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Saiga antelope - SAIGA TATARICA
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Saiga": "Saiga" is the Russian word for the animal. "Antelope" is a French word for a fabulous oriental beast.
Location:Central Asia.
Habitat:Terrestrial. Saline, muddy steppe.
Description:The dense coat is much shorter in summer than in winter. The head is large and the nose forms a short, soft, supple proboscis hanging above the mouth. The body is robust but the legs are relatively short and slender. The horns of the male are about 12 inches long, lyre-shaped, and light-colored. The saiga grows to about four and a half feet long, just under three feet high at the shoulder, and weighs up to 150 pounds.
Behavior: The saiga feeds on grasses. In summer, during the hottest part of the day, it rests, and does not become active again until dusk. In winter it is active all day long. It lives in herds of up to 30 to 40 individuals in which there is no hierarchic structure. It is only in the mating season that the males lead harems of herds. Females in heat, pregnant females, and females that have given birth all join together in separate groups.
Reproduction: Gestation lasts five months, after which around May the female gives birth to two young, which nurse for about four months. The young females become sexually mature at 7 or 8 months, the young males at about two years of age.
Go to the Artiodactyla Page to learn more about all the even-toed hoofed animals.
Or go to the Antelope Index to study other
antelopes.
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