Why is this animal unusual?
The nose is a two-season gadget. In summer it filters out the dust kicked up by thousands of running hooves. In winter it warms freezing air before it reaches the lungs.
Why does it look like that?
Only the males have horns – pale, ringed and slightly see-through, like wax. Unfortunately those horns are prized in traditional medicine, which is why poachers nearly wiped the species out.
Strangest biological feature
That big, bendy, downward-pointing nose. During the mating season males also use it to make loud roaring calls.
Why is it strange?
The saiga is an Ice Age leftover. It once lived all the way from Britain to Alaska, grazing alongside mammoths and woolly rhinos.
Interesting behavioral facts
Saigas migrate in huge herds over distances of up to 620 mi (1,000 km) and can run at around 80 km/h. Females gather by the tens of thousands and give birth within about a week of each other.
Records held
In 2015, more than 200,000 saigas – over half of all the saigas on Earth – died within three weeks from a sudden bacterial infection. Less than a decade later the population had bounced back into the millions.
