Saiga are a small antelope: 31.5in (~3.2 stoats) tall at the shoulder & 99lb (~200 stoats). Although small in body, they have a lot of face! The fictional Toydarians from Star Wars share this nosable, I mean NOTEABLE, feature. Males have horns up to 16in long. #StoatsAsMeasurement #2025MMM
Native to South America, the Woolly Giant Rat has coarse, dense, dark gray fur, short limbs, & long, powerful claws. "Giant" in this case is a relative term, as the Woolly Giant Rat has a top weight of approx. 1.3lb (2.75 stoats). #StoatsAsMeasurement #2025MMM
Tonight, in the Betpak-Dala region of Kazakhstan, Saiga is grazing on some lichen & wormwood, preferred wintertime nutrition when many of the other 80 species in his diet are less available. (Bekenov et al 1998) #2025MMM
MEANWHILE... 8,000 miles away in the Parque Nacional das Emas in central Brazil, the omnivorous Woolly Giant Rat is hunting for insects in its open grassland. Woolly Giant Rat is often active at twilight (scientific term "crepuscular") & nighttime (Bezerra et al 2007) #2025MMM
As he dashes at a beetle, #MMMagic translocates Woolly Giant Rat to Kazakhstan, where he finds himself surrounded by a forest... of thin Saiga limbs. #2025MMM
Comments
Do I dare make an ALF reference on Bluesky? #2025
#2025MMM
Much
Lichen
https://www.cms.int/en/news/scientists-confirm-cause-saiga-mass-mortality-event-central-asia