Common Name/s: Chiru, Tibetan antelope
Scientific Name: Pantholops hodgsonii
Status: Endangered (IUCN Red List)
The Chiru is a medium-sized bovid which is about 1.2 meters (4 feet) in height. The coat is grey to reddish-brown, with a white underside. The males have long, curved-back horns which measure about 50 cm (20 inches) in length. Chiru are gregarious, sometimes congregating in herds hundreds strong. The females migrate up to 300 km yearly to calving grounds in the summer where they usually give birth to a single calf, and rejoin the males at the wintering grounds in late autumn.
Scientific Name: Pantholops hodgsonii
Status: Endangered (IUCN Red List)
The Chiru is a medium-sized bovid which is about 1.2 meters (4 feet) in height. The coat is grey to reddish-brown, with a white underside. The males have long, curved-back horns which measure about 50 cm (20 inches) in length. Chiru are gregarious, sometimes congregating in herds hundreds strong. The females migrate up to 300 km yearly to calving grounds in the summer where they usually give birth to a single calf, and rejoin the males at the wintering grounds in late autumn.
The Chiru or Tibetan antelope is found on the remote high plains of the Tibetan Plateau and the Zianjiang and Qinghai provinces of Western China and the Ladakh province of northwestern India. Chiru live at altitudes of between 3,700 to 5,500 meters, where the average annual temperature is -4oC. Adapted to its environment, the chiru has a unique downy underfleece called shahtoosh - sadly this under fleece is the very reason for the Chiru's plight today.
Chirus live on the high mountain steppes and semi-desert areas of the Tibetan plateau such as Kekexili, where they feed on various forbs and grass species. Habitat loss has impacted on chiru numbers, as has the demand for Tibetan antelope horn, used in Tibetan medicine for centuries.
However, poaching for the antelope's very fine under-fleece to satisfy the demand for shahtoosh is a far more immediate and severe threat. Shahtoosh is different from other wools in that it cannot be 'harvested' - shorn or combed from the animal - because it is an under-fleece. The only way to obtain it is to kill and skin the chiru.
However, poaching for the antelope's very fine under-fleece to satisfy the demand for shahtoosh is a far more immediate and severe threat. Shahtoosh is different from other wools in that it cannot be 'harvested' - shorn or combed from the animal - because it is an under-fleece. The only way to obtain it is to kill and skin the chiru.
In recent years poaching has increased dramatically. Experts estimate that there are fewer than 75,000 and possibly fewer than 50,000 chiru left in the wild and that as many
As 20,000 a year are killed by gangs in China, who then smuggle the wool and hides into India and Nepal. The situation for the chiru has become even more desperate since the poachers found their calving grounds and for the past 2 years even pregnant chiru and those with young have been killed.
As 20,000 a year are killed by gangs in China, who then smuggle the wool and hides into India and Nepal. The situation for the chiru has become even more desperate since the poachers found their calving grounds and for the past 2 years even pregnant chiru and those with young have been killed.
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