The expert explained the mass migration of saigas from Kazakhstan to the Saratov region

The mass migration of saigas from Kazakhstan to the Saratov region indicates the return of animals to their former habitat, it is also associated with active reproduction. On May 30, Bataar Ubushaev, director of the Chernye Zemly Nature Reserve in Kalmykia, told Izvestia.

"When in Soviet times the number of saigas there (in the Saratov and Volgograd regions. — Ed.) decreased, saiga stopped going there, people took advantage of it, plowed up virgin land, and began planting all sorts of different crops. And when the saiga now returned there, people began to complain," he said.

According to Ubushaev, migration is associated with the active breeding of saigas in Kazakhstan.

"This year, according to the expert assessment of Kazakhstani specialists, the number of all three populations will reach about 4.5–5 million individuals, of which the largest population is the Volga-Ural, which is located between the Volga and the Urals. It is she who migrates north in the spring and enters Russia," the expert explained.

He added that this population has now reached about 3 million individuals. In Russian regions, animals knock out crops, consume a lot of vegetation and compete for pastures with domestic animals.

Ubushaev stressed that the saiga population needs to be controlled. In Soviet times, there was a fishery for the extraction of these animals, but then artiodactyls came under state protection.

Active reproduction and crowding can lead to outbreaks of diseases among saigas and their mass death, Ubushaev added.

Earlier in the day, Saratov Region Governor Roman Busargin announced that there was a massive migration of saigas from Kazakhstan in the region. He also stressed that the authorities plan to develop support measures for agricultural producers in order to minimize the possible negative consequences of saiga migration.