They set up their tents and the sun sets below the immense horizon of the Kazakh steppe. As darkness closes in and the team settles down for the night, doubt begins to rise. Will they ever find the last herd of Saiga antelope? Weeks before, over 90 percent of the world’s largest Saiga population dropped dead from a mysterious infection. Nearly 200,000 animals died in the space of days. Their carcasses littered the landscape.

Now a team of researchers, along with a production team from DW’s Global Ideas, is on a journey to discover why. But they have crossed a thousand kilometers and there are no Saiga, only swarms of mosquitoes. Hidden somewhere in the endless landscape, is all that’s left of a critically endangered species. Can the team led by led Steffen Zuther from the Frankfurt Zoological Society protect what remains of the species?

Morning arrives and the herd isn’t where it is supposed to be and rain has turned the dirt roads into impassable muddy puddles. The researchers have tracking collars on two animals, but they don’t know exactly where the Saiga are. According to Zuther, the Saiga can run 100 kilometers in one day and their search area, the Altyn Dala reserve in central Kazakhstan, is the size of France.

“The steppe is an incredibly beautiful and surprising landscape,” says Zuther. “The openness is truly impressive. Such expanses you don’t find anywhere else but at sea.”

Will the team ever find the last of the Saiga? The whole story is now on Saigas in distress, a multimedia production that combines video, photos and text for an interactive and immersive experience. Using the multimedia storytelling tool Pageflow, stunning cinematography and photography capture the majesty of the steppe and lets users experience the environment and join the team as the story unfolds.

Along with the Frankfurt Zoological Society, DW’s partners on Saiga in distress include the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity of Kazakhstan (ACBK), Flora and Fauna International, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Committee for Foresty and Wildlife.