Trivia question for May-04-2011

Sorry the trivia is late.  I attended a lecture at the GA Aquarium tonight about plastic pollution in the oceans and I just got home.  Anyway, Carter is up and he picked an odd creature.  He is confident he will remain victorious with this trivia.

These guys have an outsized, proboscis-like nose with a keen sense of smell and helps moisten and warm dry, icy air.  These animals form very large herds that graze in semi-desert steppes eating several species of plants, including some that are poisonous to other animals. They can cover considerable distances and swim across rivers, but they avoid steep or rugged areas.  In the early 20th century, there were only about 1,000 of these guys left due to over hunting.  They were given total protection in the early 1900 which helped bring the species back to around 2-million.  After Russia broke up, poachers moved in and now again they are back on the critically endangered list with only about 50,000 remaining today.

Here are Carter’s questions:  What is this odd looking species and how fast can they sprint?  Also, tell us why poachers still hunt these guys?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

A great big congratulations goes out to our loyal friend Gina for getting the trivia answered first and correctly.  Carter was sure he found one that would stump everyone.  This odd looking creature we featured did not come out of a Dr. Seuss book like so many of you suggested, although it looks like it belongs in one.  The species is actually a Saiga.  The saiga is a Critically Endangered antelope which originally inhabited a vast area of the Eurasian steppe zone from the foothills of the Carpathians and Caucasus into Dzungaria and Mongolia.

When startled, these guys can sprint at speeds up to 50-mph.  Its population fell drastically following the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to uncontrolled hunting and demand for its horns in Chinese medicine which is still in big demand, making it hard to control poaching in this impoverished area.  At one point, some conservation groups, such as the World Wildlife Fund, encouraged the hunting of this species as its horn was presented as an alternative to that of a rhinoceros.  Today, there are far too many females and not enough males to go around.  Here is more on these weird looking guys: Saiga

Thanks for playing along 😉