The Saiga antelope, also known as Saiga tatarica, is part of the animal class Mammalia (meaning they are mammals). The Saiga used to live all around the world, but in recent years they have been critically endangered (only 50,000 left!) and only live in the grasslands of Central Asia. The saiga is an amazing animal, and lets hope it doesn’t go extinct. Animals over time and evolution, create structures, or physical parts, that have certain functions, or jobs, that help the animal survive in the wild. Three important structures that the saiga has that helps it survive are their noses, legs, and horns. The nose’s function is to breathe air, and it can filter the air to make it cold and clean. Their legs help them migrate and run away from danger. Lastly, the horns can be used for attacking other animals or defending itself. Many living factors can affect the saiga, also known as biotic factors. Some of them are wolves, poachers, and grass and plants. Wolves hunt saigas, especially the fouls, reducing their population. Poachers are also one of the main reason why the saiga antelope is critically endangered. Saigas are hunted for their horns, but the only way of collecting them is by killing the animal all together. If global warming keeps on rising and it reduces vegetation, then the saigas would die out. They are herbivores, …show more content…
Three abiotic factors are water, cold air, an extremely hot air. Saigas (and like all other living animals) need water to live, and without it they would die. The saigas lungs also need to breathe cold air, and that is why their noses can cool it down. If the saiga nose didn't work like it does now, they would have to hope that the air would be always cold. Lastly, if the air they lived in was to hot, a bacteria in their noses would trigger and cause internal bleeding, and because of global warming happening, more and more saigas are