Kazakhstan's Red Book: the 217 listed animals and where to see them

Kazakhstan’s Red Book is the national register of rare and endangered species, and its legal backbone is the list in Government Decree No. 1034. The animal list was updated on 17 August 2026 and names 217 species and subspecies. Plants have their own list of 387.

A book and a legal list

The name covers two documents. One is the scientists’ book, with descriptions and maps, which has run to five editions since 1978. The other is the government list, and that is the one with legal force: being on it brings protection automatically. Article 339 of the Criminal Code covers illegal killing, possession or sale of listed species and destruction of their habitat.

What is on the list

These are our counts of entries in the decree. The biggest group is invertebrates, not large mammals, which surprises most readers. Well-known names include the snow leopard, Caspian seal, Turkmen kulan, goitered gazelle, greater flamingo, Dalmatian pelican, golden eagle and relict gull.

The fifth edition added 11 taxa and removed 19. New entries include the griffon vulture, cinereous vulture and jungle cat. That is why older sources say 227.

Why the saiga is missing

Many pages say the saiga is in the Red Book. It is not in the 2026 list. Among even-toed ungulates the list names the Bukhara deer, goitered gazelle and six forms of wild sheep. See saiga in Kazakhstan for the census numbers and the culling debate.

How well the animals are counted

The Forestry and Wildlife Committee says exact numbers are impossible for most species because there are so many, over such wide areas. It has relatively full data for only a few:

Where you can see rare animals

Most listed species are hard to see in the wild. These are the realistic starting points, and none comes with a guarantee.

For the wider picture, see Kazakhstan’s animals and birds of Kazakhstan.