Kazakh semi-desert ("Ovis ammon collium"), goitered gazelle ("Gazella subgutterosa"), Pallas's cat ("Otocolobus manul"), gray wolf ("Canis lupus"), European badger ("Meles meles") and marbled polecat ("Vormela peregusna"). Przewalski's horse ("Equus ferus przewalskii") is native to the ecoregion, but has not been seen in it since 1968. Avian species include the common crane ("Grus grus"), demoiselle crane ("Anthropoides virgo"), red-headed bunting ("Emberiza bruniceps"), larks ("Alaudidae"), wheatears ("Oenanthe"), pipits ("Anthus" spp.), black-bellied sandgrouse ("Pterocles orientalis"), Pallas’s sandgrouse ("Syrrhaptes paradoxus"), steppe eagle ("Aquila rapax"), golden eagle ("Aquila chrysaetos"), peregrine falcon ("Falco peregrinus") and the saker falcon ("Falco cherrug"). Agriculture, overgrazing, and fragmentation of habitat from human
Meles (genus) has been much discussion as to whether it is a single species or three distinct species. There are geographical differences between individuals from different parts of the range in skull structure, morphology of the first premolar teeth, and facial markings. Some authorities advocated placing European and Asian badgers in separate species, "Meles meles" and "Meles leptorhynchus" (Milne-Edwards, 1867), the boundary between the two being the Volga River. Others considered there to be three subspecies, "M. m. meles", found west of the Volga, "M. m. arenarius-leptorhynchus", found between the Volga and Transbaikalia, and "M. m. amurensis-anakuma" from the Amur region and