TIBETAN ANTELOPE

Pantholops hodgsoni

Physical Description

The Tibetan Antelope is also known as the Chiru. Morphological characteristics and DNA analysis reveal that the Tibetan Antelope is most closely related to the wild goats and sheep of the subfamily Caprinae. The Antelope’s short, dense, woolly hair is fawn-coloured, and the Antelope has black markings on its face and legs. Male Tibetan antelope have long, slender, ridged black horns that curve slightly backwards, which they use to defend their harems against rivals during the rut. Horns measure 50 to 60 centimetres (19 to 23 inches) long.

The Tibetan Antelope is virtually exclusive to the Tibetan Plateau. The Antelope has evolved special characteristics that enable it to withstand cold climates and high altitudes. To keep out the cold, the Tibetan Antelope has a unique downy undercoat called shahtoosh (which is Persian for “the king of wool”). The Antelope’s nostrils are filled with air sacs that help the Antelope to breathe, giving its muzzle a swollen appearance.

The Tibetan Antelope’s light and nimble body and the Antelope’s increased capacity for breathing, due to the air sacs in its nostrils, make the Antelope a remarkable runner. Despite the thin atmosphere on the high plateau, the Antelope can run up to 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour).

Male antelope stand 80 to 85 centimetres (31 to 33 inches) tall at the shoulder, while female antelope stand about 75 centimetres (30 inches) tall. Males weigh 35 to 40 kilograms (77 to 88 pounds). Females weigh 25 to 30 kilograms (55 to 66 pounds).

 

Habitat

The Tibetan Antelope favors alpine steppes and similar semi-arid habitats. However, the Antelope may also seasonally occupy desert steppes and other arid areas. The Tibetan Antelope may be found at elevations as low as 3,250 metres (10,700 feet), but most of its range lies above 4000 metres (13,100 feet), where the mean annual temperature is four degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit). In northern Ladakh, the Antelope can be found as high as 5,500 metres (18,000 feet).

The Tibetan Antelope primarily inhabits the Tibetan Plateau (although about 200 migrate to Ladakh during the summer months). The great herds of 15,000 antelope or more that Western explorers reported a century ago are now gone, but herds of 1,000 or more can still be seen. The Antelope’s habitat range has contracted in Central and eastern Tibet. The largest Tibetan antelope populations survive in the Chang Tang region of northwestern Tibet, in southern Xinjiang, and in Amdo in northeastern Tibet. There are a number of both migratory and resident populations of antelope in these regions. The Tibetan Antelope’s habitat range overlaps with the Chang Tang, Arjin Shan, Kekexili, and the Sanjiangyuan (“Source of Three Rivers”) Nature Reserves.

 

Eating Habits

The Tibetan Antelope is a grazer and possibly a browser, feeding on grasses and herbs.

 

Behaviour and Reproduction

Male Tibetan antelope have several movement patterns. In late April or May, most 10 to 11 month-old males separate from their mothers to join their juvenile male peers or adult males. A few of the male antelope remain resident on their winter grounds throughout the summer, but most travel at least a short distance, usually north, from their winter grounds to a summer range. Some male Tibetan antelope travel far in the summer.

Males return to their traditional fall and winter grounds in autumn, for the rut. As a result of these diverse movement patterns, male antelope, in contrast to females, tend to be dispersed widely throughout the Tibetan Antelope’s habitat range during the summer.

Female Tibetan antelope probably first conceive at the age of 1.5 or 2.5 years, and give birth at the age of two to three years. The gestation period of the Tibetan Antelope is seven to eight months. Antelope mothers give birth between the second half of June and early July, each mother typically to just one offspring. The life span of the Tibetan Antelope in the wild is eight years or more.

 

Present Status

The Tibetan Antelope is categorized as Endangered in the 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and is listed under Appendix I of CITES. The Tibetan Antelope is under second class protection in China, is legally protected in Nepal, and is included in Schedule II, Part I of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972. Jammu and Kashmir State in India, which has its own set of laws, in August 2002 finally placed the Tibetan Antelope under Schedule I of the Jammu and Kashmir (Wildlife) Protection Act, banning the trade and use of Tibetan antelope derivatives.

It is estimated that the Tibetan Antelope’s population has declined to approximately 50% of its original size. The Chinese State Forestry Administration estimate that 65,000 to 75,000 of the animals remain, and that poaching claims the lives of approximately 20,000 Tibetan antelope per year. At these rates, the Tibetan Antelope could be driven to extinction within the next five years.

 

Threats to Survival

Though Tibetan cultural practices traditionally discouraged hunting, Tibetans formerly hunted the Tibetan Antelope on a subsistence basis, principally for food, using traps, dogs, and muzzle-loading rifles. Since then, poaching has become the most serious threat to the Antelope’s survival. The use of Tibetan Antelope horn has been documented in traditional Tibetan and Chinese medicine, but medicinal use accounts for a minority of the poaching of the Antelope. The main reason the Tibetan Antelope is being slaughtered illegally, in the thousands, is to obtain its shahtoosh undercoat.

Shahtoosh is finer, softer, and warmer than lambswool, or even cashmere, and as such, it is considered to be one of the most luxurious animal fibres in the world. The demand for shahtoosh fuels a lucrative illegal trade, which begins with poachers in Tibet, crosses over to India, and ends in the fashion centres of the world (including Hong Kong, Tokyo, and cities in North America and Europe). Shahtoosh is usually smuggled into India via Nepal and transported to Jammu and Kashmir State, where the shahtoosh is woven into shawls.

Tibetan antelope pelts sell for up to US$80 apiece; prices of pure shahtoosh, in contrast, range from US$1,500 to over US$2,000 per kilogram. A single shahtoosh shawl, for which three to five antelope must be killed, typically sells for US$2,000 to US$8,000, but may sell for as much as US$15,000, depending upon the shawl’s size and quality. Shahtoosh shawls were traditionally called “ring shawls” because they are so fine that they can be passed through a woman’s wedding ring. Shahtoosh may also be bartered for tiger and leopard bones and pelts, bear gall bladders, and musk pods, fueling a deadly two-way trade in endangered species products.

Other threats to the Tibetan Antelope and its habitat include: fencing and the encroachment of the Antelope’s grazeland by pastoralists, which interferes with the Antelope’s migration and foraging; extractive activities, including oil drilling and gold mining; and increasing human settlement. The Antelope may compete with livestock for forage where their ranges overlap.

 

References

International Campaign for Tibet, 26 August 2002: Kashmir Bans Shahtoosh Product to Protect Endangered Tibetan Antelope, http://

www.savetibet.org/News/News.cfm?ID=1278&c=6, Aug 2004.

Nowak, R.M., 1999: Walker’s Mammals of the World, The John Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, MD.

Mallon, D.P., 2003: Pantholops hodgsonii. In: IUCN, 2003: 2003 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, http://www.redlist.org, Aug 2004.

Schaller, George B., 1998: Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe, The University of Chicago Press, London, 80pp.

By: Environment and Development Desk, DIIR, CTA.