Saiga Media & Creative Outreach

SCA has long used film, music, public art, performance, photography, and storytelling to reach people who may never encounter saiga conservation through scientific reports or formal meetings. Rather than one campaign, creative outreach has become a recurring strand of SCA’s education and public-engagement work.

Film and visual storytelling have been especially important. A Steppe Tale and Steppe Tale II used creative storytelling to introduce audiences to saigas, their landscapes, and the challenges they face. In 2016, SCA also worked with Gala Film Studio on The Saigas of the Ustyurt Plateau: A Right to Life, bringing the story of the Ustyurt population to wider audiences through documentary film.

Animation and music added other ways to engage people. SCA produced the Saiga Song and accompanying video, while The Saiga Saga cartoon became part of the organisation’s creative education toolkit and continued to be used with children and Steppe Wildlife Clubs.

Public art became another major strand. Wildlife artist Rory McCann worked with SCA and local partners to create large-scale murals in saiga communities in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. In Nukus, he worked with Olya Esipova and pupils at School No. 37 to create a steppe-wildlife mural with saiga at its centre. This was followed by a mural in Karasu, Kazakhstan, with ACBK staff and local students, and a 2016 mural mission in Yashkul, Russia. In each place, children helped paint, joined workshops, asked questions, and learned about the wildlife of their own landscape.

Creative work has also continued through ecological theatre, poetry, performances, posters, photography, art competitions, masks, and digital campaigns.

Together, these projects have helped make the saiga more than a conservation statistic. Through stories, images, music, and performance, SCA and its partners have helped people build their own cultural and emotional connections with the species.

With thanks to our funders
This work has been supported through different phases by the Wildlife Conservation Network, People’s Trust for Endangered Species, Disney’s Coins for Change programme, WWF Russia, and other supporters of SCA’s education and public-engagement work.

Project partners
Creative outreach has been developed with Rory McCann, Olya Esipova, Gala Film Studio, the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, filmmakers, artists, musicians, teachers, schools, Steppe Wildlife Clubs, protected-area staff, local conservation organisations, and community partners across the saiga range.