Ice Age antelopes surge back from the brink of extinction

The long-nosed saiga antelope, a rare species that roams the steppes of Kazakhstan, is having a moment. Boasting majestic ridged horns that are prized in Chinese medicine, it was once hunted to the brink of extinction. But conservation efforts have been so successful that saiga numbers have rocketed by 6,900% in just under two decades to reach 2.8m, compared with fewer than 40,000 in 2005. Some 95% of these prehistoric-looking beasts—which were contemporaries of long-extinct species like the woolly mammoth and the sabre-toothed tiger back in the Ice Age—are found in Kazakhstan.