Ustyurt

/ usˈtjurt /

noun

1. an arid plateau in central Asia, between the Caspian and Aral seas in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Area: about 238 000 sq km (92 000 sq miles)

Example Sentences

The UK-based non-profit organisation, Fauna & Flora International, has been involved in efforts to protect the Ustyurt population by establishing a new anti-poaching ranger team and using satellite collaring to monitor saiga movements.

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The latest survey, carried out in April, shows not only a big increase in the total numbers, but that one particular population in Ustyurt in the south of the country, has made a dramatic recovery.

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They lie forgotten by the hundreds atop the vast and desolate Ustyurt Plateau between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan: mysterious berms of piled rocks and earth that stretch in spidery geometric patterns across the grasslands for half a mile or more.

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WATCH: Film by the Saiga Alliance explains more about the desert kites and how people lived side by side with saigas on the Ustyurt plateau.

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By contrast, when I walked the Ustyurt Plateau, I spotted only six saiga—a once common steppe antelope—in two months.

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