Saiga Herd on Open Steppe

Saiga Herd on Open Steppe is an original illustration set in Betpak-Dala Steppe, Kazakhstan. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is cold semi-arid steppe.

A herd of pale-tan antelope moves across an enormous treeless plain under a windy spring sky. The foreground adults show a distinctive bulbous, downward-pointing nose. Short new grass runs to the horizon in every direction with no relief anywhere.

Why does the saiga have such an extraordinary nose?

That extraordinary nose is a filter and a radiator: it warms and humidifies frozen air in winter and screens out dust during the summer migrations. It only makes sense on an animal crossing vast open ground between temperature extremes. Treeless plain this complete is not deforestation — it is a continental interior too dry for trees and too cold for desert.

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