsch gives us detailed and excellent descriptions of the form and colouring of the Saiga, and of the other peculiarities of the animal of both sexes and in all ages. In the winter coat the hairs on the upper part of the body are from two to three inches long, rather shorter on the underparts, and a long beard extends from the chin down the middle line of the neck to the breast. The older the animal is the brighter is its winter dress.

The voice of the Saiga is stated by Glitsch to be a deep loud bleat, which is frequently uttered by the young animals, but by the older animals only in the pairing-season and when they are wounded. The hearing, the sight, and the smell of the Saiga are all highly developed, and combine to render it a very difficult animal for the hunter to approach.

The Saigas are said to begin breeding about the middle of December (new style), and at this season commonly assemble in large herds in the warm side-valleys of the Sal and Manitsch, which are mostly free from snow. At this time the young are said to be driven away from the parents in flocks into the thickets, while the males fight fiercely one with another for the possession of the females. The female is stated to go five months with young, and to bring forth about the middle of May amongst the higher vegetation of the steppe. As a rule, she produces two young ones, seldom only one. The mother is sometimes seen followed by three young ones, but in such a case the third is, probably, an adopted animal. In the morning, after suckling her young ones, the mother leaves them concealed in the herbage, and goes far off to feed, returning to them only in the evening and staying with them all night. In about four weeks’ time the young Saigas learn to feed themselves, and the young horns begin to appear in the bucks. They suck, however, till the end of October, and follow after the mother up to the winter. The food of the Saiga consists not so much of the true grasses as of the leafy shrubs of the steppes, such as Artemisia, Atriplex, and Glycirhiza, as well as Inula dysenterica and other saline plants.

Besides mankind, Herr Glitsch tells us, the Saiga Antelope in the Volga district has no special enemy. The wolves and foxes, the only large beasts of prey of these steppes, can only attack quite young animals, the older ones easily making their escape. They have one great plague in the steppes, however, in the insects, especially a species of Œstrus, by which at times they seem to be driven nearly crazy, and with the eggs and larvæ of which their skins seem to be almost always infested.

The flesh of the Saiga is said to be particularly tender and well-flavoured, and more like good mutton than anything else.

The favourite mode of chase of the Saiga is to drive out on to the steppes at early dawn with a cart containing provisions, and, after hiding the cart in some ravine, to stalk them with a rifle in the same manner as other large game-animals. But they are also occasionally taken in steel traps which are set upon their favourite runs. The Kalmuks use leather slings for the same purpose.

Beyond the Ural River the Saiga extends widely over the Kirghiz Steppes of Central Asia north of the Aral. Mr. William Bateson, F.R.S., has kindly favoured us with the following notes of what he heard and saw of the Saiga when in this district in 1896–7:--

“The Saiga is fairly common in the Kirghiz Steppes, inhabiting the dry tracts covered with various species of Artemisia (Kirghiz, Jusun), upon which no doubt it feeds. It is not found in the sandy regions of the Kara-kum. I believe also that it does not live in the moister steppes, which bear a meadow vegetation. Its northern distribution in West Central Asia must therefore be bounded by the valley of the Irtish and its tributaries, which is all meadow-land. I met with Saigas first at the end of July 1896, in the neighbourhood of Lake Tschalkar, in the Turgai district. In this region we came upon their tracks constantly, and occasionally saw herds of various sizes from ten or a dozen to about a hundred. When we appeared they made off. In doing so I noticed that they generally travelled at right angles to our line of approach, though this may have been due to some accident in the lie of the ground. The Kirghiz catch them in traps set in their runs. A young one so caught was brought to me on July 27, 1896. Its horns and horn-cores were only slightly developed.

“In the following year I travelled from Kozalinsk, on the Aral Sea, to Lake Balkhash, following the Shu River. In this journey we saw Saigas from time to time on the edge of the Bek Pak Dala, or Hungry Steppe, in April, but no large herds were seen. The Kirghiz spoke of them as common in the Bek Pak. Both this district and the Tschalkar Steppes, except for wells on the caravan-roads, are almost waterless after the snow has disappeared, so probably the Saiga can subsist without more water than the dew and its food-plants provide.

“The Kirghiz name of the Saiga is ‘Kiik’ and the word Saiga is only known to them as Russian, in which language, however, the word is not really ‘Saiga,’ but ‘Säigak.’”