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protected areas hopefully can add help to protect this
species, although it’s current future must be deemed
highly uncertain unless directly targeted programmes
to protect it are implemented and enforced.
Chiru (
Pantholops hodgsoni
)
The Chiru or Tibetan antelope has witnessed a decline
similar to that of the American buffalo in the 1840-
50’s. Chiru favour alpine steppe, alpine meadow and
desert steppe habitats. The largest remaining Tibetan
antelope populations survive in the Chang Tang re-
gion of northwest Tibet, southern Xinjiang, and in
southwestern Qinghai (Schaller, 1998). The Chiru has
been subjected to organized poaching mainly by Hui
and Han migrants, as well as previously by Chinese
soldiers, primarily because of the value of their fine
wool, known as shahtoosh. Shahtoosh is smuggled
from China to India for manufacturing in Jammu
and Kashmir state. Smuggling routes follow the high
mountain passes between Tibet and India, or transit
through Nepal. This also applies to poaching of the
Snow leopard. Chiru, which are under the protection
of the Convention on International Trade in Endan-
gered Species, numbered under 75,000 at the end of
the 1990’s, down from over a million a century ago.
They were being killed at a rate of 20,000 per year,
mainly due to the large demand for shahtoosh shawls
in Western markets since the 1980s.
Country
Afghanistan
Bhutan
China
India
Mongolia
Nepal
Pakistan
Russia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyz Republic
Tajikistan
Uzbekistan
Estimated habitat
(km
2
)
80,000
10,000
400,000
95,000
130,000
30,000
80,000
130,000
71,000
126,000
78,000
14,000
Estimated
population (1996)
unknown
100
2,000 - 2,500
500
1,000
300 - 500
300 - 420
120
100 - 120
650
< 200 - 300
<50
Table 3:
Estimated numbers of snow leopards left in the wild.